In the dawn of days, there was a great war of godly scale that shook the whole of Outremer. On one side there fought the forces of the untamed wilds, of chaos and evil: wyrms and krakens, giants and demons, warlocks and beasts of the moon, unspeakable and forgotten things. All of these monsters, great and small, bowed at the feet of Chernobog, the Black God. He inhaled courage and breathed out despair, devoured hope and begat only strife and misery, for his wont was nothing less than the complete destruction of mankind and ruination of the world.
To oppose him there were men. Brave and strong men, with bronze in their hands and the White God ever at their head and in their hearts. Aye, in those days the Exalted walked amongst men, and so it was that good triumphed over evil -- but barely, and with great cost. The Chernobog’s evil was rooted too deep in the world for him to be truly killed, so his body was hacked into at least a dozen pieces that were strewn across Outremer in the darkest of hidest places. Even still, the Black God’s memory and his corruption persist.
The name Chernobog is now all but forgotten by all save the most insidious of heretics and witches, being so profane that its very utterance is forbidden, just as the Exalted’s own name is too sacred for any but the most devout of priests to know. But legends still remind men of what their ancient enemy was, of all his crimes: as the Chernobog was at last smote down, he vowed eternal vengeance and threw a profane curse upon the land. His last rancid breath brought rot into the air and cursed the land with blights and diseases forevermore, and the rivers of his black blood rolled across the land and poisoned the Earth just as his hundred claws sank into her and grievously her, the hatred and thrumming of his heart he cast into the seas that it might ever stir storms. And he finally promised that one day, his own spawn, his greatest and most monstrous servants, and those mortals that lusted for his power would rise; that they would come as maggots to rot, and so complete his foul legacy.
And you are one of those that intend to fulfill this Black Prophecy.
RP Purpose and Mechanics
This RP flouts the usual tradition of stories where we see from the point of view of the good guys. Here we have an RP where instead of the questing knight, the humble peasant turned hero, or the wizened wizard, you are some fell warlord, monstrous beast, or other dark power. Your characters might only aspire to have a small realm and bastion of their own or they might seek nothing less than the utter annihilation of mankind; they might be willing to tolerate or even ally with the other various scions and rogue beings, or they might want to cast down all their bastard siblings and reign uncontested as the second Chernobog. That’s all up to you.
As the introduction alludes to, there are two general roles that you might fulfill: that of a scion of the old Chernobog, or that of some sort of rogue being. You may have one character of each type if you’d like; however, if you do that then as a general rule your rogue being should not align with or serve your scion. The point of having one of each would be to allow you to interact with more people and more characters, and having both your rogue being and scion together all the time defeats the purpose of that.
Scions would be the most innately powerful of the two categories, their nature as the Chernobog’s spawn making them something like demigods. They would more like than not be remembered in some form in the legends of old, for they would have all served in the Chernobog’s armies and doubtless committed great crimes of their own, and for their part, they would have been slain or banished to some other plane or imprisoned by the Exalted One and his followers. Having only just now been resurrected or summoned or broken free as the case may be, a scion will be returning to a somewhat unfamiliar world where steel has replaced bronze and the men are much more numerous than they once were, even as the savage beings and monsters have diminished. Still, a scion should be able to use their dark powers to raise a new army easily enough. Perhaps the pitiful remnants of the Chernobog’s old horde could be rallied, or some of the weak-willed humans subjugated by sword or by poisoned word and manipulation. And failing that, there are ways to use foul magic to twist and corrupt life to make new breeds of monstrous creatures, ways to raise the dead, ways to conjure demons and monsters from other realms. A true heir of Chernobog would find a way.
Not all lords have their throne by birthright, just as not all scions need draw their powers through the Chernobog’s blood coursing in their veins. It would perhaps be possible for a mere mortal, through ambition or curiosity or some other compulsion, to ascend to the status of a scion. The most likely way for this to happen would be for the person to come across one of the Chernobog’s body parts and take in its power -- willingly or otherwise. This sort of scion would start off weaker with only nascent powers, but would have the advantage of greater familiarity with the world and perhaps they would even have an army or a realm to their names already by that point. How much of their own personality would persist after ascending (or being corrupted -- it’s all a matter of perspective) could vary, and would be up to you.
The second category is more broad and flexible. Rogue beings could take many forms and vary quite greatly in power level -- anything from an ancient vampire to a dragon can fall under the realm of possibility. And while a rogue being could be some ancient monster that’s been around since the dawn of time and served under the Chernobog, it could also just be some humble orcish chieftain or some evil-hearted human sorcerer. While rogue beings can be powerful, their magical might is not so great as that of the scions. It would be harder for them to bring down the realms of men by themselves, to raise an army, or to carve out an empire of their own. For those reasons a rogue being might do well to align with a scion for protection and mutual benefit, but some might choose to stay rogue -- the path is yours to choose.
This would be a mostly sandbox-style RP where we give all participants a lot of leeway to worldbuild and fill in the empty spaces on the map, either by canonizing smaller settlements and such or expanding upon the nature of larger ones. We GMs do not need to control the human opposition along every inch of the way; you can have your character sack a village or slay some band of knights without involving us in the post, but if your intention is to topple a kingdom or conquer some major city then please do consult us. We reserve the right to throw a metaphorical monkey wrench into your operations, to keep things from getting complacent. You can't expect to rampage across the world with nothing ever going wrong, now can you?
Outremer, our setting and details thereof
Though sailors speak of queer and exotic lands beyond the seas, the scope of this RP is limited to the land of Outremer. It is a quite isolated (both geographically and politically) island of a size comparable to that of Great Britain. In present times Outremer is politically fractured into many realms of petty-kings and dukes, but was once unified under a single kingdom for many centuries following the Chernobog’s defeat. In those times of unity, the last of the great monsters and wyrms were hunted down and either vanquished or driven into the deepest lairs and hiding places, and his more organized and numerous followers like the ogres and goblins were diminished and driven into hiding if not extinction. There was a ‘common tongue’ universally spoken across Outremer and it is the root of all modern languages, though the centuries have of course bastardized certain regional dialects to the point that they have grown very distinct, and are oft only barely intelligible by speakers of other heavily changed dialects.
Despite its small size, the island’s climate is quite varied. Though much of the coastline remains temperate, the placement of mountain ranges has created an arid region in the south and a cold highland in the north.
The land has been mostly tamed, with true wilderness being the exception rather than the norm throughout much of the island and most of the arable land being farmed. Only a few true wilds remain in some of the most rugged, inhospitable, and remote locations; in such places there might still be great beasts and maybe even some goblins or other wretched descendants of the forces that once served in the Chernobog’s vast hosts.
Geography
Marleon was the old Holy Kingdom’s capital; it remains a wealthy and large city and the seat of a powerful eponymous kingdom that encompasses the central plains of Outremer and all the pastures, farmlands, and little woods within. With its windswept plains and light hills, the kingdom is renowned for its many knightly orders and the great warhorses that they ride. Marleon has long seen the city of Arcos as an upstart rival, looking down on their politics, their tongue, their greed, and just about everything else. This boiled over into a war relatively recently, and that wasn’t the first. Though a truce was declared, there’s plenty of bad blood between the two states and it would not be hard to imagine the feeble peace breaking to give way to a renewed conflict.
Arcos, a merchant city on the eastern coast, is situated on both sides of the Fingers, a spur of land that is the delta of the mightiest river in Outremer. As befitting of such a location, Arcos is similarly the greatest port in Outremer, with a good harbor, massive shipyards, abundant fish in the nearby waters, and even a few trade ties with exotic lands across the sea. Trading in foreign spices and luxury goods has made Arcos the richest nation of Outremer and a strong rival to Marleon. The Arcosi are governed by merchant princes in a plutocratic oligarchy, with feudalism and serfdom having been largely replaced by a limited sort of democracy -- even the poorest inhabitants of the city of Arcos as well as the smaller coastal ports and towns under its dominion enjoy many benefits.
Paterdomus is the seat of a theocratic state whose holy warriors zealously guards the Howling Gap and the Firth of Fire from Arugothic warbands and raiders. In the past it has launched several ill-fated crusades against Arugoth itself, only to be broken by the savage orcs (who have an annoying tendency to set aside their countless quarrels and blood-feuds and band together every time a human army tries to finally wipe them out, at least long enough to drive the hated humans back). Though old allies of Marleon, in recent times relations between the two states have soured due to Paterdomus’ refusal to aid Marleon in its conflict against the Arcosi.
Portus Cruor is isolated, with no hinterland to sustain it. There’s also no overland road from it to any other place, but that’s just as well seeing as honest people have no business travelling there. The city is known as much for poverty and disease as it is for being a den to smugglers, slavers, pirates, and worse -- such trades are more or less the only industries save fishing that can bring wealth and sustenance to the port. It also has a reputation for lawlessness, but that’s not entirely fair; the governor, a former pirate they say, has enforcers on the streets that serve to keep at least an illusion of peace, usually managing to prevent the violence and worst of crimes from boiling over and consuming the streets. They will not hesitate to seize particularly problematic troublemakers and hang or flog them within the hour, without the need for any petty formalities like a trial.
Arugoth is orc country, a defensible vale home to some of the last and most prideful vestiges of the Chernobog’s dark horde. Orcs teem all across this land, untold thousands of them. Rather than grouping into small bands to dwell within secluded redoubts or hidden lairs, here they live openly in sprawling encampments, villages, and even fortresses. In the southeast nestled in the foothills of the Ashmont, they even occupy the foreboding Basalt Spire that was a bastion raised by the Chernobog himself -- a formidable and accursed place to be sure, even if the massive tower was shattered in the Dawn Times and remains half-ruined. But Arugoth is not a unified land or even a true realm, rather just the name of the vale that’s home to at least a dozen ever-shifting tribes, clans, and hordes of orcs that constantly feud with one another, only occasionally striking out elsewhere to raid the humans for greater wealth and glory.
Twenty Halls lies to the west of Marleon, stretching from the westernmost Ashmonts to the very end of the coastline. It is a land of thickly forested hills, swampy fens, wide clear lakes, and churning rocky fjords which grow stormier and more restless as one goes westward towards the open ocean. The people here are a crafty and hardened lot, skilful sailors and fishermen, grim warriors and fiery-tongued bards. Many of them live as tightly-knit clans, assembling in great wooden longhouses and mead halls. Legends say that originally there were twenty of these great families, which gave the land its name, but they have since grown and splintered into many more. Marauding trolls occasionally stalk the land, and tales of heroic champions setting out to slay the beasts are a popular subject of bardic songs and poems. Twenty Halls has long been insular, holding little contact with the inland kingdoms, and unscrupulous clans sometimes raid and abduct country folk to sell as slaves on the market.
Calesbail, the land of the Cales, is a rugged region of highlands and hills in the northwest of Outremer. The capital is more like a large town than a city, ringed by a crumbling stone wall. But the lands around are old and have many redoubts and motte-and-bailey forts, so invading Calesbail or sacking its hinterlands would not be a trifling task. The thin and rocky soil is poor for farming and so the locals mostly raise goats and sheep on the hills, and fish the rivers and coast. The Cales are a folk that have long suffered raids from the hands of both orcs out of Arugoth and the clans of Twenty Halls, so they have grown into a mistrustful, short-tempered, and martial folk. They tend to be tall, long-limbed, and of red or orange hair. Occasionally they trade with Paterdomus and more rarely Marleon, sending caravans by land through the Howling Gap.
The Ashmonts are the only true great mountain range in Outremer, and they are formidable not just for their size and bleak granite and basalt cliffs, but also for their occasional volcanic activity in the northeastern parts, especially by the sea. This mountain range shelters the vale of Arugoth and is what has allowed the orcs to reign there for so long, but it also traps them as Paterdomus guards the southern side of the mountain chain and nearly all of the passes there, from the humblest trails to the great Howling Gap. Still, there are some trails and secretive tunnels that not even Paterdomus knows about, and clever warbands of orcs sometimes find a way to sneak through. The mountains that branch off to run along north of the Howling Gap and along the western side of Arugoth are smaller, less watched, more easily crossed, and are guarded by the Cales rather than the warriors of Paterdomus. Still, the orcs rarely bother crossing there as the pickings are not so good and when they do raid west, they usually prefer to go by ship and follow the coast.
The Firth of Fire is a deep but narrow and treacherous stretch of water that separates the northeastern Ashmonts by Arugoth from Paterdomus’ coastal lands. It’s named for the great deal of volcanic activity that can set the whole bay aglow, for the largest volcano in all of Outremer weeps magma right into the waters.
The Howling Gap is the largest, fastest, and most navigable pass through the Ashmonts. The southern end of the pass has been heavily fortified by Paterdomus with a massive garrisoned wall, called the Ashgate. Any human travelers can pass through if they pay a hefty toll, which goes towards paying for the armed patrols that go through the rest of the pass and mountains in an attempt to ward off any bands of marauding Arugothic orcs. The orcs have tried invading through the past, but they haven’t made another attempt in living memory, their last army having taken grievous losses after being rebuffed by Paterdomus and its Ashgate.
Stonetree Point is a cape renowned for having a great forest of petrified trees, some of them still standing and others buried beneath volcanic ash from long ago. The area is claimed and controlled by Paterdomus.
The Gulf of Pumice is named for the queer volcanic stone that always floats through its waters, sometimes in chunks large enough to be rafts or even floating islands. Occasionally Arugothic orcs have been known to try sailing through those waters as they’re far less treacherous than the Firth of Fire, but both Arcos and Paterdomus have patrolling fleets that prowl in search of orcs and pirates.
The Broken Isles are for the most part just bleak and dreary chunks of grey and black stone that jut out from the Gulf of Pumice, the remains of ancient volcanoes. A few of them still burn occasionally, but not nearly so much as the Ashmonts around the Firth of Fire. Pirate dens and orc holdfasts are known to frequently crop up on the isles until they eventually make enough of a nuisance of themselves to draw the wrath of the fleets of either Paterdomus or the Arcos, if not both.
Skull Island used to have a different name, but now is styled for the fate of all its human inhabitants whose severed heads were stacked into grisly pyramids. Once it was home to a moderately prosperous trading post as well as the most lucrative silver mine in all of Outremer. But in the chaos of the Holy Kingdom’s fall, the colony was overrun by bands of trolls that descended from lairs in the northern parts of the island, and perhaps also from the nearby Pine Island. The trolls now thrive in the ruins of the colony and have greatly grown in numbers, if the sailors’ tales are to be believed.
The Greatwood is by far the largest forest left in Outremer, and in the south where it starts to blend into the swamp of Cape Rot, the trees are so gnarled and ancient and dense that the land is nigh impassible. This stretch of land is some of the most untamed left in Outremer. What few human settlements exist owe only tenuous allegiance to the kingdom of Marleon, or in some cases to one of the clans of Twenty Halls.
Bad Teeth is a southern stronghold of orcs, though the ones in this settlement have degenerated and grown smaller and weaker (albeit no less savage, and perhaps even more cunning) than their distant kin in Arugoth. The goblins, as this particular breed of orcs are sometimes called, dwell alarmingly close to Portus Cruor, but there is enough swampland and dense forest between to keep the two somewhat insulated from the filth of one another, and that combined with the two settlements both being quite defensible seems to prevent much in the way of fighting or raiding. It’s hard to say where the name Bad Teeth comes from; however, there are a few good possibilities. The settlement is mostly subterranean, and superficially the hollowed hills are a bit pointy and so could be said to be ‘Bad Teeth’. Perhaps more likely is that the name is a jape about the prevalence of scurvy, a disease that plagues the denizens of this place as much as the pirates of Portus Cruor and certainly leaves its victims with rotted teeth. In any case, several thousand inhabitants dwell inside Bad Teeth, perhaps not just goblins swarming out like ants from a mound, but also (if the rumors are true) some humans so reviled that they were driven out of Portus Cruor.
Cape Rot is a treacherous and low-lying marshland by the sea, with snakes, poisonous plants, and the occasional swamp troll, all of which seem to work in concert to try and kill any man that sets foot there. For this reason it’s almost entirely uninhabited, save for Portus Cruor in the south and Bad Teeth in the north where the swampland starts to become more solid and give way to the thickest parts of the Greatwood.
The Crannoglands are another large swamp similar to Cape Rot, though this place is tamer and more uniformly settled by people that live on stilted or floating homes.
Goldport is a city that currently is controlled by Marleon, who wrested it from Arcos at the end of their most recent war. Arcos, Portus Cruor, and Marleon have all fought over it in the past due to its strategic position, the wealth that its harbor commands, and the goldmines it controls in the hills upriver.
The Fell Peoples
While the hosts of Chernobog teemed with many beings strange and terrible, their backbone were the monstrous, inhuman races that became known as the Fell Peoples. Orcs, ogres and trolls once swept the land in thronging hordes, revelling in the slaughter and destruction they sowed. No one knows for certain where they came from, and myths and rumours abound about their origins. Some believe that they were once men twisted and transformed by the dark one through torment and mutilation, others that they were raised from the soil with enchantments, others yet that they were bred in the depths of the earth from still fouler things. Whatever the truth might be, it is certain that only Chernobog and his scions held the knowledge of bringing them forth in great numbers, for since the disappearance of their masters they have dwindled to a shadow of their former might.
A rowdy and fractious kind, the Fell Peoples were only ever united under the banner of the Black God. When he was vanquished, their many warbands and tribes fell into disorder and took to fighting each other as much as the forces of men. This left them easy prey for the victorious armies of the Holy Kingdom, and their remnants were scattered and hunted down to the ends of Outremer. Now few of them remain, skulking in the most remote and untamed corners of the land and only occasionally making a nuisance of themselves. Though some rare places, such as Arugoth and Bad Teeth, house more sizable holdouts, they by and large remain incapable of organizing anything more than sporadic raiding parties, and are only kept safe by the imperviousness of their lairs.
The most numerous and cunning of the Fell Peoples, orcs are likewise much more similar to men than the hulking trolls and ogres. Hunched, robust, with bestial eyes, fanged mouths and flat, snout-like noses, they are as hardy as they are hideous, able to march for days and eke out a living in the most unwelcoming of places. It is thought that Chernobog moulded them to be warriors from birth, and the spark of strife burns through everything they do. Their societies tend to be belligerent and tribalistic, rarely more complex than a loose alliance of warbands, and their cultures revolve around conflict and supremacy through force; this treachery and quarrelous nature means that their leaders usually have short reigns. That is not to say that orcs are mindless brutes, for they have shown themselves capable of adopting crafts such as metalsmithing, and are capable of devising deceptively elaborate battle-plans. What they lack, however, is loyalty and stability, and without a powerful leader to create such things by dominating them, maintaining discipline, and whipping them into shape, they are unlikely to accomplish much.
Among the foul breeds, trolls are known to be the furthest removed from mankind in appearance. Their craggy hides have been compared to rock and tree bark, not only for their grey and corrugated looks but also for their sturdiness. It takes a warrior of extraordinary strength to harm a troll, unless striking at the scaly underside of their throats and huge misshapen heads. Anyone who has faced one of the beasts in combat will advise to swiftly aim for such a deadly blow, for a troll’s long arms and club-like fists make it a terrible foe more than capable of smashing bones through the thickest of armour. Trolls are never troubled by infection or disease, are sometimes capable of even regenerating lost limbs, and can live almost forever if not met with some violent end. Fortunately, trolls are now far rarer than orcs, and much more difficult to coerce into working as a large force. Left to their own devices, they are fiercely territorial, living alone or in small groups and often staking out a claim to some wildland lair and slaying and devouring any who approach. Trolls covet precious objects, especially gold and silver, and will often seek to steal them or even take them as bribes; the older and more complacent of them may sometimes content themselves with demanding tribute from the travellers they ambush, giving rise to tales of bridge-trolls in lawless hinterlands. A clever scion could certainly make use of that avarice to sway trolls to his cause.
Prodigiously large and strong, but infamously irascible and dim-witted, ogres were dreaded by the armies of man in the age when the Fell Peoples took to the battlefield. Nothing seemed to be able to stop these towering brutes on the charge, and when their masters wished for a fort to be taken in haste they were known to batter down its gates with the force of their fists. Though ogres are sloth and gluttonous and lack the endurance of marching orcs or the toughness of trolls, they can move surprisingly fast in short bursts and have a terrible strength when provoked or driven into battle. On its own, an ogre is certainly a fearsome threat, yet they are dim-witted and lumbering beasts that often lack the patience to come up with a plan more elaborate than rampaging across everything in sight, which makes them easily contained nuisances for a well-armed force when they leave their dens. The ogres are well aware of this fact and often claim to hate “tricky” orcs and humans; however, they strangely also feel a natural urge to follow and obey those cleverer than themselves, a trait that makes them easily manipulated by any that can survive long enough to figure out how to communicate with them. Ogres have grown more and more rare across Outremer, to the point that they are almost never seen outside of the craggy Ashmonts and Arugoth. Rumours say that the orcs dwelling in that place have enslaved some of them as labourers and battle thralls. For all their wrath and sloth and gluttony, a scion might find ogres surprisingly agreeable and persuadable; it’s just their nature to serve.
Magic
True magic is an elusive power in this world, difficult to wield and always coming at a cost: be that in the form of time, rare reagents, sacrificial blood, some mix of the three, or more. Magic is like fire, useful yet dangerous, only an order of magnitude harder to control or predict than mere flames. In general the usage of magic is too laborious to be of much use in combat, as extensive preparations must go into any ritual that hopes to channel potent magic.
Much of the humans’ lore and understanding of the arcane has faded over the years. Still, there are doubtless some old traditions that have still existed; the clergy, especially those of Paterdomus, would be most likely to know such secrets. More sinister woods witches and heretical warlocks might also exist, though for every true one that deserved his fate there’s probably a dozen falsely accused that end up on the gibbet or burnt at the stake.
If ever the fell folk wielded such powers, they have forgotten how. Ancient scions and rogue beings certainly might remember the ways, though.
From the old myths come tales of magic being used for a great variety of things, from speaking to spirits to reanimating the dead, from twisting the flesh of mundane creatures to summoning things from nightmarish realms beyond mortal understanding.
This will certainly be more of a soft magic system, without rigid overarching rules or much of an explanation for how magic functions or comes into existence. Besides being thematically appropriate that magic be strange and poorly understood, this works best in a collaborative story setting because it enables many forms of magic to exist without precluding or contradicting one another. As magic can come in various flavors, as alluded above, one sorcerer shouldn’t necessarily be able to do what another one can; nonetheless, I would like for you to at least have in mind what the general limitations of your specific character’s magical powers are, if they have any.
As a general rule, things like time travel or use of alchemy to create gunpowder and bombs are not going to be allowed because they are too extreme and not conducive to the sort of theme that we are going for. There’s also a fine line with things like demon summoning and necromancy, too -- those types of magic are alluded to and certainly allowed, but try not to overdo it to the point that you’re overrunning the world in a matter of days. Once again, magic is meant to be somewhat slow and laborious, limited in its potency rather than an all-encompassing, insurmountable, and overbearing force. If you are in doubt as to whether something is permissible, by all means ask.
Technology Level and Culture
There was once a single, unified realm of man that ruled almost all of Outremer, founded in the dawn of days and ruled by a line of kings descended from one great general that had been crowned by the Exalted One himself. But change comes -- men grew more numerous, bronze gave way to steel, and nothing lasts forever. Although this so-called Holy Kingdom lasted for a hundred lifetimes, the line of kings was eventually broken and the realm fell into civil war and splintered apart into many divided states. That happened centuries ago, so there has been ample time for new national identities to grow between the various states, and for grudges and alliances to have formed and shifted even as language and religion and nearly all aspects of the various societies slowly drifted apart.
Outremer now stands technologically and culturally similar to Europe as it was in the Late Date Ages and Early Medieval time periods; perhaps on par with Earth as it was around the ninth or tenth century.
Though men learned the secrets of working iron and steel a long time ago, and now even the savage orcs have had enough time to master such crafts, good steel remains expensive and skilled smiths are a precious commodity. Most common warriors would be levied peasants with poor arms and equipment. Men-at-arms that make a profession of killing might own mail and helmet and perhaps even a sword, but most common warriors would fight with furs, leather, or padded cloth for armor and for weapons bring spear, axe, or hammer. For the most part only knights and lords can afford to go into battle fully clad in breastplate, greaves, and the like.
Serfdom and/or chattel slavery are nearly universal institutions across the land, though different cultures may of course have very different rules and expectations for such practices.
Though the Old Common tongue of the Holy Kingdom has given way to numerous bastard languages that emerged from local dialects, there are enough similarities for at least some level of understanding; sailors, caravaneers, and the like can usually communicate through one another through the “trade tongue,” using gestures, basic expressions, and what common words remain widely recognizable. Clergy, scholars, and well-educated nobles might remain well enough versed in the Old Common to communicate more easily in that way.
On the other hand, the various tribes and clans of orcs and other dark creatures speak many different tongues and usually cannot understand each other very easily at all -- violence is the closest thing they’ve retained as a universal language in their centuries of chaos and division. In bygone days Chernobog and his lieutenants issued their commands using a sorcerous speech of power which had the virtue of being intelligible to them all, but that knowledge has since been lost and only some vestiges remain in fragmented inscriptions and some ancient names. Perhaps some of the Chernobog’s scions would still remember this language though, and if so, it could be quite advantageous were the scion to try rallying numerous bands of fell folk together.
The Exalted One, or Exalted, or White God, is a warrior god of honor and justice that is worshiped by the humans of Outremer. There are different sects that differ in the finer details of doctrine, but nonetheless worship of the Exalted God was the state religion of the Holy Kingdom and it remains such for all of the successor states that have splintered off. Some major dogmas that are shared by almost all practitioners are as follows:
The Black God (whose name -- Chernobog -- is never to be uttered) is almost universally reviled as a sort of devil or dark god, and is blamed as being the source of disease, earthquakes, storms, and almost all maladies and disasters and ills that befall the world, and a few would go so far as to say that he’s even the cause of death and that men were immortal in the earliest of days. How much of this is actually true is hard to say.
The color white is sacred due to association with the Exalted One, and wearing it is a privilege restricted to knights and clergymen. Some cultures similarly associate the color black with evil, curses, or misfortune.
Clergymen and well-educated people still read and write in the Old Common tongue of the Holy Kingdom, as the holy scriptures remain written in that language.
The Exalted One is definitely gone, no longer walking the land of Outremer in tangible form as he did in the Dawn Days when he led the war against the Chernobog. Exactly why or where he went is surprisingly an uncertain topic and one at the fiery heart of much of the schism between the different sects of his worshipers: most seem to think that he’s ascended back to his heavenly plane above, and that he still watches down upon Outremer, hears prayers, and occasionally grants divine intervention.
The Exalted One supposedly has an actual name, but only the most devout and high-ranking of clergy are permitted to know it. Some say that they’ve forgotten it, or never knew in the first place.
Some of the fell folk (as well as some particularly vile and heretical humans, witches and warlocks and the like) still remember the Chernobog, and maybe even some of the scions that were his demigod children, and sacrifice to them. To many though, the Dark Lord is just a legend and one that they don’t treat with much reverence. Others have forgotten entirely.
Credits and References
Big thanks to my Co-GM @Oraculum for helping me to write out this OOC and for always being there to bounce ideas.
This comes as a continuation of sorts of some old RPs based upon a computer game called Dungeon Keepers. Over 10 years ago the first of them started on the now-defunct Spore Forums, and afterward @Lugubrious@BBeast and myself brought them to the Oldguild and then here. I would like to give my thanks to them for their help way back then, and to them as well as everyone who joined for the fun memories of those RPs. This is the most recent of those old RPs, and this was a spinoff that I made later.
The cool picture was artwork commissioned by a friend of mine who is working on making a new computer game with a theme very similar to this RP. So thanks to him for letting me use his picture, and if you’re interested in his thing then you can check out his Discord server here.
Identity: What the character is known as. Can include names, titles, nicknames, kennings and more.
Type: Scion or rogue being?
Myth: Describe what is notable about your character in the form of a brief narrative. This would include their history (or maybe just speculation about it), distinctive features of appearance and personality, and remarkable abilities they may have, as well as anything else you feel should be mentioned. It doesn’t have to take the form of dialogue or a full story scene, but it can if you so prefer. Just remember to keep it fairly short - there’s no need to overdo this part.
Hopefully the OOC will not be too much longer. I think there's a good chance we have it up before the weekend. Oraculum and I have been ironing it out, and I also have been trying to throw together a map of Outremer for us. I'm not very good at Photoshop and this is just a crude WIP, but I'll post my rough WIP as a teaser.
The all-caps, bolded, big places are major settlements/kingdoms. There's some smaller named ones, a few unnamed ones, and doubtless the vacant areas for the most part would have tons of little villages and hamlets that would be too unimportant to put on the map. Maybe the names give a hint of what to expect for each area; I think I'll write a few sentences about each named area so there's still plenty of leeway and room to flesh more out as we go along, whilst still having some foundation for the worldbuilding to pick up from and so that eveyrone can have a better idea of where they'd want to start their characters.
I think that in the end it will have at least three more major settlement areas (one in the northwest, one near the south of the Howling Gap, and one on the east coast near where the land looks like fingers. That spot's supposed to be a river delta. Don't worry, I'll add rivers and some sort of varied terrain to fill in the empty flat spots.
Another question, but seeing how there might be alternate dimensions, is it possible to summon something more powerful than a scion or even Chernobog himself?
I'll answer this with the patented Maybe™
For an individual participant to just casually have a post where they summon something of literal godlike power would of course be too much, but perhaps at some point I'll start putting together some larger plot where such an event could occur. I think that this would furthermore have to be the culmination of a long and wide-reaching plot, as befits something of such an epic magnitude.
...there are ways to use foul magic to twist and corrupt life to make new breeds of monstrous creatures, ways to raise the dead, ways to conjure demons and monsters from other realms.
Does anybody have any intentions or plans to have a post that directly features Eagoth? I've been thinking about eventually having one where Faustus goes to speak with him (this would be a while down the line for sure, as Faustus is slated to stop by Comiriom on his way to Necron and get engaged in this gem plotline with Ghural first, and then that probably will embroil him in more posts between Rixis' minion and the elf rebels depending upon what happens to the gem).
But after this gem plotline is resolved, or maybe as a part of it, I think it might be neat for Faustus to see Eagoth. Unless group consensus is that we want to leave him as a more enigmatic figure that's never directly shown?
Glad to see some more new faces, and my old pal Vec! Welcome all.
I think I see enough interest to justify getting this started, so over the next few days I'll get a Discord server going and then put together an OOC with expanded information, some sort of map of Outremer, etc. I'll try to be quick about that so that we hopefully don't lose too much momentum.
Interested. Would also be open to playing an antagonist on the side of the Exalted One.
Oraculum and I did briefly discuss what we'd say if somebody wanted to be a 'good guy'. I don't think we came to a hard enough conclusion to specifically make a rule, but both of us did somewhat oppose the idea because we're aiming for a certain theme and because we don't want to turn this into a factional sort of RP where half of the participants are on Team Exalted One and the other half Team Chernobog. Still, it's something I'd be willing to at least discuss with you a little later down the line. For now though I'll just say that if this were to happen, my preference would be you start with a scion or rogue being and then maybe later on you could introduce another character as an 'antagonist' as you suggest.
In the dawn of days, there was a great war of godly scale that shook the whole of Outremer. On one side there fought the forces of the untamed wilds, of chaos and evil: wyrms and krakens, giants and demons, warlocks and beasts of the moon, unspeakable and forgotten things. All of these monsters, great and small, bowed at the feet of Chernobog, the Black God. He inhaled courage and breathed out despair, devoured hope and begat only strife and misery, for his wont was nothing less than the complete destruction of mankind and ruination of the world.
To oppose him there were men. Brave and strong men, with bronze in their hands and the White God ever at their head and in their hearts. Aye, in those days the Exalted walked amongst men, and so it was that good triumphed over evil -- but barely, and with great cost. The Chernobog’s evil was rooted too deep in the world for him to be truly killed, so his body was hacked into at least a dozen pieces that were strewn across Outremer in the darkest of hidest places. Even still, the Black God’s memory and his corruption persist.
The name Chernobog is now all but forgotten by all save the most insidious of heretics and witches, being so profane that its very utterance is forbidden, just as the Exalted’s own name is too sacred for any but the most devout of priests to know. But legends still remind men of what their ancient enemy was, of all his crimes: as the Chernobog was at last smote down, he vowed eternal vengeance and threw a profane curse upon the land. His last rancid breath brought rot into the air and cursed the land with blights and diseases forevermore, and the rivers of his black blood rolled across the land and poisoned the Earth just as his hundred claws sank into her and grievously her, the hatred and thrumming of his heart he cast into the seas that it might ever stir storms. And he finally promised that one day, his own spawn, his greatest and most monstrous servants, and those mortals that lusted for his power would rise; that they would come as maggots to rot, and so complete his foul legacy.
And you are one of those that intend to fulfill this Black Prophecy.
RP Purpose and Mechanics
This RP flouts the usual tradition of stories where we see from the point of view of the good guys. Here we have an RP where instead of the questing knight, the humble peasant turned hero, or the wizened wizard, you are some fell warlord, monstrous beast, or other dark power. Your characters might only aspire to have a small realm and bastion of their own or they might seek nothing less than the utter annihilation of mankind; they might be willing to tolerate or even ally with the other various scions and rogue beings, or they might want to cast down all their bastard siblings and reign uncontested as the second Chernobog. That’s all up to you.
As the introduction alludes to, there are two general roles that you might fulfill: that of a scion of the old Chernobog, or that of some sort of rogue being. You may have one character of each type if you’d like; however, if you do that then as a general rule your rogue being should not align with or serve your scion. The point of having one of each would be to allow you to interact with more people and more characters, and having both your rogue being and scion together all the time defeats the purpose of that.
Scions would be the most innately powerful of the two categories, their nature as the Chernobog’s spawn making them something like demigods. They would more like than not be remembered in some form in the legends of old, for they would have all served in the Chernobog’s armies and doubtless committed great crimes of their own, and for their part, they would have been slain or banished to some other plane or imprisoned by the Exalted One and his followers. Having only just now been resurrected or summoned or broken free as the case may be, a scion will be returning to a somewhat unfamiliar world where steel has replaced bronze and the men are much more numerous than they once were, even as the savage beings and monsters have diminished. Still, a scion should be able to use their dark powers to raise a new army easily enough. Perhaps the pitiful remnants of the Chernobog’s old horde could be rallied, or some of the weak-willed humans subjugated by sword or by poisoned word and manipulation. And failing that, there are ways to use foul magic to twist and corrupt life to make new breeds of monstrous creatures, ways to raise the dead, ways to conjure demons and monsters from other realms. A true heir of Chernobog would find a way.
Not all lords have their throne by birthright, just as not all scions need draw their powers through the Chernobog’s blood coursing in their veins. It would perhaps be possible for a mere mortal, through ambition or curiosity or some other compulsion, to ascend to the status of a scion. The most likely way for this to happen would be for the person to come across one of the Chernobog’s body parts and take in its power -- willingly or otherwise. This sort of scion would start off weaker with only nascent powers, but would have the advantage of greater familiarity with the world and perhaps they would even have an army or a realm to their names already by that point. How much of their own personality would persist after ascending (or being corrupted -- it’s all a matter of perspective) could vary, and would be up to you.
The second category is more broad and flexible. Rogue beings could take many forms and vary quite greatly in power level -- anything from an ancient vampire to a dragon can fall under the realm of possibility. And while a rogue being could be some ancient monster that’s been around since the dawn of time and served under the Chernobog, it could also just be some humble orcish chieftain or some evil-hearted human sorcerer. While rogue beings can be powerful, their magical might is not so great as that of the scions. It would be harder for them to bring down the realms of men by themselves, to raise an army, or to carve out an empire of their own. For those reasons a rogue being might do well to align with a scion for protection and mutual benefit, but some might choose to stay rogue -- the path is yours to choose.
This would be a mostly sandbox-style RP where we give all participants a lot of leeway to worldbuild and fill in the empty spaces on the map, either by canonizing smaller settlements and such or expanding upon the nature of larger ones. We GMs do not need to control the human opposition along every inch of the way; you can have your character sack a village or slay some band of knights without involving us in the post, but if your intention is to topple a kingdom or conquer some major city then please do consult us. We reserve the right to throw a metaphorical monkey wrench into your operations, to keep things from getting complacent. You can't expect to rampage across the world with nothing ever going wrong, now can you?
Outremer
Though sailors speak of queer and exotic lands beyond the seas, the scope of this RP is limited to the land of Outremer. It is a quite isolated (both geographically and politically) island of a size comparable to that of Great Britain. In present times Outremer is politically fractured into many realms of petty-kings and dukes, but was once unified under a single kingdom for many centuries following the Chernobog’s defeat. In those times of unity, the last of the great monsters and wyrms were hunted down and either vanquished or driven into the deepest lairs and hiding places, and his more organized and numerous followers like the ogres and goblins were diminished and driven into hiding if not extinction. There was a ‘common tongue’ universally spoken across Outremer and it is the root of all modern languages, though the centuries have of course bastardized certain regional dialects to the point that they have grown very distinct, and are oft only barely intelligible by speakers of other heavily changed dialects.
Despite its small size, the island’s climate is quite varied. Though much of the coastline remains temperate, the placement of mountain ranges has created an arid region in the south and a cold highland in the north.
The land has been mostly tamed, with true wilderness being the exception rather than the norm throughout much of the island and most of the arable land being farmed. Only a few true wilds remain in some of the most rugged, inhospitable, and remote locations; in such places there might still be great beasts and maybe even some goblins or other wretched descendants of the forces that once served in the Chernobog’s vast hosts.
Credits and References
This would be a continuation of sorts of some old RPs based upon a computer game called Dungeon Keepers. Over 10 years ago the first of them started on the now-defunct Spore Forums, and afterward @Lugubrious@BBeast and myself brought them to the Oldguild and then here. This is the most recent of those old RPs, and this was a spinoff that I made later.
The cool picture at the very top was artwork commissioned by a friend of mine who is developing a new computer game with a theme very similar to this RP, or the old Dungeon Keeper games from the 90s. So thanks to him for letting me use his picture, and if you’d be interested in seeing his project and following its progress then you can check out his Discord server here.
Interested in Joining?
Invested enough to join an RP like this? Great! Let us (myself and @Oraculum will be the GMs) know by posting here. If this interest check can garner substantial interest, an OOC thread will follow and expand upon this; after that, we would be creating a Discord server for this and inviting those who want to apply, in order to discuss their early plans for characters and plots. This would be as much to hopefully see that everyone is ready to get active once the IC begins (rather than hitting the early block of not knowing what to start with and never posting) as it would be to ensure character ideas and the applicants’ writing skill/commitment level seem to be where we’d like them to be.
Back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, I got started with writing online on the Spore forums. Man, those were the days. We're talking like 12 years ago!
I've been here on and off for almost as long, and have GM'd a bunch of different things to varying success.
Discord: VMS#8777
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">Back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, I got started with writing online on the Spore forums. Man, those were the days. We're talking like 12 years ago!<br><br>I've been here on and off for almost as long, and have GM'd a bunch of different things to varying success.<br><br>Discord: VMS#8777</div>
Member
LokiLeo789
NoriWasHere
Lord Zee
Crispy Octopus
DracoLunaris
Vec
Timemaster
CFProxy
