Pantheon Part 4

Shadowthrone - The Knife
Domain:  The Umbra Resedinta

  Shadowthrone is the god of shadow and darkens.  He is accepted to be possibly the youngest of all the new gods in Quake.  At the very least he has made himself know only within the past 6 years.  Cults of shadow have popped up all over the surface of quake within the confusion and chaos that The War of the Races has provided.  Shaodwthrone admires a secret killer, a cheat, a liar, and a thief.  Most assassins and thieves pay him tribute although all fear him.  Within his domain is another being known as The Rode.  This man is Shadowthrone's right hand and is thought to be an ascended demigod of the once secret leader of the Claw.  Either way The Rode now does most of Shadowthrone's bidding within the mortal realm.  On Shadowthrone's left hand is The Maw.  This is a legion of hounds of shadow that hunt and fight for Shadow throne.  Only one hound is enough to fight ten trained soldiers and most believe that Shadowthrone can birth them from the fabric of his warren itself.  Although the Shade and Shadarki are both from the Shadowlands themselves they are not controlled nor where they created by Shadowthrone himself.  The origin of those races and where the portals of the Shadowlands take you is still very much so a mystery.  Shadowthrone strikes fear into the hearts of all in Quake.  He is lord of what is unseen and the living embodiment of the hidden blade. 

Pantheon Part 3

Hood - The Judge
Domain:  The Gates

    Hood is the universally respected god in all of Quake.  He was the first to ascend and his origin is unknown.  He is the ascendent that guards the gates of passage from life into death.  Hood is the god that the normal man swears by.  It is said that Hood's breath stalks each mortal and looks for its chance to whisk them away to the gates.  Few love Hood but all respect his presence.  His place is on the battlefield as he stalks the mortally wounded, and escorts souls to the gates.  He is the judge and propels men to their eternal destinations.  He is known to be emotionless and unbiased.  Each year there is a celebration of Hood in the city of Pail where the priests of Hood coat themselves in the blood of sacrificed animals and wonder about the city to remind the world that Hood waits for us all.  Many assassins pay him tribute and soldiers pray to him before battle.  Wives of soldiers and widows curse him. Rulers and kings respect him.  He is the one God that all must meet at one point provided they do not escape death through ascension.  Each mortal only hopes that he has not cursed Hood so much that he is dissatisfied with their soul approaching Hood's Gates.    

Letters From the Story Keeper

Softly, softly! Let's be silent!
    graves are growing here.
They were sown by our tormentors,
    green they grow fair.
Toward Ponary run roads aplenty,
    from Ponary not one.
Father's disappeared,
    and with him all our joy is gone.
             -Anonymous writer, found on the hills outside Barlon


    To help set background for our story we must first give background for our many characters.  These Bridgeburners that we will be following around came from horrific backgrounds themselves.  Each has a story that we will not go into today that started well before they knew each other or fought together.  The story I would like to tell is the story of their fist mission together.  Before they were know as Whiskey Jack's crew and before they tore the shifter citadel of Lep'hist down from the inside out they were sent to a small town along the northern shore of Lake Still named Barlon.
    The crashing of the waves, the glaring sun reflecting off the lake, the smell and taste of iron in the air, and the burning scent that can only be created form the mixing of bile, smoke, and smouldering flesh.  Whiskey Jack and his crew step down the hills that slope down to Lake Sill and Barlon.  Each man has seen his fair share of dead soldiers and blood stained battlefields but nothing compares with the sight of innocent blood spread by an out of control warren.  The power that came down upon this place still pulsates and gives headaches to them as they approach.  Men and woman's bodes have been crushed in on top of themselves.  Whatever happened here should never have been seen by mortal eyes.  The finger print of arcane power is clearly seen by the groves and scorch marks that where cut into the ground all about the fishing village.  But that was all after the attack.  The shifters that came in here did their job first, before one of them lost control.  Woman lay in the street.  Most of them raped and then strangled to death by the internals of the men gutted beside them.  Children and babies were strung up with large fishing hooks through the back of the head and left to hang and die on the sides of homes.  As they step into the streets of the town the power that the ground is till giving off tastes like sulfur and cinnamon in some sort of sick blend.  It burns the eyes and mouth.  Men have their skulls bashed in and women's faces are torn off by shifter claws.  The waves splash in red puddles along the shore.  War is nothing like it was supposed to be.  Few ever said that a man releases his bows when he dies.  Or that woman’s faces would still look of terror and screams even hours after death.  Nothing looks peaceful in slaughter.
    Up ahead is a man.  He is nailed to a wall by his hands, arms, feet, and knees.  He has no eyes, no tongue, no genitals, and no lower jaw.  Blood oozes from his wounds and his face is nothing but hanging bits of flesh.  Still he draws shallow breaths.  There is nothing you can do for him.  None of you can bring yourself to even kill him.  At times it is better to let a man just hang there and die in his own time.
    The center of town is covered in ash.  This is where the wizard lost control of his warren.   Even the ground has been burnt up here.  Rocks have been liked up by flames.  Hood's cursed breath smiles down on this place.  This is where he resides.  In the red waves.  This is the face of war in this wicked and godless world.  The worst part about it for each of them is that it is all to horrible to bring tears to their eyes or a desire for revenge.  They just wish it would all stop.


                                                                                                       -The Story Keeper

Pantheon part 2

Pathiel - The Guardian
Domain:  The Lost Forest

    Pathiel is one of the few God's that seems to play a major rule in the lives of the moral races.  It is believed that The Guardian is the ascended Wicken shaman Nether who was killed in battle and has yet to be reincarnated as a Wicken youth.  Pathiel has ascended and left behind all sense of gender, past memories, sense of person, and nearly all of his physical form.  It is commonly known that more then twenty great spirits rule under Pathiel and strive to keep peace between the mortal realm, the animal kingdom, and the fury of the most powerful elemental warrens.  He is responsible for the creation of the Elentas that are recognized around quake by their partial elemental nature.  Few if anyone in the mortal realm knows why Pathiel has allowed the creation of the Elentas but it is widely believed that they are a product of a treaty between Pathiel and the fabric of the elemental warrens themselves.  Pathiel has been seen wandering the open spaces of Quake as a mighty horse, a great hunting hound, or as a giant raven.  He is attributed with the bringing of crops in season, balance, the nomadic life, and communal living.
    The vast majority of Pahtiel's worshipers are the Wicken tribes of the great plains.  These nomadic (some would say barbaric) groups move from place to place in the great plain along Quake's south western border.  They are a unified force that few Quake armies would pick a fight with although they are split up into several tribes.  The Dog clan, Crow clan, and Crab clan are the most known clans although more then fifteen different clans exist.  Inside each clan also exists the cult of the boar.  These Wicken's do not worship or pay tribute to Pahiel but to one of his great spirits named Ostiel.  Ostiel is a renegade spirit that seeks ascension himself.  Although the boar cult is not honorable it is tolerated inside each other Wicken tribe. 
    Pathiel brings power to most all primal powered characters.  If they do not draw power from his warren directly then they most likely draw their power from one of the warrens that one of his great spirits protect.

Pantheon

Elrona - Goddess of Light
Domain:  The Abode

    Elrona is the goddess that plays the least of a role in the lives of the mortal races.  Most of her participation with the world has been through her Deva servants.  She is responsible for the casting down of the Ban.  The Deva's now only appear in the mortal realm to keep various demonic forces at bay.  It is believed the Elrona was a high priestess in the "order of the soul".  The order of the soul was a group of religious pacifists that lived in monasteries and studied the nature of light and darkness.  A high priestess named Hellena Oloran mysteriously disappeared during a decade long pilgrimage about the same time that it is believed Elrona took her seat in the Abode.  Because Elrona has so little involvement in the mortal realms and her devas know nothing about her previous life.  The rummer about Hellena is at best shrouded in unreliable ideals. 

Character Creation

Ok so here is a heads up for character creation for the game.  This will just give you all a good idea on what you are supposed to do so you can start coming up with ideas.  Please keep in mind that it does not bother me as a DM to make things up.

First off there are two new races and a new class.  The races are the Half Vampire and the Ban.  I will post both of them very soon.  The class will only be created if someone wants to be it.  The class is the soul knife and it is a psyonic striker.

Other basic rules for character creation is that we will be moving away from alignments in this game and towards honor.  You will have some sort of honor score that will have an effect on your character but you dont need to know all of that yet.  When making your character just skip the alignment because it does not matter.  I you are divine then really dive into your god that you choose (after i post them) and we will come up with a set of rules and conducts for you.  Basic races, races of shadow, the shifter, drow, genesi, and campaign created races are all on the table along with pretty much every class.  Let me know what you want to be before you create it and I will give you the OK.  No Dragonborn, shardmind, wilden, githyanki, or tiefling. That is about it for the statistic components of the game I think.  OH yea!  and no magic items.  We will be doing something with masterwork gear or gear made out of special materials but we will have very little involvement with magic items.  The art of crafting such items was mostly lost during the "dark years" (a span of time during the downfall of the brothers when magic was unpredictable and uncontrollable).

As for role playing.  There is a lot that you need to know.  If you have a character over the age of 35 or 40.  Which you all will be unless you can come up with a good reason why you are not then you will have to come up with some significant injury or injuries that you sustained during your time spent in the "dark years".  Because the dark years outlawed anything that had to do with arcane and divine magic and the nations were at war with the shifter and half vampire hordes they resorted to using a group called "cutters".  These people are non-powered medics that travel in large wagon hospitals behind the lines of battle.  They got their nickname due to the large number of limbs they have cut off.  Anyway you need to have an injury that you got during those years.  They can be as simple as scars that you have that are a rememberance of a sword that has come across your face or a mutulated back from torture.  You can be missing limbs, have gone blind, had your tongue cut out, or even run through with a spear.  I do not care what the injury is but you need to have one and have a story behind it.  You may have more than one but you must at least have one.  If you need feats to help you get around some glaring problem, like wielding a greatsword when you have no right hand, we will work something out. 

Other then that you must also write 4 horrific things that you have experienced throughout your life. They can be from childhood all the way up to current day.  They can be memories of loosing your family, friends, seeing the horror of the battlefield, being tortured, raped, or watching some twisted demonic ritual.  Whatever you choose you must dive into it.  I want to know what your character saw, tasted, felt, and could smell.  I want you to be as afraid of what happened to your character out of game as your character is in game. None of your characters will be invincible or without flaws.  The things that you have seen and the things that you have been forced to do have crippled you emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  Flashbacks, night terrors, and PTSD are likely a part of your life.

Other then that please follow the 10 min background posted bellow.

The Ten-Minute Background

Step 1: Write 5 background and concept elements that you feel are important to your image of the character. These can be a concept overview, a list of important life events, a physical description, a personality profile...whatever you need to get an image in your mind. 5 is just a minimum...more elements are encouraged!

Step 2: List at least two goals for the character. At least one of these goals should be one that the character has, while another should be one that you, as a player, want to see developed over the course of the game.

Step 3: List at least two secrets about your character. One is a secret the character knows, one is a secret that involves him but that he is not actually aware of yet. This will help me in creating plots that center around your character. I will also be creating a third secret which you as a player will not be aware of, so expect some surprises!

Step 4: Describe at least three people that are tied to the character. Two of them are friendly to the character, one is hostile. If you like, you can include an enemy of yours here as well, so I have an instant NPC nemesis to throw at you.

Step 5: Describe three memories, mannerisms, or quirks that your character has. They don't have to be elaborate, but they should provide some context and flavor.

You can email your background and character ideas to me at mark@newlifexn.org.  Please take time to love your character before we start playing.  I will be posting more soon.  I will be also posting one horrific memory that you have all experienced together as Bridge Burners.  Once we get basic caracter outlines done I will work on linking you all together and making you love and be devoted to each other as much as you are to yourselves. 

Hope this helps!