[D&D-5e] The Secrets of Cinsex (5e, very complex hombrew setting with some house rules)

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by Neil

Wise words.

Also, and I'm not suggesting this will happen but, games do fail. (RL intervenes, enthusiasms wane, internet access issues occur, a key player drops out...)

So, given the time investment in character creation requested, given the post rate wanted, however up my street this game sounds, however much I would like to present my take on a reptilian mindset (play a kobold)... For now I'm gonna lurk and if permitted subscribe to the story once yous get started.

I wish this ambitious project well.

I don't know if you've looked at the rest of the thread, but I think we're headed in the direction 1/week posts (as in everyone's only posting one time a week, not every weekday), with itermittent ooc worldbuilding chatter. I'm not sure if that impacts your interest

[Seekr34]

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[Onward]

Originally Posted by Sebecloki

I meant the religions of the theriomorphs of the east are not well known, not the peoples. So, they've met fox people, but aren't really aware of all the details of their religion, or that they have a separate fire god with some similar portfolios to the phoenix goddess they worship. The theriomorphs come from the east -- they're not native to the central lands of the continent that are mostly elf, orc, and human lands -- by far, predominantly human. They're viewed like the kobolds from the west, as foreigners, but not necessarily with suspicion. They're simply outsiders with different religions, cultures, and worlviews -- and they're travelers, not natives, but they're not scared of them outright. The kobolds have a worse reputation, for instance.

I see, that clear something's up, I can certainly see my character being a vagrant wanderer. Using his tricks to cause some mischief. One last question, you didn't go into too much detail on the Theriomorphs, I believe. Only a mention on where they dominate. What exactly do these creatures have for a culture, do they vary between animals or are they the same? Are they based on a real world culture like the other races?

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by Onward

I see, that clear something's up, I can certainly see my character being a vagrant wanderer. Using his tricks to cause some mischief. One last question, you didn't go into too much detail on the Theriomorphs, I believe. Only a mention on where they dominate. What exactly do these creatures have for a culture, do they vary between animals or are they the same? Are they based on a real world culture like the other races?

The eastern regions are dominated by different cultures of these races -- there are hundreds of them, ranging from hunter-gatherer tribes to urban civilizations with road networks. The degree of civilization tends to track with the degree of domestication of the parent species -- dogs, cats, horses, and other farm animal races tend to live in cities and have urban civilizations, while jackal, racoon, badger, etc. races tend to be clan-based and nomadic. There are hundreds of these mammalian and avian races, and I don't have notes on all of them -- you can develop something yourself around a specific theriomorph if you want.

[Onward]

I see, that's good to know. I think I understand what kind of character I have in mind. Gonna work on my app.

[ProjectLazarus]

Can you give a brief overview of your world's awareness or existence of alternate planes of existence or reality? Is it multiversal, or planar, or neither? Specifically, given the existence of elves, half-elves and theriomorphs is there a fey plane?

Also, while you've dipped into foxes and rabbits, and mentioned the Brian Jaques series in terms of inspiration for your theriomorphs; do you have ideas on what you're looking at mechanically? Are extant WotC races acceptable, such as Harengon, Leonin and Loxodon? What about more in-between races such as Tabaxi and Shifters?

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by ProjectLazarus

Can you give a brief overview of your world's awareness or existence of alternate planes of existence or reality? Is it multiversal, or planar, or neither? Specifically, given the existence of elves, half-elves and theriomorphs is there a fey plane?

Also, while you've dipped into foxes and rabbits, and mentioned the Brian Jaques series in terms of inspiration for your theriomorphs; do you have ideas on what you're looking at mechanically? Are extant WotC races acceptable, such as Harengon, Leonin and Loxodon? What about more in-between races such as Tabaxi and Shifters?

There are other planes of existence, but its more like the Malazan series with slightly ambiguous elemental zones of power, some of which have overlapping areas of concern. One 'heaven' might just be a plane of mountain and air with really tall peaks and winged inhabitants -- but there's more than one of these. One might have more dragonic inhabitants, and another insectoid, and another avians. Same thing with infernal reaches. Some might be planes of darkness, others cold wastes, others underground chambers of slavery and torment. For instance, there might be more than one 'plane of fire' -- one associated with the some kind of network of solar entities, and another that's more like a huge forge of a volcano, and yet another filled with blue flame. There are millions and millions of these different planes that can be accessed by portals. Some of the older civilizations had portals into and colonized/explored some of them. There's not one 'fey' plane -- there are various planes of wood, spirit, sound/music, dreams, that serve different aspects of that concept. There's basically an astral plane/astral sea with millions of enormous demiplanes of infinite size floating in that bubble, and then the 'Outer Chaos' and/or Void (it's on the edge of reality, no one really knows). All the planes of the great wheel are demiplanes in the Astral that move around like parallel dimensions in the Brane cosmology.

I haven't mapped it all out mechanically. Owlin, gnolls, harengon, leonins, and loxodons, lupins I think already exist. You can use something 3pp. as well; I haven't looked up all the options. What I'm really trying to stay away from with the requests for 'in-between' races like Tabaxi and Shifters is the waifu catgirl concept -- I feel like that's part of a different aesthetic, more closely associated with anime, and it's also very closely associated with an erotic subculture that, no judgment, I've known members of, but I don't feel comfortable having in this game, or being part of the ambience. I've just seen a lot of recruitments where it seems that kind of character comes with that kind of association.

[Sebecloki]

Perhaps it could help to have multiple subdivisions in the OOC: literature, science, religion, people. Otherwise one can easily get lost in the posts.

I have a few questions regarding my concept:

- What are the names of the God of Knowledge?

All the gods have dozens of names. The Ghyfean name of this deity is Zakar, Zakaryazornakyan or Zakaryazornakyanastvadzadourian (the use of a specific title would depend on context, with the longest name representing the 'Holy Name', and the others being degrees of abbreviation appropriate for certain kinds of speech and topics).

- Does he have an order of intelligence gatherers? Perhaps spies that infiltrate in other organisations with the explicit goal of intelgathering? Off course, if they destroy knowledge, an intervention is necessary.

The old Ghedrosian name of the organization is the Makharbekhamitsaev -- the Vigilant Eyes (of the All Seeing and All Knowing), or just the Vigilant. Zakar was considered to be the emanation of the active intellect of the unseeing, unhearing, and unchanging creator deity that emanated the world in the old imperial religion.

- Where is his university located? What is its name? Do they teach medicine, alchemy, poisoncraft?

The university of Zakar the All Knowing is located in the Shrine District, and is attached to the Great Temple of Zakar, also known as the Great and Auspicious Panopticon of the All Seeing, All Hearing, and All Knowing
Zakaryazornakyanastvadzadourian of the Highest Intelligence and Greatest Wisdom, Most Auspicious Scholar and Revered Teacher of all the Gods. It is known as the Sakhandzherissoslænbek Sozyryqo, another Old Ghedrosian name, but is also referred to as the College of Sakhandzheri. They do not teach poisoncraft or alchemy (at least not openly), but focus on book arts and learning, as well as something like 19th c. style 'scholarly' projects -- collecting and organizing information, creating taxonomies, making lists of formulas and working them out to a million places, etc. They try to maintain a front as disinterested scientists, but Zakar also has an aspect that is more like Vecna, and is the lord of the hidden, and his associates of the 'higher mysteries' explore poisons, alchemy, demon-summoning, and other forbidden knowledge.

- Does Cinsex have slums? If so what is their name? Would it be reasonable for a healer/alchemist to set up practice there? Could he/she make contact with members of the new Kingfisher’s assassin’s guild?

The slums are in the marshlands near the lake that have not been adequately drained; one large part is known as the Xhevahir Tenements. Xhevahir is the name of a mythological outcaste. It is a deep depression. There could be practitioners of those arts.

- I see the possibility of my character gaining the trust of the organisation to infiltrate them.
- What are the naming conventions? And the major languages?

For the Ghyfeans, I'm basing the names on Armenian, Georgian, Ossetian, and Albanian. https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com is a great website for help with that, but I also have a language generation program that makes conlangs with 2,000 word vocabs and complete grammars.

I've written a bit above about the other human subpopulations, those all have their own naming conventions and languages.

- Mechanically, I’m leaning towards a prodigy. Do you have any objections?[/QUOTE]

Looks good

[ProjectLazarus]

Ok. That covers most of what I'm looking for;

If the intention is not the anime style waifu culture -- I wouldn't feel comfortable in that environment either, again no judgement meant on anyone else's choices -- Mechanically those races are not specifically excluded?

I'm not certain that my character concept hinges on being able or unable to use one of these races, I'd simply like to know the options and be clear about my own intentions.

[Sebecloki]

It may also help to understand my worldbuilding to have this background: I see Ghyfe as my Karameikos and Citsen as my Specularum in terms of worldbuilding. I have ideas what's beyond this individual kingdom, but I've tried to set it up so it has most of the major biomes and fantasy races within its borders, and you can run an entire campaign within this one kingdom. There are conflicts and plot arcs aplenty so you wouldn't really have to leave it. There is a forested region to the west, and a desert region to the east, mountains to the north, and millions of islands to the south. There are snow elves and crystal elves on and under the mountains, kobolds in the forests, as well as halfling and wild elf tribes, several varieties of humans that encompass several cultural concepts.

[Seekr34]

What is 3pp?

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by ProjectLazarus

Ok. That covers most of what I'm looking for;

If the intention is not the anime style waifu culture -- I wouldn't feel comfortable in that environment either, again no judgement meant on anyone else's choices -- Mechanically those races are not specifically excluded?

I'm not certain that my character concept hinges on being able or unable to use one of these races, I'd simply like to know the options and be clear about my own intentions.

I hadn't really thought about tabaxi -- if I was going to include them I would make them sort of quasi Mayan and have them living on islands off the eastern coast.

I don't really see the Shifter concept as part of what I imagine these races being -- I looked at the fluff for it again, and that's more like a lycanthrope, and my concept is really anthropomorphic animals, not mischwesen of some sort.

[Sebecloki]

Originally Posted by Seekr34

What is 3pp?

3rd party publications -- like 5e stuff not published by WoTC

[tomplum]

The university of Zakar the All Knowing is located in the Shrine District, and is attached to the Great Temple of Zakar, also known as the Great and Auspicious Panopticon of the All Seeing, All Hearing, and All Knowing
Zakaryazornakyanastvadzadourian of the Highest Intelligence and Greatest Wisdom, Most Auspicious Scholar and Revered Teacher of all the Gods. It is known as the Sakhandzherissoslænbek Sozyryqo, another Old Ghedrosian name, but is also referred to as the College of Sakhandzheri. They do not teach poisoncraft or alchemy (at least not openly), but focus on book arts and learning, as well as something like 19th c. style 'scholarly' projects -- collecting and organizing information, creating taxonomies, making lists of formulas and working them out to a million places, etc. They try to maintain a front as disinterested scientists, but Zakar also has an aspect that is more like Vecna, and is the lord of the hidden, and his associates of the 'higher mysteries' explore poisons, alchemy, demon-summoning, and other forbidden knowledge.

Just spit balling here but if my dwarf concept of a delver of ancient ruins and scribe of the forgotten runes were to be in the employ of this 'higher mysteries' portion of the college, perhaps some of this knowledge gleaned from these tombs and crypts would be considered forbidden or even heretical. Could add intrigue to the dungeon delver archetype.

[ArcZero]

Originally Posted by Sebecloki

I see you put truenaming in there -- I'm not sure if there's a 5e conversion for that.

Yes there is an unearthed arcana for 5e that sums up Onomancy quite well. http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wizard:onomancy-ua

Those responses sound good for combat being clear enough to give you an initial position. Then focusing on keeping combat moving with a bit of vagueness after that and not worrying about exactly how many kobolds you hit with a fireball. In that case, I would be happy to say "I aim my fireball in the middle of the kobolds but hugging the wall to avoid allies." Then you decide how many will wind up being hit, precisely.

Originally Posted by Sebecloki

The 3pp. systems like spheres can be very appealing to gamers who are more interested in the rules than the story, or primarily interested in the rules, and that's not really the focus here. I'm not really interested in players who "had this cool gestalt idea for a cleric/epilektoi build I always wanted to try out; they have a killer bullrush + smash and smite combo that does at least 100 damage a round, and leaves the opponent stunned if you apply this feat" or whatever.

Makes sense. I am happy to not use spheres. Just for clarity, are you saying from my post that I appear to be one of these players? It seems that many qualities of the game are still up in the air, so I thought a few custom requests like a Kingfisher Kenku or Onomancy were fair.

I was simply interested in getting at some interesting flavor, but I can keep it simple: would that Onomancy UA subclass be acceptable? Are you uninterested in any custom character approach eg. A sorcerer with a necromancer bloodline? If neither are acceptable then a simple Necromancer Wizard would work.

So theriamorphs are not native to Ghyfe but are common enough to be playable? Is trying to play a Kingfisher-type (pescatarian diving bird) Kenku a fit for the setting? It would be humorous to see a kenku come to Ghyfe and feel resonance for the Kingfisher goddess. Then she would see if she could emulate those values and try to be one of their priests.

Does Onomancy have a place in your world? It sounds like the Vumyrusians could be a good fit as they practice unique magics and it sounds like derivations of Celtic mythology could result in Naming. Is xenophobia or suspicion of spies high or would a Vumyrusian who immigrated to Ghyfe and wanted to join the Kingfisher Temple School be accepted? I would be happy to have the character endure lambasting and doubt if there was some mechanism for acceptance (like my Vumyrusian family marrying into a Ghyfean family known for priesthood)? If they've been recently invaded by Ghyfe then intermarriage or Vumyrusian integration doesn't seem that far-fetched.

Second is Atax-Aurora and Teperua the names for both the goddesses and the moon/sun themselves? Or do the celestial bodies have further names?

Do priests study at both Temple Schools to avoid suspicion of being a monotheist? Do all practitioners have some amount of both mantles? Or are there specialists who attend one temple and use Moonglow or Sunspark alone but still worship dualistically?

Is studying Vumyrusian magic (Naming?) and Moonglow at the same time "burn at the stake" worthy? Would using Moonglow entail new gameplay mechanics or simply be flavor with the sub-talents you were referring to? Eg. take a proficiency in Moonglow and Moonscript for Arcana-type checks, but otherwise you would be casting normal Wizard spells?

You said the goddesses have many names and subsects. Are all of those who worship both goddesses appropriately, but by another name (their own holidays, etc.), heretics? Or is there a hard and fast rule like "people of the book" that as long as you follow said holy scripture that regional variance is allowed?

Is holy war common? It sounds like the Marchlanders would piss off Ghyfeans to the point of needing to die for worshipping another god in another land. Is it malpractice of worshipping the sister goddesses that draws the ire of clergy or is it any different religion at all?

Finally, what is the enforcing body for this dualistic religion? Local priests who hunt heretics, regional leaders who rule by fiat (Cardinals and Archbishops who need no papacy, their magic enforces their will), or standing armies from local lords tithing to the "church" for a whole Catholic-esque church-and-state hierachy?