Thaumra (The E6 Gestalt Post-Tippyverse with some homebrew)

[Sir Pippin Boyd]

I'm looking for feedback on a world setting I'm in the process of setting up for some players in my local area to test in the near future. This world setting uses as one of its core assumptions that most of the rules of D&D 3.5 (The parent system) are more or less the laws of the universe, not much unlike the Tippyverse, but with perhaps a less literal application of things. (75% crunch, 25% fluff instead of 100% to 0%). Despite the significant amount of homebrew introduced, this system is 3.5 except where noted otherwise. Most of the homebrew here does not replace or change something in 3.5, but rather adds something that will stack on top of it.

The setting uses a couple of homebrew pieces to help provide interesting sets of challenges for the players to encounter and to help flesh out the world around them. A lot of the rules related stuff is tied to the game's mythology.

Mythology

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TL;DR version

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Overdieties created a world and they created a magic source to keep out all the really messed up stuff. The world turned into the Tippyverse, but also with flying cities, until some douchebag broke magic and almost everybody in the world died. The regular non-over-deities did their best to fix it, but it was a paperclip-and-gum MacGyver fix at best and it still didn't run quite like it used to. The world now switches to an E6 setting (because magic is weaker now) with loads of different cultures and civilizations emerging from the splintered colonies left behind after some asshat broke magic.

The universe (including the material plane and other planes, as well as the Astral Plane that serves as a medium between them) is created by a group of overdeities called The Venerated Circle. At the time of creation, stuff is pretty chaotic, and while certain forms of good and evil were allowed to exist in their world (demons, celestials, devils, mortals) some creatures were seen as too random of form, too capably malicious, or too unstable to exist in their generally lawful universe (aberrations and eldritch horrors). The Venerated Circle cast all these abominations out and set up wards to hold them out. Powering these wards was a comsmic artifact they created and put in the center of the Astral Plane called the Astral Sun. As a side effect of the energies cast across the planes by this Astral Sun, mortals and other beings learned to tap into, manipulate, and absorb the latent energies of this cosmic beacon, thus being magic. IE: In this cosmology, all magic except that expressly exercised by the overdeities is dependent on the Astral Sun to function. After some time, the overdieties grew satisfied with their creation and moved on to explore other things, but before leaving, created servant deities that would look over their work and maintain balance in their absence. These were the gods. (Think of the overdeities as system admins and the gods as moderators).

This creates that would be seen as your general typical D&D setting. 9 levels of magic, adventurers and prestige classes, dragons, hoards of treasure, gods, clerics, wars etc. However, as it develops, it eventually turns into something resembling (but not in all ways identical to) the Tippyverse. World populations are mostly centered in massive cities linked with a network of Teleportation Circles, feeding the population with magically conjured food. The nation that pioneered this form of development, called Thaumra, was a magocracy ruled by a council of dragons. Thaumra's primary form of expansion was through annexing willing neighbors who were struck with awe at their greatness and ease of life, and gladly joined in with them to receive the the benefits of becoming a part of their infrastructure. Eventually the wilderness was so devoid of civilized life that it was overtaken by beasts and monstrous races (again, like the Tippyverse), and many of the main Thaumran cities were raised into the sky in order to avoid the need for defending the areas around them.

All this was well and good, but when the world is full of practitioners of a world-shaking power, its not long before somebody goes and mucks it up for everybody, which is precisely what happened. At the height of Thaumran greatness, the highest of their wizards believed himself to have found a way to gain a whole new and previously unimaginable level of arcane power and control -- by merging his own spirit with the Astral Sun in order to directly harness and manipulate its power. Things didn't go as planned, however, (historians disagree on exactly what happened) but what is known is that the Astral Sun was shattered. Magic ceased to function immediately, and the consequences were earthshaking in scale. At this time in the world...

1) Most of the world's surface is abandoned wilderness filling the empty space between supercities
2) Most of the world's greatest and most important cities are suspended magically in the air
3) Those cities that are on the ground are massive population centers that require magic to feed their enormous populations
4) The only thing stopping the planes from being invaded by evil abominations and horrors has just broken

Needless to say, it hit the fan fast and hard. Flying cities hit the ground, most of them having no survivors, others with only scattered remnants. The cities not considered important enough to take to the skies now had massive populations and no way to feed them. Since old roads were not maintained and the world between cities was dangerous, there was no way for separated cities to interact anymore. Many died immediately, rioting and chaos broke out. In places that powerful magical artifacts had sat before, rifts emerged in the weakened ether and powerful aberrations, demons, celestials, djinni, and other extraplanar or even extrauniversal creatures emerged. Some of these were good and did what they could to help mitigate the chaos -- most didn't.

This state of things lasted only for a single day until the gods did their best to restore the Astral Sun. They were not its architects, however, so their powers were limited. The end result was what came to be called the Astral Star -- a lesser beacon of the same nature. All but the weakest of the extraplanar and extrauniversal beings were banished back to where they came from, and magic returned, but significantly weakened from what it was before. This is the beginning of a new age in this world, and mechanically functions as an E6 setting. The few survivors of the Day of Ruin (as it came to be called) had survived by escaping from the supercities where the attacks were greatest and building colonies in the harsh world outside. Slowly, they grew, isolated from the great world they once knew. This lead to a vast diversity of different cultures as each splintered colony developed on its own before any expanded enough for them to begin to rediscover each other. Now, since the wards isolating the universe from the random chaotic stuff from outside are weaker, sometimes doorways open up and stuff comes in or out, and a new template is created from the phenomenon this produces -- the starborn.

New Template: Starborn

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This is an in-universe template for people who are born of rifts in the weakened extraplanar walls in the Age of the Astral Star. They are called the Starborn because none were produced until after the Day of Ruin when the Astral Star was formed, so philosophers believe they are some sort of manifestation of the Astral Star's power. These are the player characters of this game, and functionally they are as members of other races with a few changes:

- They cease aging at a certain point, though this point is different for each individual
- They are born into the world with memories of false lives that never happened (or did happen in another world?), usually of great deeds
- They naturally aspire to do great things, and often take to adventuring or otherwise become paragons of their role
- They almost never reproduce, but when they do, their offspring are the *only* know natural-born Starborn
- All starborn gain the benefits of two classes as they level, as Gestalt
- While in any other setting, this would have a massive level adjustment, all players in this universe play as starborn as a story point and thus have no LA. The enemies they face will have their own features that make them an adequate challenge.

What do factions mean?

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Factions are a big part of this game, and rather than seeming like some insignificant organization or an abstract political body, I wanted each faction to have its own trademark features that make them distinctively different than the rest of the world. As such, members of these factions all gain special bonuses from their parent factions. These bonuses perform various functions: They supplement all units in the faction (regardless of class) with certain basic skills and abilities that let them fit the faction's flavor, and at higher levels they provide them with special abilities that will help to make them a special type of challenge to the powerful Starborn players. They come in 3 basic tiers, lesser, greater, and heroic. Armed with these faction bonuses in addition to their normal powers, ideally a Fighter from the Vigil Arcana will be different than a Fighter from the Tormiran Guard, helping to spice up the different factions and keep encounters fresh.

Lesser faction faction bonuses are given to most or all members of a faction, and are usually considered the basic necessities to complete their functions. These are usually skills that become class skills regardless of class, a set of low-powered feats that would ordinarily be too weak for players to consider, or things that help to flavor their units differently (such as all receiving an exotic weapon proficiency).

Greater faction bonuses can be weaker class abilities (such as poison use or 1d6 sneak attack damage), or homebrewed activated abilities that are beneficial to that factions members. These are given to the mid-high level members of organizations, such as lieutenants and taskmasters.

Heroic faction bonuses are very powerful, and given only to the cream of the crop. Each faction may have 3-5 people in the whole world able to utilize these special abilities, and the players will likely only ever encounter each power one time. These will be the high-end boss fights, and each will require deliberate action on part of the players to change their tactics lest they be crushed. This settings main demonologist cult, for example, the Void Disciples, can sacrifice a living being to temporarily summon a powerful demon -- or even sacrifice themself to summon one permanently.

Some factions also have access to Incantations, a magic variant introduced in Unearthed Arcana. They are essentially rituals that are conducted to permit non-spellcasters to achieve specific spell-like effects. In some instances, these permit the factions the ability to bypass the caster-level limit to access Fourth or Fifth spell-level magic, but at great expense and only to a limited range of particular effects.

List of Factions in the world and their powers

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This list is the part of this that will be a work-in-progress for some time. I have some general ideas I'd like to implement but will be making updates from time to time to reflect good advice I've gleaned from community feedback, or to add new content. Some political bodies may be broken up into multiple sub-factions to represent different career paths within their structure.

The Enclave of Fallen Stars

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Enclave info

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Hidden away in the Jorav's Crown mountains, a formerly forgotten ruined city from the old world has been restored under the direction of an enigmatic man that legends say is omniscient. A cloistered community of Starborn have taken up residence in those mountains, where it is said that they follow a religion of self-perfection, each training all through their eternal lives to ascend the limits of this world. None know how to find the Enclave, but be sure, if you should threaten the peace and balance in this world, the Enclave will find you.

The enclave is primarily modeled after the Konoha village from naruto. As a small elite community, every member of which is Starborn, they represent the very best of the best, and they hold a very great deal of power, albeit indirectly. Their soldiers are the world's best soldiers, their leaders are the world's best leaders, their craftsmen are the world's best craftsmen, and their spies are the world's best spies. Because of their small number, they choose a reclusive lifestyle, dispatching small groups of well trained elite individuals to engage in mercenary activity or sometimes on their own self-appointed mission to maintain the peace. They have amassed a great deal of wealth through cover-businesses that they operate around the world, and while their geographical footprint is almost nonexistent, their network is everywhere

Enclave Bonuses:

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Given that the Enclave recruit Starborn exclusively, it has no other faction bonuses, nor does it require any. If the players do join a faction during the game, this is probably the one they'll join, and the benefits for membership will include information support, payment for missions, and provision with merchants that can get them rare or magical gear when needed.

The Nightshade Society

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Nightshades Info:

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The Nightshade society began as two separate competing criminal organizations, the Black Dragons, and the Crane Society, operating in a nation called Durza, one of the world's only nations that can claim its history goes back to before the Day of Ruin. Durzan people had always been very superstitious and war of magic, untrusting of wizards and wary of the things they offered. As such, when the Day of Ruin began, they were among the only nations in the world whose infrastructure was no entirely dependent on magic. They saw a great deal of growth and expansion immediately afterwards, as those refugees who could flocked to their borders for aid. They had a long-standing public policy of branding "witches" and other "non-legitimate practitioners of magic" for public protection, and when mysterious beings with false memories began emerging from rifts, they were despised as a reminder of the Day of Ruin and as soulless outsiders come to disrupt their peaceful way of life. It was actually Durza's mistrust and discrimination against the Starborn that unified the Starborn into fighting back and thus forming the Enclave of Fallen Stars. Durza and the Enclave took to fighting, and ultimately the Enclave won, conducting coordinated attacks at important Durzan targets to cripple them internally and discourage them from coming after them again.

Meanwhile, the chaos caused by the rapid Durzan expansion with the rapid immigration and their battles with the Enclave saw that criminal organizations such as the Black Dragons and the Crane Society had plenty of room to operate, and these two organizations saw a great deal of success. They merged when the second-in-command lieutenants for the two factions secretly forged a pact, working together to poison their leaders with deadly nightshade, enabling both to rise to the top of the ranks and end the fighting between them. Their alliance turned into a merger between them in what is now known as the Nightshade Society, the most feared and powerful criminal syndicate known in the world. Their influence has now grown far beyond Durza's borders, and they operate in most major cities. They are responsible for extortion, bribery, slavery, assassination, smuggling, and just about anything else a properly civilized society opposes.

Nightshades Bonuses:

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[b]Lesser Faction Bonuses: Secretive -- All Nightshades have bluff, sleight of hand, intimidate, and forgery as class skills.

Poison use -- All Nightshades can apply poison to a weapon and wield a poisoned weapon without a chance of accidentally poisoning themselves

Secret speech -- Nightshades all know a common sign language that allows them to communicate silently as long as they can see each other

Greater FactionBonuses:
Below the belt -- Nightshade lieutenants and enforcers gain the Improved Feint feat and +1d6 sneak attack damage. This stacks with other sources of sneak attack.

Concealed Spellcasting -- Nightshade spellcasters are trained to cast subtly, hiding their spells from observers. They gain Concealed Spellcasting, as the skill trick detailed in Complete Scoundrel.

Heroic Faction Bonus:
To be determined

Void Disciples:

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Disciples info:

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When the flying cities fell, not all were entirely ruined. One city in particular had landed in a desert, and while the exact reason why is unknown, its descent was slowed. However, The Day of Ruin was still upon them, and the teleportation circles, resetting spell traps, and magical artifacts housed in the city began to tear open rifts through which came mad aberrations and raging elementals. To make matters worse, those who survived the Day of Ruin were still stranded in a broken city in the desert with no real supplies: Death seemed inevitable for all of them. However, when their desperation reached its peak, a Traveler came by and offered the people of this broken city salvation, its only cost that they pledge their lives in service to his master.

The Traveler was an agent posessed by spirits from the Void outside of the planes, even outside of the Astral Plane. With the wards weakened, powered only now by the Astral Star, some great entities from the dark were able to project their voices through willing vessels, and thus the Void Disciples began. Those who agreed to the Travelers proposal became empowered by their new masters, and their act as the outsiders' servants was the cannibalization of all those who failed to submit.

They built a great fortress in the inner confines of their ruined city which came to be called the Black Bastion, and from here they received the will of the outsiders they served as they made their plans to carry out their masters' greater schemes. Eventually their agents spread out from the desert, and started cells in other lands, where those desperate and weak of spirit could be turned into willing servants for the masters.

Disciples bonuses:

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Lesser Faction Bonuses:
Secretive-- All Void Disciples have bluff, sleight of hand, disguise, and use magic device as class skills.

Lesser Binding-- All Void Disciples may utilize Vestiges as a level 1 binder.

Void Pact-- Al Disciples of the Void are considered to have the Augment Summoning feat when using any Summon Monster spell or SLA to summon an evil outsider.

Greater Faction Bonuses:
Greater Binding-- Adepts of the Sons of the void may utilize Vestiges as though they are a level 3 binder.

Blood Magic-- Adepts of the Sons of the Void may utilize their blood to pay the level costs for their metamagic spells. This choice is made at the time of casting, even for prepared casters, who may utilize this to apply metamagic spontaneously. The Adept must pay a number of hit points equal to 5 times the level adjustment of the spell modified this way. Applying a metamagic effect with a level of +0 with this ability has a cost of 5 hit points. The adept must be able to wound himself with a piercing or slashing weapon (or improvised weapon) to use this.

Heroic Faction Bonus:
Master Binding -- Masters of the Void Disciples gain the Improved Binding feat, and their base binder level rises to 6 (for a total binder level of 8).

Incantations:
Void Vision -- By consuming a complex poison that is produced only by the alchemists of the Black Bastion in the City of Glass, the Acolyte slips into a deep comatose state where he is granted visions by the Voidbound Masters. The potency of the poison makes the ritual particularly dangerous, and some do not survive. Each potential member of the Void Disciples must endure the Void Vision at least once to gain membership. Those looking for secret knowledge or guidance sometimes undergo the ritual to gain insight, but the high risk of death assures this is only done by those who find the sought knowledge worth the risk. (Rules details still pending)

Sacrifice -- Human sacrifice to summon a powerful aberration, Masters may sacrifice themselves to summon even more powerful aberrations permanently. (Rules details still pending)

Beast Tribes

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Beast Tribe Info:

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The Beast Tribes are a collection of warring formerly warring tribes of monstrous races that grew very comfortable with the expanded territory and freedom they experienced when most of the mortals took to their cities. Scattered individual tribes of various monstrous humanoids filled most of the empty space between the big cities, and it wasn't long after the Day of Ruin that the higher races were forced back onto the open surface with them. Some of these groups of humanoid survivors were killed off almost immediately, finding themselves in the territories of dangerous orks or yaun-ti.

Those that survived grew quickly, and in just a few generations they had reclaimed a significant amount of land. They had to clear out the natives, of course, and the divided nature of the tribal beasts made them easy to route. In very recent days, however, the broken and vengeful clans have bound themselves together under the banner of a new Beast God, hushed rumors of their lord's resurrection spoken between shamans and druids have helped to cross racial boundaries and bring together creatures known never to work alongside one another.

Their primary leaders are two dangerously cunning and influential orcs, High Chief Gorem Bloodmane and High Shaman Modren Firebrand. They have brought beneath them Ogres, Trolls, Yaun-ti, Lizardfolk, Troglodytes, Minotaur, Harpies, Goblins, Kobolds, and all manner of similar beings under their direction in their upcoming war. The rulership of all the other tribes still rests with their own tribal leaders, and the alliance Bloodmane and Firebrand have formed under their Beast God is more of a group war campaign. The Beast God demands that each tribe provide its best fighters to participate in the war, and the other tribes view this as a way to spill the blood upon which their god will dine.

The Beast God itself is not actually any kind of god at all, but a vampiric Ogre Mage that has been manipulating and controlling the minds of the others.

Beast Tribe Abilities:

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The Beast Tribes are similar to the starborn in that they receive a powerful blanket bonus instead of having multiple tiers of faction powers. Their composite races come with a variety of their own special roles and abilities that can be used to help them become powerful opponents, and as such the Beast Tribes require no further faction bonuses. They've already got Ogres, Minotaurs, Dire animals, and a few Dinosaurs to throw at people, they're probably set with that.

Children of One -- (working title, subject to change)

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Children Info

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When magic was shattered on the Day of Ruin and returned with only a shadow of its former power, many sought out alternate means to great power. Among the highest of these are the Children of One. They originally started out as a pseudo-religious philosophical group not unlike Buddhism. They were dedicated to perfection of the self, and their monastery was a place of martial and spiritual training. One day, however, the mines beneath their monastery opened to a very large cache of strange crystals that resonated with a unique power. By meditating here for significant periods of time, the Master of the monastery and later the students were able to unlock their latent Psionic potential and become spiritually linked to one another.

From this time forward, all students were endowed with some level of psionic power from training and meditating in the Crystal Sanctum, and some honed this power into a more powerful weapon, becoming Psions and Psionic Warriors. They have become much more reclusive in nature since their psionic development, and it is rumored that they now work towards some unknown cause imparted to them by their secret master in the Crystal Sanctum.

Children Powers:
[spoilers]Lesser Faction Powers:
-Lesser Psionic Attunement -- Children of One are psionically attuned to one another and have a basic empathic link when they are within 60 feet of one another. This link allows them to know if another attuned individual is alive and what basic emotional state they are in as long as they are within range. The Crystalline formation in the Crystal Keep and similar psionic crystals (including psicrystals) form a network that carries this link back and forth, and the 60ft range of the power can function at half range through any crystal, assuming the user is himself within 30 feet of a crystal.

-Basic Psionics -- Even the lowest children of the void can use Detect Psionics at will.

-Discipline -- Children of One incorporate self-manipulation via psionics to enhance their own discipline. They get Autohypnosis as a class skill regardless of class, and receive a +4 Morale bonus on all Autohypnosis checks and Concentration checks because of this. Additionally, they gain a +2 morale bonus on saves related to strength of will, (saves to remain conscious or to resist mind-controlling effects including phantasms but not illusions)

Greater Faction Bonuses:
- Greater Psionic Attunement -- Adepts of the Children of One can extend their empathic link to a range of 10 miles. This still only carries basic emotional information. Additionally, to a range of 60 feet their Attunement is more powerful, enabling them to directly share information between one another as if by speaking. (as Telepathy).

- Tower of Iron Will -- The will save bonus from Discipline grows to +4. In addition, this bonus now applies to resisting the effects of poison, fear, and pain.

Heroic Faction Bonuses:
- Heroic Psionic Attunement -- Masters of the Path of One can extend their empathic link to any range. Their telepathic link now extends to a range of 100 miles, or 50 miles from any attuned crystal. In addition, their telepathic link now enables them to get full sensory information from any so attuned. They can see, hear, feel, smell, and taste as if they were personally there.

- True Solipsism -- Masters of the Path of One can use Autohypnosis to place themselves in a state of extreme solipsism. Their sheer denial of a particular event can become so powerful that it rewrites the world around them. Whenever another creature attempts an action that would be detrimental to the Master, as an immediate action, he can make an opposed will save with the opponent that took that action. If the opponent wins the opposed roll, this ability is wasted. If the Master wins the roll, he rejects his opponent's reality and substitutes his own. The action that triggered this ability fails. If it was an attack, it misses. If it was a spell, it fizzles and is wasted, if it was an ability that *can't* fail, then he can redefine how it happened.

Coming soon

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Beast Tribes -- Incorporated into the above listing

Children of One -- Formerly monks and initiators that have gained psionic powers. They use their discipline and iron will to manipulate the world around them to its core. Incorporated into the above listing

*Not yet named* -- A druidic circle of lawful evil social Darwinists that embody the eat-or-be-eaten nature of the wild. Yes, lawful evil. Screw alignment requirements. These may exist as their own faction, or may become a sub-faction of the Beast Tribes.

Tormiran Empire -- Army of the primary human empire

The Vigil Arcana -- A guild of wizards dedicated to the collection, classification, and study of spells and magic items. Reborn from the ashes of an older organization with the same goal and name, they claim that any still-functional artifacts from the old world are rightly theirs to study and protect. They also take it upon themselves to be the magic police.

The New Pantheon -- The pantheon of current deities, their histories, and their dogma. This part will be very involved and I haven't really delved into it very much yet (the only "God" so far in the story isn't even really a deity). I am very open to suggestion and imput on this part.

The Furies of Yvendra -- A group of demon-hunting witches that were rescued from damnation by a Celestial named Yvendra. They are the greatest enemies of the Void Disciples and they have come to be respected and feared for their zealotry.

The Current World Setting

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Its been over 300 years since the Day of Ruin and civilization is still ailing from the disaster. Humanity was splintered and divided, and as it regrew from the devastated and isolated cities, it was beset on all sides by bandit warlords, monstrous races that had claimed the surface in their previous absence, and other splintered human factions that they were now at war with. The two primary political powers in the human world were the Tormiran Empire and the Durzan Empire, but the Durzan Empire was dealt a crippling blow when it provoked the Enclave into attacking it 100 years ago, and it never really recovered from the damage. They've lost border territory to monsters and barbarians, and internally they've got rampant criminal activity.

Meanwhile The Holy Empire of Empire of Torimir, under its Grant Regent, looks to expand its borders so that it can protect the splintered, warring, factions of the once-broken world from even greater enemies that loom over the horizon. Their message is one of peace and stability, but hushed rumors have begun to circulate of strange happenings in the capital.

Elves have been scarce since the Day of Ruin, most of them having taken to distant forests after the Day of Ruin as if answering some summons from afar. Only a few stragglers who chose to stay behind remain in human lands now, and it isn't known whether they've all amassed at some great city, divided into tribes as broken and opposed as mankind, or just disappeared entirely.

An Orcish war hero from the wilderness to the far west has united tribes of orcs, barbarian men, wild elves, lizardfolk, troll, yaun-ti, and all manner of monstrous races to reclaim from the growing human races the lands that were taken from their races after the Age of the Star began. All speak of revenge upon their invaders, emboldened by the favor of their new god, Gru'mal.

The Void Disciples are picking up their activity as the growing war turns more broken, desperate souls to offer their bodies to the Voidbound Masters, part of a grand scheme that even the Disciples themselves do not know the full extent of.

Meanwhile, The Enclave of Fallen Stars, who have been expanding their network of resources with alarming speed over the last 150 years, now find themselves being spread thin as conflicts are mounting world over between Torimir, Durza, small independent nations, the approaching Beast Tribe, and an anonymous patron has offered to pay Nightshade assassins astronomical sums for the heads of Enclave Agents.

I'll get more up as soon as I've got the time to type it all out properly. In the meantime, feel free to rate my work, offer advice/suggestions/criticisms, and ask questions about the forming world setting.

[Omeganaut]

That is a very neat concept you have there. I want to learn more about the gods of the setting, as even with e6 the divine casters will need gods. Another important detail to note is how these urban dwellers with their needs met by magic survived the first year and managed to farm.

[Sir Pippin Boyd]

I've still been waiting until I've got a little more of the setting figured out before I work out Gods. I have decided that I want to run divine power as based on the size of one's worship base. The idea behind this is that it'll mean there isn't a very stable pantheon, and gods sort of pop up and fall down along with their domain cultures and interest. On one hand, this gives me the opportunity to tailor different pantheons for different ages, and it also helps justify the survival of broken civilizations whose gods would be very personally interested in making sure they have the means to survive. To discourage a setting where the gods are over-involved, I'm thinking of having a god expend too much of his power to help his worshiper and then have some other opportunistic lower-god or something gank him. After something like this happens, the deities would want to conserve their power and affect their followers more indirectly.

As for how the city-dwellers learned to farm, in many places it would be done (or taught) by mages. Assuming one lives in a universe where magic exists (especially Vancian magic), magic is completely indistinguishable from science in-setting, and thus it is natural that mages would also be scientists. This would mean that agriculture and some biology would be well within their grasp.

Edit: I've added one of the more basic factions to the listing on the first post. While I feel that its overall concept (group of monster races) is generally a bit uninspired by itself, running them as the theocratic puppets of a monstrous vampire is going to have a lot of potential for fun.

Another Edit: I've also gone ahead and added the Children of One faction. I was hesitant to do this because they're newer to my setting plans, and thus still in a very early draft. Considering how fickle I usually am, they will likely see 3-5 complete revisions complete with name-changes before I launch the setting with my local players.