Recruiting: high scale Pathfinder, Taldor, aka Byzantium focused

Started by Kolbrandr, June 02, 2013, 03:46:12 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

kckolbe

That is a very interesting combo with a lot of potential.  I am greatly looking forward to the bio.
Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

Kolbrandr

Okay, as promised, a (relatively) brief timeline of relevant events.

So the current Golarion year by the calendar in main use is 4711, with the count being done off of when the god Aroden, the Last Azlanti, raised the Startstone that had smashed into it from the depths of the Inner Sea, created the island of Kortos and city of Absalom around it, and ascended to full godhood as year 0 (he was previously this badass immortal wizard sort of guy of many an epic doing. Sort of.. The Emperor of Man from 40k, if you want a rough and somewhat terrible analogy).

-5293: Earthfall. Aboleths being otherwise rocked by an Azlant they had helped uplift, back in the day, manage via group ritual to call down the Starstone to smash into the world, destroying Azlant and creating a variety of geological calamities that plunge Golarion into darkness from ashfall. Societies end, and the majority of the elves leave the planet for several thousand years (with two notable exceptions that are not super relevant to you, but make for an interesting story if someone ever wants to muck around with the elves of Golarion). The world languishes in suffering and misery for well onto a thousand years before even the glimmerings of civilization return.

-1281: Taldor is founded by the scions of Azlanti refugees and local to the area tribal humans.  Yes, this means Taldor is old as balls. The society is around 6,000 years old. What this means for you the player is that you have almost /six thousand years/ to mess around in as far as the history of anything you want to play with. Want your royal house to have had a Grand Prince in it? In six thousand years, I’m sure there can have been the one.

-43: Soldiers of the Padishah Empire of Kelesh claim and start to develop further the lands that will be known as Qadira, previously full of various tribes and nomads. From this an eventual terrible rivalry will be born and periodic warfare spark.

37: Taldor comes into its own as a fully developed nation and imperial power as it sends forth the first of its Armies of Exploration, a series of efforts to spread across, map and civilize (or depending on your perspective, subjugate) a still at least mostly barbarous Avistan (the Army of Exploration that goes to the continent of Garund ends in total failure). There are 7 of these across the next 2000 or so years, and all but the sixth see some measure of success, resulting in Taldor raising up vassal nations and otherwise coming to dominate most of the continent, with some exceptions (the upper north remains beyond their grasp more or less).

2632: The elves come back from parts unknown via their great portals, and reclaim their homeland of Kyonin. It’s not super relevant really other than for noting that the elves were gone for quite some time.

3203: Tar-Baphon, a wizard of notable evil and power who was killed by Aroden during his Aroden: the Legendary Journeys era returns to life as a lich of even more terrible power, and in the following years unites the orcs of the clanholds of Belkzen, and along with hordes and hordes of undead and monsters proceeds to spread terror and destruction across Avistan. And this might sound like standard dark fantasy overlord stuff, but the awesome thing about Tar-Baphon? He ultimately could not give a single fuck about conquering the world, his fanatically loyal followers, the undead worshipping philosophy he founds, any of it. It is all a means to a single obsessively hateful end: calling out Aroden to come back to the world for a rematch (the full gods ultimately restrain themselves from direct action on the world, usually, and it was long past when such shenanigans were tolerated for Aroden). The man is basically trying to burn the world to form the letters up to the heavens in continent scale fire and misery “come at me bro” or “Aroden, come out and play-ay” if you prefer. There’s something just almost ridiculously metal about that.
Anyway, this is relevant to note, because..

3754: Taldor launches the Shining Crusade against Tar-Baphon, the Whispering Tyrant. Taldor essentially is the vanguard of leading everyone and their mother that they can gather or rally in an effort to put down Tar-Baphon before he can ruin the world. It’s Taldor’s shining hour and finest moment, their big justification for having come into being (and something they obviously don’t shut up about at all in their fallen era, if given the excuse to brag). The fight against Tar-Baphon and reclaiming the lands under his dominion grinds on for 74 years of horrors, with even demigods falling to the lich. Eventually, where demigods and their ilk fail, it is a Taldan General, Arnisant, who gives his life to injure the lich so devastatingly, that they can imprison the Whispering Tyrant in his former citadel of Gallowspire, where he remains trapped to this day. Taldor founds the vassal state of Lastwall to stand watch over Gallowspire and the orcs of Belkzen. Arnisant has a big ol memorial in the city of Oppara. This is also something of Taldor’s last hurrah, as the decadence sets in not /that/ long after the end of the Shining Crusade.

4079: Qadira launches a massive invasion to conquer Taldor, coming across its southern border to begin some 500 odd years of brutal warfare (which I view as somewhat on and off and more on the scale of the way Rome and Parthia would brutalize each other across the years, but really, it’s fantasy, they had some 500 odd years of brutal back and forth warfare). Both sides afterwards will like to claim that they won, because reasons.

4082: Taking advantage of both Taldor’s increasing decadence and the distraction of the Qadiran invasion, the vassal nation of Cheliax declares independence, and over the next decade will move on to grab up a huge chunk of Taldor’s vassal states, becoming the dominant power of Avistan. (they’ll also grab even more territory in various places about 300 years later, but suffice to say, Cheliax becomes the new big empire of Avistan). Lastwall declares itself independent, noting that it can’t get involved one way or another, it needs to focus on its duty to contain Tar-Baphon and the orcs of Belkzen. No one from any side challenges this claim, because what are you going to do, take on the almost completely military nation who turn back endless orc hordes and various undead monsters as their day job? Good luck to you.

4528: Grand Prince Stavian I bans the worship of Sarenae in Taldor, largely to scapegoat something for Taldor’s tribulations. That it is the state faith of the nation trying to invade the hell out of them makes this pretty easy for people to accept, and Sarenae’s temples burn. The faith remains banned to this day.

4603: The period of hot war between Taldor and Qadira ends at last, settling into a mostly cold one. Both sides as noted claim victory because reasons. Neither really loses or gains any territory though.

4606: The date of Aroden’s prophesied return, when he will manifest in the world again to lead it to a golden age. Except that he doesn’t. He dies instead (how is unknown), breaking all prophecy in Golarion. Calamities galore ensue. Nations of the west coast of Garund drown from storms of impossible scale (storms wracking the Inner Sea region generally). Far to the north, the Worldwound opens, and the outpouring of demons necessitates the founding of Mendev by, well, the church of Iomedae really, and various anti demon crusades go down over the next decades that are a story for another time and not super relevant to you. A whole lot of bad shit goes down in this year, basically, and the most relevant to you is that Cheliax, who had been expecting to be the chosen land of Aroden to lead the world to glory, implodes on itself in a hell of multi sided civil war that goes back and forth for years.

4640: The chock full of diabolists house of Thrune seize control over Cheliax, ending the war. A great many of Cheliax’s vassal nations will decide “hey, I don’t feel like worshipping Asmodeus or being ruled by diabolists especially” and revolutions galore ensue over the coming years from Galt to Sargava. The only vassal states Cheliax manages to hold onto are Isger and Nidal, as far as it goes.

4667: The Red Revolution begins in Galt. Picture the French Revolution, but far bloodier, and where the dial gets stuck on Reign of Terror permanently. Galt doesn’t so much become an independent nation as a chaotic hell of governments that hang on for so long over a bloodthirsty mob before getting killed off and replaced.

4669: The People’s Revolution begins in Andoran with tiaras and rainbows and unicorns and Princess Celestia herself rolls in to tell us how Friendship is Magic (I really will stop sometime, I promise). Andoran becomes the independent nation of Andoran, home to freedom and light and Democracy Bear, the new leader of the Care bears (really, I will totally super stop, I mean it!).

8 months before campaign start: In the process of preventing her coup against the imperial throne, Grand Duke Maxentian Branas kills the Taldan Imperial Princess Eutropia. The ensuing political fallout and controversy results in his eventual exile, with some details of the coup itself seeming to be kept back from the general populace. This isn’t some canonical thing, this is my “removing an easy escape from a potential down the road succession crisis before game start” bit.

4711: Now. Grand Prince Stavian III has neither remarried to produce more children, nor yet named some heir. Though certainly still healthy, a tension has begun to rise from this. The Senate vigorously and ongoingly debates invasions of Qadira or Galt or doing in fact neither because who wants the mess of any of that. Game start.





Kolbrandr

Changed the title to Recruiting, because, well, obviously interest is totally established. Hrm, or maybe planning or something like that.

kckolbe

Wow.  Quick question about the coup.  Was the princess attempting an overthrow that House Branas stopped?  If so, why was he exiled?  Also, who else was involved in the coup attempt?

EDIT:  Also, is House Tarton cleared for wikia addition?
Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

Kolbrandr

House Tarton are fine for wikia addition, and from the Branas writeup, on the coup:

Quote


It is that reserved strength and traditionalism that gave them the ability to loyally support a series of increasingly dissolute Grand Princes, an iron (some might say blind) loyalty to the throne letting them support policies that might have otherwise stuck in the craw. It is somehow that self same loyalty that lead House Branas into one of Taldor’s more stinging recent controversies. The previous Grand Duke, Maxentian, had uncovered a conspiracy to seize the throne stemming from Princess Eutropia herself, in a bid to circumvent the primogeniture of the throne that would have shaken Taldan society. His manner of foiling it culminated in the death of the Princess herself at his hands. Betrayal or no, Eutropia was Stavian’s daughter and he was furious. More pointedly, she was his chance to ensure a smooth succession that continued the presence of his line on the throne in some way through marriage.

The Grand Duke’s enemies in the Senate leaped at the opportunity to turn a victory into a crime, painting the handling as bungled and impugning the threat having been wildly exaggerated, the proof of it somehow dubious. The Grand Duke’s supporters were outraged at such vile treatment to a man who had saved Taldor itself. What Maxentian would do next is debated for motivation. For some, it was the noble sacrifice of a throne loyalist to pre empt the very rebellions he had just spilled blood to forestall as is. For others, it was desperate bargain and flight before the hangman’s noose. And for others still, it was simply one more political compromise that preserved a tottering nation, given the place of the Branas family in maintaining it. Maxentian Branas would go into exile, and the strange self imposed exile of his eldest son Aurelian would come to an end. It has been some six months since the return of the prodigal, who has spent the time since seamlessly folding in the business interests he had cultivated abroad to his family’s power and fortune.

Which is to say, he was exiled from a combo of no good deed going unpunished, and crashing into the Branas weakness of the Senate leaping on opportunities to fuck with them. As for who else was involved.. well you'd have to ask Maxentian. Whoops! He's exiled! You have to find him first!

Well, you could probably ask Stavian III instead, no doubt he totally wants to talk about it!

edit: basically, if you want to know more from the coup, well, that's an in game plot point to try and find that out.

kckolbe

Okay, that makes more sense now.  Also, I created the Tarton page and linked it to the main one.  I'll leave it to Ebb to pretty up.  He could go without writing a single piece of lore and still get a few levels in my opinion.  Did you see how organized the House Branas page is?  That shit looks good.
Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

Kolbrandr

Quote from: RubySlippers on June 07, 2013, 07:32:51 PM
DRAFT TEMPLE

Sanctuary of the Enflamed Bed
Order of the Yellow
Temple of Calistria
Eastdock, Docks, Stone Warehouse by Dock


Alignment: Neutral [dominant]

Description:  (under construction based on GM imput)

Dogma: Although the core faith teachings are practiced the underlying philosophy follows the Book of the Yellow the teachings of the founder Shivkah focusing on promoting the faith among the none elite poor, commoners and common artisan and merchants. The message is enjoy life now and an eternity of pleasures in the afterlife what deity offers that and accept all that come to her and savors her bed. Among the basic precepts is to meet the "needs" of common people, doing alms to the needy, healing and defending the people. To help this there are three factions the Apostles who preach and promote the message to the people the smallest faction. The Wasps is the combat arm are mainly martial artists with some other types of combatant and work with the locals to set up security and works with the local city guard. The Keepers tend to the temple and keep it suitable for worship and is the largest group and oversee business and pleasures there. They oppose opulence and use of sexuality to gain power.

Clerical Garb: Common clothing is a large yellow veil and sandals plus a holy symbol inside the inner sanctum. Outside a simple tunic, holy symbol, cloak if cold out and nothing underneath getting nude fast is kind of expected. But those with duties requiring more clothing and armor is of course included but yellow and black is expected in part of the clothing.

Temple Membership: The members proper, not laity, include the following ... (under construction)
High Priestess Shivkah - 8th Level Gestalt Evangelist-Martial Artist (PC)

Veil should be yellow and black accent.

Strengths:
Popular with Commoners: The cult has a strong position with many poor, commoners and typical merchants not highly placed as laity especially in Eastport they make up for lack of high end supporters with numbers.
Popular with the City Constables: They support the constables and work with them to protect the city especially Eastport members this includes food, drink and healing.

Weaknesses:
Not Favored by the Wealthy: The temple openly supports good treatment of the poor, opposes the other temples especially ones rich and opulent that don't use it to help commoners and that includes those of her faith. They don't break the laws but can be annoying.

Neutral:
Not Overtly a Threat: They can defend themselves decently but are not a martial temple on the other side the faith is not considered a threat and being neutral tends to not take sides, making them approachable by various parties.


Hey, just wanted to say that I didn't miss this, just noted that it's still under construction.

Some quick notes though, given the dogma of your branch of the faith and what they focus on, it seems more like they would be chaotic good as far as general alignment (and thereby only mildly heretical at worst, Calistria is CN after all, that's only a step off and nothing they do direly clashes with her usual dogma, Calistria especially generally has her temples pick a good, evil or neutral direction to follow), and just that they otherwise try to keep their nose out of larger politics, allowing them to be approachable.

RubySlippers

Was considering that but the sexual aspects are not tame if one wants to have sex with a dog, cat, horse or something she is fine with that hell she will likely have a hound or something to get off with. They may do good things but like most its a means to an end gain converts and if that means pulling them from other deities by any and all legal means - fine. She does care about common and poor people as souls to bring in and a base of power others ignore in the faith. As she not a heretic she supports the core dogmas and teachings if she has issues with the main temples its for show to impress her order is for the common people if she sat back and didn't "challenge" opulence commoners might think her order is not serious.

Remember the goddess also covers Trickery.  >:)

kckolbe

Ruby, does her church actively speak against the noble class, and individuals of wealth, or just those that turn a blind eye to the poor?  The current commander of the city guard, by the way (a paladin), has devoted much of his life to improving conditions for the unbearded.
Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

RubySlippers

Not the whole class she doesn't question people having wealth and enjoying that wealth but if they hoard wealth and don't help others this could be simply hiring locals and paying good wages. Senators would get it for not passing laws that help the worthy poor for example see housing is affordable. Its more outspoken but this also includes churches. Guilds she might work with though to get poor young people with talent apprenticed to artisans. Paul Newman for example would be a good wealthy person he created jobs, lived well but modestly and helped disabled kids and all that is decent.

Some long term goals would be to clean up the Narrows and get more proper support for Vagabonds for employment even basic employment with decent places to live.


Kolbrandr

Quote from: kckolbe on June 08, 2013, 11:56:41 AM
Ruby, does her church actively speak against the noble class, and individuals of wealth, or just those that turn a blind eye to the poor?  The current commander of the city guard, by the way (a paladin), has devoted much of his life to improving conditions for the unbearded.

Current commander still under review, to note

RubySlippers

My cohort is almost done found her amusing to do. Does she get her own starting gold?


Kolbrandr

Quote from: RubySlippers on June 08, 2013, 11:53:12 AM
Was considering that but the sexual aspects are not tame if one wants to have sex with a dog, cat, horse or something she is fine with that hell she will likely have a hound or something to get off with. They may do good things but like most its a means to an end gain converts and if that means pulling them from other deities by any and all legal means - fine. She does care about common and poor people as souls to bring in and a base of power others ignore in the faith. As she not a heretic she supports the core dogmas and teachings if she has issues with the main temples its for show to impress her order is for the common people if she sat back and didn't "challenge" opulence commoners might think her order is not serious.

Remember the goddess also covers Trickery.  >:)

Pathfinder doesn't really associate morality with sex, Chronicles of the Righteous (the recent big ol book of Empyreal lords) has an Empyreal Lord that is for instance the demigod/Empyreal Lord Arshea, the androgynous/hermaphroditic power of freedom, physical
beauty, and sexuality, whose dogma includes

QuoteFreedom matters most to the Spirit of Abandon, but
not simply freedom of the body. Arshea espouses utter
liberation of the soul and encourages mortals to abandon
needlessly constraining beliefs. Arshea’s influence guides
mortals to experience love and sexuality in whatever
manner they desire, provided the experience is harmless
or mutually agreed upon. Individuals experiencing
deep misery as a result of repression or yearning will
sometimes find a soft gray feather, jeweled bangle, or scrap
of gossamer fabric on their beds as a sign of hope from the
Host of Delectation.

I grant the incest/bestiality stuff would be pushing it and all as far as good, but more on the edge than push right past. If on the other hand the whole being altruistic to commoners is largely a somewhat self interested ploy, neutral is just fine. I would say, Trickster is similarly a morality agnostic domain, there are various good trickster godbeings.

Kolbrandr

Quote from: RubySlippers on June 08, 2013, 02:42:40 PM
My cohort is almost done found her amusing to do. Does she get her own starting gold?

Yeap, which reminds me, you, and I mean this in a general player sense, don't need to spend your money on any mundane gear below 250 gp in value, within reason ("I have eight million tanglefoot bags!"), this is largely for two things 1) expenses like that, even for a lower scale temple head, are probably trivial. 2) I personally hate with a blinding passion having to itemize mundane gear down to the littlest detail, I'm not going to make other people have to do that.

kckolbe

Do followers get their own starting gold as well?  Maybe 1/2 of what PCs of their level would get?  Also, do all followers have to be NPC classes?  Could we, for example, trade in two NPC class followers for a PC class follower?  Any other special rules come to mind?
Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

Kolbrandr

Quote from: kckolbe on June 08, 2013, 03:01:35 PM
Do followers get their own starting gold as well?  Maybe 1/2 of what PCs of their level would get?  Also, do all followers have to be NPC classes?  Could we, for example, trade in two NPC class followers for a PC class follower?  Any other special rules come to mind?

Followers still have to be npc classes, but if you want to particularly note their stuff, followers do indeed get normal starting gold for level.

kckolbe

All right.  I'll redo the breakout of followers once levels are assigned anyways.  I may just make Nivek an ally as opposed to a follower of Nivek's.  Maybe he'll just be a fellow follower of Nethys.
Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

RubySlippers

So what would fill in for a acolyte cleric with spells?

Kolbrandr

Quote from: RubySlippers on June 08, 2013, 03:11:22 PM
So what would fill in for a acolyte cleric with spells?

in followers? the adept npc class gets cleric spells

RubySlippers

My characters and faiths deity is going to change.

;D

Arshea is a better fit and has not temples in the city.

kckolbe

Shelyn seems a good fit for a secondary goddess, if that interests you. 
Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

RubySlippers


Kolbrandr

Quote from: kckolbe on June 08, 2013, 03:32:45 PM
Shelyn seems a good fit for a secondary goddess, if that interests you.

Shelyn doesn't really of herself have as much of a sexuality focus.

kckolbe

No, not at all, but devotees of Shelyn may help set the atmosphere for rites to Arshea, and both are neutral good.  I just thought the two went well together, is all.
Ons/Offs  A/A  Oath of the Drake
(From the Penis Game) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Penis
I love a wet nymph.  "Letting some guy have [her] just to have another woman is a losing trade"

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer(IC#2)
Intro Thread

EroticFantasyAuthor

Sorry, do followers get NPC wealth by level or PC wealth by level?