Lore and Legends of the Dezzyverse

Author: Dezzy Parrish

  • The Bryndffolk

    The Bryndffolk

    Tribes of the North Part 2

    The Bryndffolk are a human people who live among the Kælish Highlands, Kymrau Mountains and the Kharian Basin. As a species, the Bryndffolk are born with characteristics of the elements. These characteristics are used commonly as social distinctions within Bryndffolk culture, more so than their gender expression. They have a primal, elemental bond with the land of Fahr Ryasc. They divide themselves among three tribes and those subdivide themselves among Clans. They have a strong cultural pride on having never been conquered, and remain fiercely independent.

    There are four elemental bonds among the Bryndffolk, they are spiritual (even soulful if you prefer) and established at birth. There is no known or understood connection between parentage and elemental bond. A child can be born with any elemental bond, even twins or larger multiple births can have differing elemental bonds. The Druí believe this bonding is made by the Elemental Sovereigns through their own inscrutable wills and agreements.

    The Karrak Brynd

    Bryndffolk with a bond to the element of Stone, the Karrak are often larger and stronger than thier other Bryndffolk cousins. They are stoic and unyeilding (some would say stubborn) like the mountains they are related to. Unsurprisingly, they have skin, hair and eye colors that tend towards earthy tones.

    The Ganigan Brynd

    Bryndffolk with a bond to the element of wind, the Ganigan are free and unbound, They tend to be slender when compared to their Bryndffolk cousins and have light complexions similar to those colors found in the sky. They are mercurial in nature, but possess a keen insight into the nature of others. They are swift and fleet of foot as their elemental bond woul suggest.

    The Fflam Brynd

    Bound to the element of fire, Fflam Brynd are passionate and excitable. They are lithe, often athletic, and can be very graceful when compared to their Bryndffolk cousins. The Fflam Brynd are exceptional acrobats and dancers, combining their inherant agility with their passionate nature to express themselves superbly when moving.

    The Tonna Brynd

    Tonna Brynd are bound to the element of water. They have strength that can rival the Karrak, and an agility which can rival the Fflam. However, despite these extremes, the Tonna Brynd are the most centered and balanced of the Bryndffolk. The Tonna Brynd have cool complexions in their skin, hair and eye colors.

    Nations of the Bryndffolk

    The Bryndffolk are numerous in the North, as common as the Tralfolk. They have organized into three nations based on their geography. Within each nation there are several Ræmse (Bryndspek for “kingdom”) that rule themselves independently, sending representatives to a Kings’ Council called a Rhæag. Within each Ræmse, the Bryndffolk further form clannish communities that are semi-autonomous.

    Just like Bryndffolk families can be found amongst the Tralfolk realms, the nations of the Bryndffolk hold citizens from all the peoples that can be found in the North.

    Kymrou

    The Kymric Brynd consider themselves the first of the Bryndffolk. When the ancient, sorcerous realm of Vakra sank into what would be the Kharian Basin, the ancestors of the Kymrou escaped to the only lands they could find that were safe from the catastrophe, the Kymrou Mountains. There, they established communities free from the domination of Vakra. Kymric legend maintains that this is when the Bards and Druids mark the beginning of the Bryndffolk. High up the face of the Kymrou Mountains, they await the return of the Aírdrígh, and the reunification fo all the Bryndffolk.

    Kælish Highlands

    The Kælic Brynd are Bryndffolk from the Kælish Highlands of the North of Fahr Ryasc. The Highlands are a rough region of steep hills and deep valleys, called “Kæls”, where the Kælic clans thrive. Each clan claims a single Kæl as it’s territory. Within the Kæls, the Clan’s Taisech (Chief) serves as liege. The bond of the Taisech to the land, their Talav-Nasc, impacts its abundance as much as its people do.

    Kharia

    The cataclysm that sank the land that became the Kharian Basin both blessed and cursed the Bryndffolk who live there. The swamps of the Kharian Basin are rich in magic and resources, but they are also home to aggressive and hostile flora and fauna. The Kharian Brynd have adapted to this bountiful and dangerous environment. They are among the finest mariners in Fahr Ryasc and are masters of navigating the dense network of marshes, shallow lakes and connecting rivers of the Kharian Basin.

    The Druí Roth Mohr

    The Druí Roth Mohr is both a faith that worships the natural deities of Fahr Ryasc, named the Circle of the Cycle and the college of Druid – Priests called Druí. The Druí hold a cultural place of privelige in Bryndffolk society. In their role as keepers of Rites, Advisors and mediators among the Bryndffolk, the Druí Roth Mohr are permitted freedom of travel throughout the Bryndlands.

    One of the most important rites the Druí Roth Mohr perform is the investure of the Land Binding, or “Talav-Nasc” upon the Taisech of communities within the Bryndlands. The Land Binding ties the prosperity of the land and it’s people to the rulership of the Taisech. A strong Taisech who rules in accordance with the will of the Circle of the Cycle will, through the Talav-Nasc, cause the land to flourish. Whereas a weak Taisech tho violates the will of the Circle of the Cycle, or a person who usurps the role of Taisech without being given the Talav-Nasc, cause the land, and their people to suffer and blight.

  • Mapping Fahr Ryasc

    Mapping Fahr Ryasc

    Settings, Maps and Stories

    This is the subcontinent of Fahr Ryasc during the End Times. I just completed the latest revision of this map on the week of publication. For you, dear reader, I redrew and redesigned the entire subcontinent. You’re welcome.

    Okay, it was also time to give this map another pass. I have iterations of this map going back to 2013 (which, by the way, is two years before I started work on “Fahr Ryasc” as a setting. I’m kinda always making maps and then finding settings that fit them best. My other big project, Genzhymyl has a multilayered underground map. I still have the piece of hot press cardstock I drew the orignal location on.

    And that turned into this with a little graphic computer mojo..

    This is Version 13 of that original map. I really like dreaming up these worlds and imagining the people who live here. Genzhymyl is in Fahr Ryasc, somewhere under the Auborobua mountains. It’s in the Forgotten Realms too, somewhere in the “North”.

    These two settings maps are the widest scope of a “bullseye” technique that I learned from the early days of D&D. The danger here is the temptation to fill in every last detail. I used to design settings on the world level, where all of the landmasses and oceans were drawn out at a planetary scale. I don’t recommend starting off at that scale. There is just too much that your players will never ever see, and if they do, they’ll never get the opportunity to appreciate it all. Even on the continental level, the setting can be too big to detail.

    Let’s look at Middle-Earth. Professor Tolkien designed a third or half a continent. You can look at that map and see everything from the Grey Havens to Rhûn. But, even the Professor’s extensive lifetime of writing leaves most of this massive creation unexplored. After all, what stories take place in Rhûn? Or the wilds of Cardolan in old Arnor? All of that space sits fallow in the Legendarium. My lesson here is “don’t start too big”.

    “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
    – Bilbo’s advice to his nephew.

    There is a temptation, once you’ve drawn this big, beautiful map, with evocative names for locations and this epic scale, to share it with your players during a Session Zero, or even Pre-Session Zero. It’s natural, you’ve spent hours and maybe weeks or years creating a work of art and you want to share it with your friends. In the context of starting a campaign and buiding characters, this isn’t the best strategy.

    Referring to Lord of the Rings again, the main characters, especially the Hobbits had never left the Shire before starting out for Bree. Even with Bilbo’s maps, they don’t have clue about the scale of the journey they’re taking. The characters in your campaign should be similar. They’re familiar with their homes, whether it is their village ,their farm or their neighborhood in the city they grew up in, and they might, if they’re well travelled have knowledge of their neighboring settlements and the terrain in between.

    So, instead of rolling out the grand map of the Realm during character creation, draw up a simple small scale map that features the local area the characters will be starting in. Work from this map as you introduce your players to the setting. For an example, I’ll share with you the Kieran Slee in the Kælic Highlands

    .This area is much more manageable, and believable for characters to be familiar with from the start. Everyone will know landmarks like the Stone Giant’s Tusk, the Kieran Slee with the Layender Inn. Beyond this little area, you can tell the players about what their characters have heard. Like the marshes to the South, the Great Hall of the Rígh (king) to the North, and the Great Stone Circles of the Druids somewhere off to the West.

    As their characters travel beyond this small little provence and into the wider world, instead of providing a perfectly drawn map, instead, tell the players about the terrain and the time it takes to travel. Going from Layender Inn to the Kell beyond Ærath follows a road and it takes three days travel by foot. Encourage them to make their own map. It won’t be perfect, but after a few game sessions, it will be accurate and it will reflect the story the players are making with you.

    A small confession…

    As you might have guessed, this week’s blog was mostly an excuse to show off my map making talents, and chat a bit about my philosophies with regards to world-building. I don’t really have a design for this article. I just wanted to share the pretty picture, and maybe work in that quote from Lord of the Rings. I’ll be adding some more lore to the blog next week. Pinky Swear!

  • New House Rules

    New House Rules

    Six new rules I’m using in my next campaigns.

    Introduction

    House Rules have been a part of Table Top Roleplaying since it’s wargaming roots. The earliest pre-D&D experiments in role playing were, in essence, house rules. Many of the developments in most of the currently published systems started as house rules that became widely adopted. Almost by definition, any game built off of an SRD could be considered a set of house rules.

    Point is, we as gamers, just love to tinker and modify the rules as written to suit our own needs. Which brings us to some new house rules I’m using with my next D&D campaign. Some of these, were just alternative suggestions from the 2024 5e rules, others are lifted from, in my case, the Black Hack, and there is a “Salt Bae” pinch of Cypher System in here too. If they work during play as well as I imagine they would, I’ll keep em. Otherwise, we’ll just throw ‘em out and move on.

    House Rule #1; Initiative

    This one comes from an adaptation of the Cypher System initiative mechanic.

    When rolling Initiative, players all roll a Dexterity ability check against the adversaries’ Difficulty Class (DC) based on 10 + their Initiative Bonus.. Characters who succeed on this check go before the adversaries and those who fail go after, in an order decided by the players. The adversaries take their turns in order decided by the GM.

    In the case of varied Initiative DCs Only a single Initiative check is made against all the DC values, and characters take their turn based on the success or failure of the roll when measured against each DC in order as determined by the players.

    Because Initiative is defined as a Dexterity ability check, all bonuses, penalties, buffs or debuffs that affect a Dexterity ability check applies to the initiative check. If the modifier comes as a spell or class/ monster ability, only using a bonus action or reaction will allow the spell or ability to be used in most encounters. The intention for this house rule is to encourage strategy and engagement among the players. The order of action is determined on each round, though the initiative roll is applied for the entire encounter.

    House Rule #2: Usage Dice

    The Black Hack defined Usage Dice as a “push your luck” mechanic. Instead of tracking the inventory of a consumable item (ammunition, rations, water, oil, magic item charges, etc..) each resource is assigned a Usage Die. The Usage Die is a single die; d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, or d20 that is rolled every time the resource is used. If a 1 or 2 is rolled on the Usage Die, it is downgraded by one die type, until the d4 is downgraded, at which point the resource in question is exhausted. This mechanic is unpredictable, and is completely dependent on the whims of the dice. Some games, the resource seems inexhaustible, other games the dice will turn against the players.

    At the GM’s discretion, the Usage Die can be increased outside of the resupply or camp. In these cases the Usage Die only upgraded by a single die type.

    House Rule #3: Advantage / Disadvantage

    This House Rule is also lifted from the Black Hack, and is a small redefinition of the 5e Advantage / Disadvantage rule. Instead of being restricted to d20 rules, Advantage and Disadvantage can be applied to any die roll. When Rolling with Advantage, two dice of the designated type are rolled together and the player makes the choice of which result is used. When rolling with Disadvantage, two dice of the designated type are rolled together and the GM makes the choice of which result is used. Like the 5e rule, Advantage and Disadvantage can only be applied once to a single die roll, and if both are applied to the same roll, they cancel one another out.

    In instances of multiple dice being rolled, Advantage and Disadvantage only add a single die to the pool, and the player or GM chooses which dice they count. Advantage or Disadvantage results are counted before the results are applied. Example: A greatsword inflicts 2d6 damage to a single target. With Advantage and Disadvantage, an extra d6 is added and two of the three dice are added together to calculate damage. If the greatsword rolls a critical hit, the damage dice are doubled to 4d6, and only one extra d6 is added. The pool of 5d6 is rolled and four die results are added together.

    House Rule #4; Doom Dice and the Doomed condition

    This house rule comes out of the Black Sword Hack. Doom Dice are a special application of Usage Dice that represents the role of destiny or fate plays in a character’s life. Characters only have a single Doom Die at any given time. Doom Dice start at a d6 and can be used in several ways; a Doom Die can be rolled and the result added to a die roll, the Doom Die can be rolled when the character wants to add a minor element to the scene, the GM can ask the player to roll the Doom Die in instances when fate has turned against the character. In the latter two examples the result of the Doom Die is not applied to anything. The Doom Die can only be applied to the character whose player rolled it.

    Like all Usage Dice, on a result of 1 or 2, the Doom Die degrades. When a Doom Die is exhausted, the character will gain the Doomed condition. Only finishing a Recovery IV can replenish the Doom Die, and only when the Doom Die is exhausted. Under certain, special circumstances as determined by the GM, the Doom Die can be increased to a d8.

    The Doomed condition is a miserable state where Fate has turned against the Character. If a character’s Doom Die is exhausted, the character will suffer this condition until they finish a Recovery IV, at which point the condition is removed and the character’s Doom Die is replenished to it’s starting value (usually a d6, but in some cases it could be higher). While suffering the Doomed condition, the afflicted character has disadvantage on every ability check, attack roll, damage roll, saving throw, and effect roll they initiate. Effects placed on the character (like a Bless spell, Bardic Inspiration, or Cure Wounds spells) by another source are not affected by the Doomed condition.

    House Rule #5: Spellcasting Dice

    Spellcasting Dice are another application of the Usage Dice. Spellcasting classes earn increasing Usage Dice for casting spells of a given spell level. When a spell of a given level is cast, the character rolls the appropriate spellcasting die, the result is only used to determine if the Spellcasting Die for that level is degraded or not. If the Spellcasting Die is exhausted, the caster is no longer able to cast spells of that level until they finish a Recovery that refreshes their Spellcasting Dice. Casters can roll a Doom Die to give themselves Advantage on their Spellcasting Die check. Though different spellcasting classes refresh their Spellcasting Dice differently. Characters who multiclass with two or more spellcasting classes always use the highest die their classes and levels dictate. Classes that use Sorcery Points track that resource as a Useage Die.

    House Rule #6: Recovery

    This system replaces the Short and Long Rest mechanic with something similar to the recovery mechanic found in Cypher System. Following a Recovery IV, characters have four Recoveries they can take. Each Recovery requires a designated amount of time to complete before the Recovery benefits can be gained. Every Recovery needs to be taken in order and once expended will only recover following a Long Recovery. Multiple available Recoveries can be used if the duration of the highest recovery is finished.

    • Recovery I – One Action. Finishing a Recovery I allows the character to use up to their Proficiency Bonus in available Hit Dice to regain hit points. This can be used as a character’s turn in a combat round.

    • Recovery II – Fifteen Minutes. Finishing a Recovery II allows the character to use up to their Proficiency Bonus in available Hit Dice to regain hit points in addition to any Hit Dice from a Recovery I, if that recovery is still unused. Some abilities and Spellcasting Dice can be recovered with this recovery as detailed in the characters classes and levels. Spells and rituals that require this amount of time or less to cast can be cast while taking this recovery.

    • Recovery III – One Hour. Finishing a Recovery III allows the character to use all available Hit Dice to regain hit points. Some abilities and Spellcasting Dice can be regained with this recovery as detailed in the characters clsses and levels. Magic items that require Attunement can be Attuned after finishing this recovery. Spells and rituals that require this amount of time or less to cast can be cast while taking this recovery.

    • Recovery IV – 12 Hours (or half-a-day depending on the campaign setting). Finishing a Recovery IV regains all lost hit points, regains one level of exhaustion, ends the Doomed condition, and makes all recoveries available to take again. All abilities, spellcasting dice and Doom Dice can be restored. Characters who are incapacitated, stable, and at 0 hit points will return to being awake and alert with all their hit points. Certain Magic Items can recover their Usage Dice for charges as described for each item. This recovery marks the end of the day (regardless of the time when the recovery is started and finished) for purposes of abilities that are daily use.

    Conclusion

    I’m pretty excited for these rules, they’re written to compliment a sword-and-sorcery campaign more than a standard D&D Epic High Fantasy model (though I think they can be used pretty seamlessly there). Feel free to adapt these house rules to your own campaign if you like them. Let me know your experiences and thoughts in the comments

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  • The City of Vohrkohz

    The City of Vohrkohz

    Sea Cities of the Marakhor; Part 1

    Vohrkohz was founded on at a hill inside a sharp bend on the Tyrqohz river almost 500 years ago. The settlement was fortunate in it’s position between the mouth where the Tyrqohz emptied into the Marakhor Sea and the rich ore-fields on the face of Mount Ghaul. The flood plain on the low bank of the river bend offered exceptionally rich soil for crops, the river herself was bountiful and her lower branch was wide and easily navigable to the sea. Vohrkohz was well suited to grow and support her people.

    For most of it’s history Vohrkohz grew from a town on the riverbank to a modest city-state renowned for it’s artisans. They crafted beautiful and precious objects using the aurixom ore mined from the face of Mount Ghaul. When Vohrkohz joined the early Xjinn Empire, the fortunes of the city grew exceptionally fast. The markets of the expanding empire for luxury made Vohrkohz very wealthy. After the Old Xjinn Empire declined and Vohrkohz claimed its independence as a city-state and joined the Sea Cities league, their reputation and markets had been long established, and their wealth continued to grow. This was Vohrkohz’ golden age.

    However, every golden age comes to an end. Vohrkohz began her decline as the Aruixom mines began to demand more and more destructive techniques to yeild enough ore to satisfy demand. The fisheries pulled more fish from the sea and the Tyrqohz became polluted with the industrial mining and forging industries.

    Then, the Old Xjinn Empire, under the guidance of the Nea’Archi Doctrine religion, began to reclaim all it’s former lands. Vohrkhoz was reabsorbed into the Empire twelve years ago. The returned Empire was different than the one that Vohrkohz was first a part of. This Empire was martial, expansive, authoritarian. The Nea’Archi Doctrine was a strict and agressive religion, spreading the worship of Lords of the Higher Worlds, a pantheon of deities aligned with Cosmic Law. While in the dozen years of imperial rule have not purged the variety of faiths practiced in the city. Still, the Nea’Archi Doctrine did grow among the ranks of Vohrkohz’ aristocracy.

    The Old Xjinn Empire has rejected sorcery and adopted the rational disciplines of industry and science. This influence had affected Vohrkohz with the discovered industrial properties of aurixom. The forges of Vohrkohz had long known of how aurixom, when alloyed with steel created a metal of exceptional strength and durability. the Old Xjinn Empire has rebuilt and expanded Vohrkohz’s forging district to produce industrial quantities of refined aurixom and alloyed aurixom steel. The artisan districts were also turned into factories that used the refined metals to create tools, weapons, and machined parts for clockwork engines. These processes were both labor and resource intensive. The furnaces for forges and factories burned tons of coal day and night, filled the skies above Vohrkohz with clouds of brown-black smoke and filled the air with harsh fumes that could be smelled and tasted from anywhere in the city. When close to or inside the buildings the foul air even burned the eyes and skin after two or three hours.

    The Tyrqohz River was extremely polluted due to the industrialization by the Old Xjinn Empire. It had been growing more polluted due to aurixom mining operations for decades prior to industrialization. Afterwards, both the industrialized mining processes polluted the upper river, and the refining and forging districts heavily polluted the lower river. This destroyed the fishing on the Tyrqohz and affects the mouth emptying into the Marakhor Sea at Port Tir. The fishing fleets from Port Tir needed to sail further out from Tirgohro Bay into the Marakhor Sea to find fishing waters that were not corrupt.

    The banks of the Tyrqohz that served as floodplains and supported the agriculture of Vohrkohz have been polluted and corrupted into a toxic, unfertile scar. The region, called the Befoulment became a deadly, poisonous wasteland choked with mutated flora and fauna hostile to the natural environment. Within the Befoulment can be found the ruins of grand, once palatial estates, and ghost towns where the populations were driven out by the encroaching poison.

    All of these factors combined to make Vohrkohz an industrial Hell. The aristocracy embraced the Nea’Archi Doctrine had made the city opressively authoritarian. The traditional religoins that had been practiced among the artisans and farmers and fisherfolk were slowly but methotically driven out of the public. The merchant class was split, driven either into the aristocracy or out of business all together. The laborer classes were pushed into indentured servitude in the factories, forges, and workhouses of the city. All under the authority and dominance of the Old Xjinn Empire.

  • The Tralfolk of Fahr Ryasc

    The Tralfolk of Fahr Ryasc

    Tribes of the North part 1

    The Tralfolk were a barbarian people who lived in the northern lands of Fahr Ryasc; the Kharian Basin, the Kælic Highlands and the Kymric Mountains. In an earlier age, long before the rise of the Old Xjinn Empire, the lands now claimed by the Tralfolk and their rivals the Bryndffolk were all part of a Sorcerous Realm known as Vakra. The Tralfolk began as thralls of the Vakran people, giants who called themselves Vazdeg.

    When Vakra fell to a magical catastrophe brought on by their sorcerers and hubris, the pre-Tralfolk thralls were changed into the varied peoples of the Tralfolk. The Tralfolk share common, though divergent ancestry with most other peoples of Fahr Ryasc, the Xjinn, the Hsaahn, the Bryndffolk, even the Ra’akhen and the Síoraí are cousins to all of the Tralfolk ancestries.

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    Even before the Fall of Vakra, the Tralfolk had already been changed by their Sorcerous masters. Through a combination of sorcery and cultivation, the thralls of the Vakra were developed to serve the needs and desires of their Vazdeg patricians. The Fall of Vakra exaggerated the traits that were bred into the thralls, mutating them into Tralfolk.

    The principal social unit Tralfolk community organization were formed around the klaarg, groups in which descent was reckoned through common parental lineages. Klaarg (both singular and plural), were named often for the founding families and the oldest such stretch back for centuries. Communities were commonly referred to by the klaarg of their Verkovgi (Tralspek for “chief” or “lord”).

    Ethnicities of the Tralfolk

    Beihtral: The Beihtral were companions for Vazdeg sporting hunts. They were cultivated for their feral instincts and sharpened senses. After the Fall of Vakra, they developed into beast-headed humanoids of two different clans, the wolf-headed Tier, and boar-headed Tohr.

    Fyhrtral: Vakra used the ancestors of the Fyhrtral to assist with the cultivation and husbandry of the native flora and fauna in their realm. They were exposed to the most powerful wells of natural magic discovered by the sorcerers of Vakra for generations. The catastrophe of the Fall of Vakra changed the Fyhrtral, the powerful magics of the deep wild places took them and remade them. They were tall and graceful, Fyhrtral men grow proud horns from their heads like stags, their legs were jointed like deer, ending in cloven hooves and made them swift runners and strong leapers. Their bodies were covered in a pelt of short, soft fur, and they grew short, furry tails at the base of their spines.

    Glaztral: The Glaztral were robust thralls, cultivated to thrive in high and cold altitudes found in the Kymric Mountains. After the fall, the developed to large people, covered in a thick pelt of white or pale fur across their shoulders, arms and legs.

    Gundtral: Gundtral were among the most privileged thralls, serving as assistants to the Vakran sorcerers. The Gundtral were selected for their natural talents with magic and intellect, but not might or strength. They suffered most during the Fall, emerging from the devastation only half the size of most other peoples and cursed with an impish seeming. Without the privilege of their masters’ favor, the Gundtral have dropped to nearly the bottom of Tralfolk society. Still, they have retained their inherent magic and high intelligence, traits which help them to survive despite their physical frailties.

    Orgtral: Physically largest of the Tralfolk, Orgtral are larger than even their Glaztral cousins. Their thick limbs and broad trunks affoard them all the physical advantages that the Gundtral lack. Their ancestors were cultivated by the Vazdeg for physical labor and service as soldiers and bodyguards. This heritage, and their size has made the Orgtral phenomonally strong when compared to other peoples.

    Rukhtral: The Tralfolk people were capable of producing multiethnic offspring, both with other Tralfolk, and wih other humanoid peoples. The result of these mixed lineages had stabilized into the youngest of Tralfolk peoples, the Rukhtral. The Rukhtral carried many of the best traits from their parentage, though to a lesser degree. They were strong, but not as strong as the Orgtral, they were clever, but not as clever as the Gundtral, they felt a deep connection to the land, but not to the same extent as the Fyhrtral. Rukhtral were of average height and build of most humanoid peoples of Fahr Ryasc, with pointed ears and small horns growing from their foreheads.

    Svakktral: The Svakktral when they were thralls of Vakra were used as miners and workers of stone and metal. They explored the Underworld of Fahr Ryasc and sought its treasures for their Vakran masters. After the Fall of Vakra, the thralls who retreated into their vast underground strongholds became Svakktral. The Svakktral were short and broad, thick limbed and strong as the mountains they lived beneath

    Vaktral: The Vaktral as thralls, were born of a Vashdeg parent and a thrall. This did require sorcery as the Vashdeg were giants, and in the case of a thrall mother, that sorcery needed to be applied until birth. The children of this mixed parentage enjoyed an elevated status in Vakran socity, above the other thralls, but below Vakran citizens. They also were able to produce a stable ancestry of hybrid children among themselves. They, like the Gundtral, were highly intelligent and magically powerful. They were, by most cultural definitions, beautiful to look upon. Even after the Fall of Vakra, the Vaktral only became moreso. Their sorcerous prowess, inherited from their Vashdeg ancestery made them mighty sorcerers, but their numbers were very few, and they isolated themselves, preferring solitude to the harsh realities of life among others.

    Language

    The Tralfolk communities spoke Tralspek, a derivative form of Vakran. Over the long centuries following the Fall of Vakra, the Tralfolk continued to use their own casual dialect of Vakran until it became a distinct language of its own. Tralspek did not have a written form, most Tralfolk were illiterate, but the few who have kept written records over the centuries used the Vakran alphabet and symbology to preserve their histories, stories and culture. But, the writings made were unique to each author. No single written interpretation of Tralspek has emerged, and none was widely adopted.

    Relations

    The Old Xjinn Empire: The Empire considered the Tralfolk to be uncultured barbarians at best, and at worst, more beasts than people. From how the Tralfolk live to their language, worship, even their art and culture were all deemed inferior to the Old Xjinn Empire.

    Bryndffolk: The Bryndffolk have been competitors for land in the north with Tralfolk since the Fall of Vakra. Longer if one considers the Bryndffolk’s struggle with Vakra pre-Fall. While the two peoples have been intermixed for centuries, and minorities of each people lived amongst the communities of the other, there was always competition for land, rescources, and survival.

    The Sea Cities: The rise of the Sea Cities held many of the same prejudices that the Old Xjinn Empire had. Influenced by the Bryndffolk when their trading ships sailed north, they held the view of the Tralfolk as barbarian pirates looking for plunder rather than commerce.

  • The triumph of Law in the Old Xjinn Empire

    The triumph of Law in the Old Xjinn Empire

    In Fahr Ryasc, the Lords of the Higher Worlds overthrew the Princes of Ruin, imprisoning Chaos and establishing the dominance of Law.

    One thousand years ago, Law triumphed over Chaos in Fahr Ryasc. Nikkarn, one of the Archons of the Nea’Archi Doctrine wielded the Ebonrune Scepter to bind each Prince of Ruin into it’s prison in the Underworld. With the Princes entombed, The Lords of the Higher Worlds were freed to elevate Law among the mortal peoples of Fahr Ryasc, starting with the Old Xjinn Empire.

    The Old Xjinn Empire had already adopted the Nea’Archi Doctrine as it’s religion and creed almost since it’s founding. After the triumph, the empire withdrew back into it’s irex (“throne-cities”) and spent centuries consolidating and transforming into the instrument the Lords of the Higher Worlds would use to subjugate all of Fahr Ryasc.

    Through Nea’Archi Doctrine dogma, the Old Xjinn Empire forbade sorcery, and adopted science and rationality to replace it with Alchemy ,Artifice and Clockwork. This led to the discovery of the element Aurixom as a catalyst for industry. This revolution in the empire has reinvigorated the declining, fading realm. Purges of sorcerers and practice of religions other than the Nea’Archi Doctrine has reshaped imperial culture and returned the Old Xjinn Empire to a position of supremacy in Fahr Ryasc.

    The Old Xjinn Empire had reclaimed most of its former territory over the past century. With the absorbtion of the city-state of Vohrkohz on the Tyrqohz River, the empire has secured the richest source of Aurixom ore known in Fahr Ryasc. As the campaign opens, the empire is expanding and beginning it’s effort to conquer the entire continent.

    As a background option in Black Sword Hack, the Old Xjinn Empire is considered decadent.