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[Premise]
A new faction, new hopefuls- skilled but without alliances, powerful but without a place. Those marked by destiny for great things. Those marked by their enemies for death.
The characters are a new force in the setting, their agenda and skills largely unknown to the entrenched power structure; a force for change in a fading world.
[ Setting Information]
The city of Tyrithtree, beacon of munificence, city of columns, safe harbor of all the north seas! Melting pot and marketplace, center of learning!
The city of Tyrithtree, whose beacon is doused. Whose columns are the dominion of vermin. Whose harbor seeps wickedness, a suppurating wound.
Patchwork city of factions and gangs, cults and killers.
Tyrithtree is an original fantasy city, built on massive stone columns over a frozen northern bay. It is known as 'the city of the munificent beacon' because of its massive magical lighthouse.
Simultaneously a trade city and a former center of learning, it has fallen far from its glorious beginnings, and is now a place of corruption, oppression, and constant danger- besieged from within by criminals and madmen, and from without by the Utharit, to whom the flesh is as clay.
A few aspects of the setting are fixed, but others will be invented by the players during game creation; Tyrithtree is intended to be a flexible canvas on which proactive players can make their mark.
Players may inquire for further information concerning Tyrithtree's districts, its current factions, its pantheon, and the races that inhabit it.
[Plot]
It's up to you!
As a firm believer in improvisation and adaptability, I design my adventures and settings with the mantra of motives, not plots.
Each faction and character within the game is part of a web of love, hate, desire, and despair; they will interact with the players and each other organically, and the players have a chance to influence any node of this web at any point, finding their own passions and hatreds as they go.
As the game progresses, I will increasingly focus on and expand those aspects of the setting and the game that players have shown interest in, creating a personalized path to adventure and fun.
[ Character Creation ]
This game will make use of the FATE Core rules, available for download here.
FATE is a flexible, lightweight rules-set based around aspects, facets of your character that can aid and harm in equal measure: for instance, a character with the aspect "Master of Fear" would be very likely to succeed when intimidating a back-alley thug, but very likely to fail when attempting to comfort a panicked urchin.
Even when your aspects work against you- in fact mostly when they do- you gain fate points which can be used to invoke your aspects favorably or resist their downsides. In other words, even a 'negative' aspect is likely to be a boon to you (although not necessarily to your character).
For players who are interested in the game, but unfamiliar with FATE, I will be happy to perform a one-on-one or group tutoring session.
I will be accepting five primary characters, and up to five alternates for 'away missions' or in the event of a drop-out.
[ Character Creation in Detail]
To begin creating a character, choose a name, then create a High Concept and Trouble.
A High Concept is your overall idea for the character- what they're all about.
Examples: Silver-tongued Trickster, Bjorleif the Heavy-handed, The Councilor's Nephew.
A Trouble is what makes your character's life difficult- the reason their life is complicated (and therefore interesting).
Examples: The Bull's Temper, On the Run, Haunted by Her Face.
Once the initial five heroes are selected, they will collaborate to choose three additional aspects that reflect their adventures together to date.
Once you've defined your first two aspects, you can choose your character's skills. Your character's rank in a skill is the bonus they apply to their dice rolls when using that skill.
You have one skill rated at +4, two at +3, three at +2, and four at +1. Any skills you don't have a bonus to are rated at +0.
You may also choose up to three stunts: special actions that set your character apart.
The descriptions of each skill in the FATE Core rules have several example stunts, but feel free to invent your own!
If your character does not use magic, you're done for now!
If you do plan to make use of magic, you must take one of three special skills, Indwelling, Commune, or Sympathy. Further details will be provided if and when someone chooses to play such a character, but as a general overview:
Indwelling involves calling a spirit into one's own body to grant oneself power or knowledge. Depending on the potency of the spirit, this can be a powerful discipline indeed- but the caster is always in a battle for control with their indwelling spirit.
Commune involves invoking a spirit- most commonly an ancestor or revered saint- for help that falls within their sphere. Spirits of this type are potent, but generally only helpful within their area of expertise. Also, disrespect or insufficient offerings are likely to have dire consequences when next the spirit is called upon.
Sympathy is the most precise form of magic, and operates on the principle that 'like calls to like'. A piece of a thing can be used to influence the whole of a thing; snapping a twig could break the trunk of a tree. However, sympathy draws the energy for the changes it enacts in the world from the user- many an unwise magus has frozen the blood in his veins by overreaching.
[Game Creation]
In addition to creating their individual characters, players will have a role in creating aspects of the game itself!
When you submit a character, you should also submit two issues: threats that imperil the world of Fading Light.
Invent one current issue- something that's a problem now, and possibly has been for a while. This can be anything from a sinister cult to a corrupt city councilor to a disease.
Also invent one impending issue- something that's just beginning to show itself, but will make the world a more terrible place if it's allowed to come to fruition. This can also be anything, from an invading army to a dying god.
You should also come up with one important person in the setting, and one important place: for example "The Black Tongue Tavern" and "Vindalf the Urchin-seller". These can be positive or negative, or somewhere in between- they're just things you think would make the setting more interesting.
Last but not least, come up with one Group Aspect for the new faction the characters as a whole represent. What kind of people are you? What kind of reputation do you have? What are your strengths and weaknesses?
All accepted characters will vote on which Group Aspects to finalize before play begins.
Closing Notes
This is intended to be a very open-ended, player-driven fantasy game. If that's what you want, come on in.
I'll worry about obtaining a subforum if/when I get enough interest that the game is definitely going to go forward.
[Additional Setting Information]
Overview of Tyrithtree: Districts
Tyrithtree stands on three rock columns, separated by vertiginous canyons, joined by bridges. The primary bridges, the oldest and the best, are stone and steel, buttressed and secure (although one, at least, has still fallen).
Newer bridges are thinner, their stones bowing under the weight of tramping feet; and a few are less than this, rotting wood and rope stretched across the abyss- these are not official bridges, of course. These are the shadow-ways from one column to another.
The smallest of the columns, in the north, is Corhaem. Its top is divided between the sacred and the profane; the temple district, Godsgallow, is here, high marble towers and domes of glass and bronze, and beside it sprawl the theaters- new, bright wood in garish colors, yellow, red, and sky blue.
Some are theaters in truth, declaiming popular and lofty entertainments alike. Others are drinking-houses or brothels, their degree of sophistication as variable as the faces of their patrons- for the fashion in Corhaem is for masks in leather or wood or porcelain, false faces from which rough laughter issues- for this reason, the theater district is named Masquegarden.
The walls of Corhaem are a hive of rope-linked cliff-homes, black with soot and smelling of burning meat; the dwellings of the poor, the desperate and the damned. There are tunnels, it is said, that honeycomb the place so greatly that it is sure to fall into the sea- but it hasn’t, yet. Climbers can be hired here, and eyes, and other sorts of people, for little money.
The greatest and broadest of the columns, on the east, is Ishaal; upon its utmost promontory the beacon stands, shining forth azure even in the brightest day, and at night, chasing away sleep. It guides the ships in, past rocks like razors, and there at the base of the column they put to port and disgorge their varied cargoes. The lifts sing their song of tortured iron day and night, raising goods to where they can be counted and valued and distributed to rightful owners. There is always honest work to be found in drawing up the small-lifts, or commanding the men of clay who draw up the greater. There is always dishonest work to be found on the docks, ensuring that cargoes of which honest folk would not approve are not counted, nor valued, but find their way to rightful owners nonetheless.
Upon the sides of Ishaal there stand great figures, leagues in height; these are saints and great men, founders of the city. Birds nest there, and other things, sometimes.
Beacon Hill, upon the utmost promontory, is half-abandoned; those that remain are in thrall to their protectors, who protect them only from themselves. In the center, Arat-ishaal is pale gold and dark stone, the highest towers and broadest streets. Here, trees still grow, betimes, and flowers; there are many gardens. Everywhere there are high walls. The council of oligarchs makes its residence here, and their supporters. Around Arat-ishaal is Heart’s Desire, a warren of warehouses and emporia, showrooms and forges; if it can be bought, it can be bought here.
The column on the south, the only one with bridges to the mainland, is Memroosh. Where it connects to the shore, a grim, squared fortress stands, Harl’s Holdfast- through it pass all visitors who do not arrive by sea.
On one side, Memroosh supports the city’s hunger; terraces step downward toward the sea, filled with rice even in the bitterest winter. Upon its top, the Menagerie, so called because peoples of every description can be found here; its streets are shadowed even at noon, for the residents of the menagerie build up instead of out, great rickety layers of houses, shops, and enclaves.
In the center of Memroosh stands the Roosh itself, a forest, green and overgrown- a park in name, a forest in truth.
Summary of Districts
Godsgallow: The temple district, a center of worship and celebration. Dominated by the temple of Micia, the Lorn Mother.
Masquegarden: The theater district, where rich and poor alike mingle, masked and shrouded.
The Walls: The residences of the poor and despairing, and their associated tunnels; linked by a web of ropes, precarious and deadly.
The Docks: The foot of a column, where far-flung ships give up their goods.
Beacon Hill: A sparsely-populated district of homes, dominated by gangs and the light of the beacon itself.
Arat-Ishaal: The glorious residences of the powerful.
Heart's Desire: Shops and showrooms- where the city goes to obtain its goods.
Harl's Holdfast: Fortress and only gateway to the city.
The Menagerie: Vertical district of homes to every race and species, dense and bustling.
The Roosh: A vast park, now gone to seed and wilderness.
Common Races
Tyrithtree is a city of diverse bloodlines; here intermingled are those of every creed and station, and of every species.
Here are a few of the most prominent:
Hallowgraal: not populous, but puissant, the Hallowgraal are blue-skinned and long-limbed, subterranean by inclination. Each bears within it a contagion, a virus of infinite age and perfected memory; this contagion overwrites the bloodline of those that are brought into the brotherhood of the Hallowgraal- a sacrifice many are willing to make for the wisdom of the ages.
Choragat: resembling great insects, the Choragat are otherwise variable in shape. Some are beetles, some mothlike, some arachnid. Each, however, depends upon the matriarchs, in whom all traits can be found, awaiting their moment to be expressed in her myriad offspring.
Taluth: the twisted men consider themselves to be profoundly blessed. Each has been changed by a spirit, their bloodline’s gift to them. Some have many eyes; some many limbs. Some are blind and grublike things. To others, they appear twisted and deformed, but in their own eyes they see only the gift of the ancestors.
Rakut: scaled and stocky, the sun-lords of the Rakut are renowned smiths, devotees of fire and scholars of iron and steel. The city’s forges are the better for their tutelage and administration.
Laadi: the most populous race within the city, the wind-burned men of the Laadi are descendents of the tribes that roamed the mountains about the city. Though currently creatures of sophistication, they still retain the trappings of their beginnings- totems of bone and flesh, trophies and the spirit of the hunter.
Utharit: not so much a race as a collection of races, representatives of the empire of the same name. The rulers of the Utharit are the Koboltea, point-eared and furred, sharp-toothed. Among their servants are other breeds- the Jotun, their minds asleep, and the Urtea, who breed swiftly and devour each other in praise. To the Utharit, everyone has a place; every being is a tool, apportioned purpose and destiny even in the moment of birth.
This is by no means an exhaustive list- nearly any race can be found within the city’s walls, even if only in the person of wandering traders or exiles.
Pantheon of Tyrithtree
The pantheon of Tyrithtree- at least, the acknowledged one- consists of the following gods and goddesses.
Acobi: The Chastened Maid chose to bind herself, in shackles of her own design. She is goddess of oath and abandon; in her tale are found truths regarding the place of honor. Those who worship Acobi are penitents and judges, keepers of law and contract. Her symbol is the chain.
Garmuth: The Crippled Duke has no senses; eyeless and bereft of tongue, he nonetheless gives wise counsel. He is the god of purpose and folly, and rewards humility; his worshippers are sages and mystics. His symbol is the brass-and-emerald mirror.
Hense: The Veiled Widow is goddess of pleasure and agony, whose symbol is the rose and thorn-vine. Her worshippers are frustrated lovers and clever liars alike; beneath her veil, she is said to smile, her face a patchwork of scars.
Lemaign: The Mason King bears his hammer high, always ready to strike. He is god of hope and its shadow, despair. His followers are soldiers and warriors, seeking his gifts and to avoid his baleful gaze. His symbol is the golden hammer.
Micia: The Lorn Mother is foremost goddess of the city, she who has given most always and receives least. From her womb issue all spirits of the living, and she waits to accept them upon the hour of their death for her devouring hunger. She is goddess of loss and longing, and her heart is the heart of the city itself. She has no symbol, but her colors are gray and green.
Olak: The Carefree Son is god of whim and chance, whose worshippers are gamblers and fools; his symbol is the falling leaf. He dances outside of the order of time; he was before all things, and will be after.
Jevel: The Tower Keeper, lord of atrophy and health, who has two faces- one young and one old. His worshippers are those who hold life and health above all else, and those seeking to lift the burden of disease. His symbol is a tower of jade.
Pyth: The Patient Bull grants strength and restraint, ancient god of commotion and order alike. His temper is vast, but so too is his mercy. His worshippers are laborers and warriors alike, and his symbol is his own horns in brass.
Roathus: The Gorging Host is god of thirst and plenty, who cannot be sated. His tears are sweet rivers and springs, and from his flesh are fashioned the good things of the earth. His symbol is a green and growing branch, and his worshippers are farmers and those who wish to be thankful for their blessings.
Yudrig: The Morning Stallion is god of impulse, to whom many pray when the sun rises. His worshippers are those who wish to control their minds; his symbol is a lock of pale mane.
In addition to these major gods, many in Tyrithtree worship saints or ancestors- whether of their own family, or of their race at large.
