The Campaign Builder's Guild

First, an apology: this is not a poetry thread.
Some of you might have noticed that I am reliably slow in producing any legible material on Broken Verge. I blame this on my constant obsessing over minor details, as well as my highly inorganized approach to writing. Now, I have decided that that shouldn't keep me from drowning you in whatever appears when i put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).
Basically, I will showcase some of my work in progress slash things deemed partial successes. Both to receive some much needed much desired feedback, but also to give you some insight into the workings of this disturbingly silent setting.
Also, I'm envious of all your long, long WIP threads.  

So here is some stuff:

First, some insight into some early history:

History
Cold Age
The Cold Age was both a beginning and an end. The glaciers crawled south and scattered the ancient  kingdoms of Besmakia before them and forced them to flee south; south to Chimer. Now kings of naught, they took their cold and famine-riddled people and used what little of the old teachings they had managed to preserve to forge new cities and new thrones. Yet centuries of progress bad been  forgotten and the new world turned out to be one of feuds and wars for many years.

It bears mentioning that Besmakia was never completely abandoned. While it was a hard and unforgiving place, both during and after the ice, a few strongholds held out, most notably Khiere; a kingdom just outside the reach of the long winter. And less civilized creatures roamed the mountains and woodlands: the shamanistic Mawmen continued to hunt like they had always done, contending with monsters of old and the feral Melek.  

When the ice retreated, the fledgling nations of the south set their greedy eyes on the homeland they had forgotten. It wasn't long before the first boat set sail for the rocky shores of Besmakia. Ramshackle colonies, such as old Kisvem-by-Sea, slowly gained a foothold.    

the Sanguine Flood
Sadly, it was about then the Hororine arrived. Black-skinned mercenaries from far-away steppelands, hired to do the bidding of the Quenyian emperor, they swept across the continent like a flood; the unseasoned kingdoms and strained farmsteads of Besmakia were no match for them. Only, that's not all they took. They turned on their masters in the Quenyian courts, slaughtered their imperial allies, and took the land they had helped conquer for themselves. Thus began the Era of the Hororine. Despite their past as a nomadic people, the rule of empires came naturally to them and under their rule even Besmakia became a land where a man could live and prosper. But as always there were tensions under the surface.

The Promise
The Hororine might have been fair rulers, but they remained foreign to the people they ruled.  Insurrections, riots and intrigue pestered their empire and when armies marched on their borders the Red Rulers knew there was only one definite way to make it stop: give them their land back
But, as most things Hororine do, it came with a price. They took gold from those who could pay, wealthy warlords and kings alike, but from most they took a price of favors,  influence and debts; a pact known as the Promise. In addition, they demanded peace and freedom from persecution.

Following the sudden disbanding of their Empire, the Hororine pulled back and many journeyed back to their old homeland. A few remained, using their newly acquired wealth and extraordinary rights to set up powerful trading and banking houses. This was the founding of the first Cardinal Houses.


Now follows a bit on the Therennial Cycle, the main organized religion in Besmakia.

Therennial Cycle
A religion partly ancient tradition and partly civilized faith, the history of the church goes far, far back. Even before anyone thought to build cathedrals or write down the commands of the divine, the gods were there, just in different guises. Ancient pagan gods of harvest, night and the hunt these primal beliefs would gradually grow and become the Cycle, and the gods would coalesce into what are now the four elder gods.  
 
Their names long forgotten or hidden away in the Ecclesiarchal Archives, the four elder gods of the sacred Therennial Cycle have for long just been known as the Hungry Mother, the King-in-Stitches, the Hanged Man, and, lastly, the Beggar of Twos. Whether they are many or aspects of the same is a subject of much religious debate.
 Each god governs various aspects of the world, ruling over both the good and the bad. They are fickle and powerful gods, and although humanity has the favor of the gods we are not free from their divine wrath.  
The gods have taught mankind rules to live by, detailed in holy texts such as the Divine Requiem  and the Tomorrow Scrolls, and given us life, and in return we offer them prayer, devotion and sacrifices.  

The faith arose in Besmakia, and has spread little beyond. Even on the continent of origin one would be hard put to talk of a collective congregation; the Cycle is notorious for its number of sects (such as the Golden Scars, the Bitherennialists, and the Order of the Swollen Moon)  only loosely held together by the the Grand Cleric of Kolyaev.
The sectarian behaviour has ensured that much of the worship happens at small shrines dedicated to one or two of the four gods, although all proper therennialist communities have places of worship for all of the four gods and many have proper houses of worship. The great cities of the north have massive cathedrals built of dark rock and iron, their chambers dimly lit with scented braziers and the faltering light passed through massive stained glass windows. Some churches use a four-corner layout, one for each god, while others worship at a single altar.  
Sacrifice remains a  common display of obeisance and worship, mostly in the form of valuables and foodstuffs (depending very much on the sect). Human sacrifice was forbidden by the larger of the sects a few centuries ago, although smaller sects are still rumored to practise it.  

The Hungry Mother
The fickle godess of passions, avarice and fertility, the Hungry Mother is unpredictable both in her blessings and her curses. She watches over beginnings and birth, but also endings. She is often depicted as naked pregnant woman with a gaping mouth and empty eyes, sometimes  found  curled in a foetal position, attempting to eat her own feet. She is also associated with the serpent eating its own tail. In the mythology she is said to both give birth to the world and destroy it.  

King-in-Stitches
God of wealth and blood, the King is depicted as a  lean man bleeding from a hundred scars and stitches criss-crossing his body. He is often shown with several bestial aspects; most commonly a set of black antlers. In his hands he most typically carries a swor d of gold. He is god of both war and justice, bloodshed and punishment. Many herald him as the protector and scourge of all civilizations and the king of gods and men.  

Hanged Man
The Hanged Man is the god of penitence and sacrifice as he hung himself to atone for the frivolities before the harvest season. He is thus also the god of harvest, toil and diligence and by extension he became the guardian of craftsmanship. Traditionally, people hang effigies of the Hanged Man on the door as symbols of atonement, especially during the annual toilfest.  

The Beggar of Twos
Half-god, half-man, the Beggar is forced to sit vigil on earth until the end of the world. He is both a child and an old man, ignorant and all-knowing; a keeper of secrets even he doesn't know. He walks the known world, flowers wilting in his wake, and is the god of both journeys and thresholds. He guides the dying, the mad, and the destitude. It's tradition to bury the dead with two coins set in their eyes as that is the payment the Beggar will take for a safe journey. It's also the reason why no one gives a gift in two parts; it is reserved for the dead.


Next, some text on my democratic terrorists

the Nowhere Legion
They hide in the corners of civilization. The discontent. Those who wish for things to be different. Normally, they go unnoticed, but for a few, this wish consumes them; in their twisted world the only path left is revolution.
The likeminded find ways to gather, and thus out of nothing came the Nowhere Legion. Their soldiers are spread across the world, living a double life in the shadows of society until they are needed.

Their ultimate goal is an utopia, a world free of superstition, religion, and old tradition, governed by the people and free of lies and dogma. That is, an atheist democracy. But the world has stagnated, in their mind, the growth has come to a standstill and they believe that the old must be purged before new things can be born. To achieve this end they shy away from no means.  

To hasten the fall of civilization their knives strike against heads of state and leaders of faith and their torches burn the lore and the stories of the old world. They murder without remorse, as everything belonging to this world is in the way of enlightenment. They have killed both kings and priests (or so the rumor says), and it is rumored that they were behind the burning of the Tesserine Library.    

Most Legionnaires know only 2 or 3 others from the Legion, the members of their cell, but they have all heard of the Harbinger, the supposed leader of the Nowhere Legion. It's impossible to tell whether he is simply a rumor or if he is real; no Legionnaire captured so far has ever seen him or heard him speak.
The Harbinger was the one who recovered, or perhaps wrote, the ancient manuscript called The Winter of Discontent,  the cardinal text of the Legion, and recounted it to his first legionnaires. Every Legionnaire acquires a copy of the illegal manuscript as it  details the teachings and arguments they build their life upon. The Legion also seems to communicate through an obscure leaflet known as the Road Not Taken, tattered copies of which seem to mysteriously appear in the abandoned corners of the cities.


Also, a minor death cult with some important duties (and creepy plague angels)

Lady of the Sweetest Breath
Students of the mysteries of life and death, this cult worships the enigmatic Lady of the Sweetest Breath. They maintain that creation and life came before everything, but it was only when the Lady made death that it all made sense; without an end there is no point in a beginning, they say.

They don't fear death, but they don't embrace it either; death is what makes life sweet, but by itself it is bitter. They see life as a struggle towards the inevitable where every moment is good by its mere existence and none are more valued than the very last moment; the sweetest breath. Disease and war are but tests of the lady, sent to discover our mettle.  

As such, they often work as healers; but they are far from common doctors. They possess secret lore on medicine and pathology unknown to many mundane doctors and only the mortally wounded and the dead are allowed inside their sacred halls. The only service they will never deny are the funerary rites of cremation and the Lady's final blessing: the last involving a single kiss on the deceased's forehead.  

Their religious practices most often go hand in hand with their academic practices, but they do often participate in arduous fasts and catatonic meditations. There are many rumors concerning their ways and the origin of their knowledge: some say they dance with wights and wraiths in candlelit crypts, others that they steal the dead and study their insides. Some say that when they claim a  patient died, it isn't alway s true. Death is not terrible because it is nothing, it is terrible because it is unknown and they seek to understand it, and to do that they need a way across the veil.

Despite their important duty as undertakers and gravekeepers, the cult of the Lady is a small one with few disciples and virtually no common worshippers. They maintain chapterhouses at the major cities of Besmakia and Chimer, but few besides that. The cult contains both men and women and they all dress in  

The militant division of their faith are known as the Mercies or the angels of the pyre. Scarred survivors of ghastly diseases and mortal wounds, they are the chosen of the Lady, persuaded to serve by the Sisters as a price for their miraculous  healing. They hide their wounds behind angelic masks depicting faces of tranquil serenity and armors of bleached leather and white feathers. They arm themselves with torch and handblade. They do not fight mortal enemies, but rather sickness and plague; they track down the contagious, put them to rest, and burn their remains. Their order was established during the Pit's Eyes plague and has luckily only been called upon a few times over the last centuries.    


And now for a little pseudo-science:

Ensoulment
Is there something to life beyond the merely physical? Are humans and other beings simply machines made from flesh? Prophets and priests had long debated the existence of the soul and when doctors weighed the dying before and after and found the dead lighter than the living some suggested that they had found proof.

It would take decades before the first soul was extracted, though. They called it a soul, but in reality they did not know exactly what it was. It came from a man, but the process was fatal so it wasn't possible to question the man as to what he had lost. But it was clear that it was something besides a simple physical constituent.

Questions, both curious and antagonistic, quickly arose amongst the academic and religious communities of the Known World in an upheaval known as the Ghost Times. Few were aptly answered. What exactly could be done with a soul was yet to be established. Yet rumors quickly spread of its uses: Carry a soul to divert the attention of spirits, soak a cloth in the ethereal substance and rub your skin to wipe away sins; the illegal market for souls grew swiftly.

And that was before they discovered what it  could actually do. Ingested, it allowed a person to see a life swim before his eyes. Not his own of course, but the life of the person the soul had previously belonged to. Everything he could remember, everything that had a part in shaping him as a person, would wash over the ingester in a matter of seconds. All his highs and lows condensed into an instant.     And luckily, as the mind tends to remember the good above the bad, the rush was mostly one of pure joy.

Needless to say, most countries were quick to condemn men who damned the immortal souls of others for their own amusement, but uncaring hedonists and the decadent still got drunk on the short lives of lesser men; although it quickly became clear that there was little to enjoy from the life of a beggar. This was what led to the rise of the shadowy consortium known as the Purgatory. Black marketeers, it is said there is no kind of soul in the world they wouldn't be able to get their hands on. For the right price. They dress in black and only deal with customers in darkened crossroads; often they sell their ill-gotten gains, but on occasion they will provide a  service or a soul in return for the promise of a new soul on a later date. A purgatory debt is not an easy one to pay.

But while the more crude uses of souls were widely explored, the scientists were still baffled by their own creation. But it dawned on them that it was somehow inherently connected to life; you could not make a soul without leaving a corpse behind. Also, memories were clearly involved. Was it perhaps possible to rekindle life with a soul?
Many attempts were made, but to little avail at first. Alchemists and life-theurges continued to work tirelessly in an attempt to ressurrect but a single person, but only after many years did they have something resembling success. They had not created life, but they had created the semblance of it.

They named their creations caryatides. The first one was a young woman who had drowned in a small creek. She breathed and her heart beat. Yet her eyes stared blankly ahead and she would only take food if forced. More followed. Gradually, the caryatides became more capable. They were mindless, but with a perfectly crafted soul distillate they could draw on half-forgotten talents. Distillates made from singers gave the caryatide a beautiful singing voice, distillates fashioned from musicians allowed the caryatide to gently wield an instrument; they quickly became popular with less scrupulous members of high society.        

 
Hmm, some stuff I wrote about crossbows and crossbow brands a while back

Crossbows in the Known World
The crossbow is one of the more intricate personal weapons known to mankind. They are complex and delicate devices, yet also extremely powerful and dependable. This has led crossbows to become a common sight throughout the world.

The crossbows of the modern world are hand-made by a few select craftsmen and guilds. Each maker makes a very different kind of weapon, each with their own quirks and strengths. Crowlsmith crossbows are known to be sturdy and durable, but otherwise of poor quality, Amester-Holts are complex and exquisite, known for quality and accuracy and for their many clever additions, and Holmein crossbows are light and cheap. Buying a crossbow has become more than just a question of funds; it is now also a question of taste and what you require of your weapon.      
 
Brands
Amester-Holt (Extras, Great, Expensive)
Very expensive and always custom-made. Every weapon is a beautiful piece of art designed to its wielder's exact specifications. They are effective weapons, but Amester-Holt's understanding of the weapon itself and its potential is not as perfect as their craftsmanship. Their crossbows are not the best for war, but they are exquisite in many other ways and are the most likely to be outfitted with some of the more exotic additions making them on par with even a Kronecher.  

Kronecher (powerful, steady, Great, Expensive)
If you ask any mercenary who has wielded a crossbow what brand of crossbow he'd rather have, they'll answer Kronecher. Kronecher crossbows are known for being the epitome of what a crossbow can aspire to be. They are powerful and durable, made from light hallowwood or morrowood and with strings from the thread of the gray spider or the silk of the white moth larvae. They can knock through inches of solid wood, and punch through most any armor.  

Crowlsmith (Sturdy, heavy, decent)
Sturdy handiwork from the Khierian capital, Crowlsmith crossbows are valued as they never fail or fall apart. Beyond that one strength, they are slightly below average as their sturdy construction lacks some of the required flexibility of a crossbow.

Holmein (cheap, light, weak)
Holmein crossbows are cheap, light, and easy to use. They are not terribly good of course, for that price. But they can maim and kill as required, making them popular amongst poor bandits and highwaymen, as well as the occasional farmer with pest problems.

Gormalyev (powerful, decent, moderate price)
The old imperial crossbowmaker Gormalyev supplied thousands of mercenaries with his powerful crossbows. They are ugly and brutish looking, but they get the work done and will hold together at least throughout the battle (and if they don't, who'll be left to complain?). What you get in return is a weapon powerful enough to rival a Kronecher, perhaps even beat it on rare occasions. Gormalyev crossbows are simply put nasty pieces of work that can take a man's head off with a well-placed shot.

Havinger (extras (illicit),decent,  moderate)
A secretive man, Havinger mostly does work on request for people from the wrong side of town. His weapons are often modified versions of other brands, but he does make a few weapons himself. He is the only man (except for Amester-Holt) known to fashion hand crossbows, and one of the few who won't ask questions if you want to outfit your piece with a poison reservoir or modular or collapsible capabilities.

Kelleon (Impressive, weak, expensive)
Garish weapons to say the least, Joakim Kelleon is actually a jeweller by profession and it shows. He is one of the few craftsmen who specialize in making bejewelled swords and crossbows, and while they are hopeless as weapons (or at least not as good as you had hoped considering the enormous price) they are effective means of conveying a semblance of nobility or wealth. Thus, they are quite popular with young nobles and wealthy traders.  


And here is a bit about Reification. Not quite done by the looks of it, but getting there.

Reification
The wizard is a common character of bards' tales. The powerful, scheming wizards of ancient kingdoms, who controlled winds and fire with incantations and words of power. Sadly, the real world is not like that; there are no spells, no ancient incantations or powerful wizards with a clear pronounciation and flamboyant gestures. But that isn't to say there isn't a grain of truth to the old stories. The idea of words of power has some merit to it, but it has been twisted from its original meaning. It is not about pronounciation, length, ancient memorized phrases or ritualistic invocations. It's about the inherent power hidden in all words: common or arcane.

It is an old art and it goes by the name of reification. The reifier doesn't control anything with words, but instead derives power from the word itself and its meaning by bringing it into physical existence. They adhere to the belief that everything we see in this world is a reflection of something purer: a Form. Just like a shadow can take many shapes depending on from where the light shines, the reflection of a form can take many shapes. Just because two chairs look different they are both undeniably chairs. But reifiers don't deal in the words of objects; they deal in concepts.

The Form of a chair is an Absolute. Everybody can agree on the meaning of "chair" even if they can't put it in words; there is no doubt associated with the word, no ambiguity. It is well defined. But most concepts are ambigious. An event might be considered just by one person and unjust by another. These words have meaning but are ill-defined, and this makes them Vagaries. Reifiers exploit this fracture between the real and the ideal. An idealization like an Absolute would never be able to exist in our world; you can never make something perfect and universal like that exist alongside the imperfections of reality. But a Vagary isn't quite an ideal and thus it isn't quite barred from our world.    

The meaning of any word is essentially an idea, and drawing an idea into the physical world is not an easy task. They call it Evocation. The idea must be vivid in one's mind and yet you must not fix it there. If fixed you focus on one interpretation of it; you make it an absolute of your own. Doubt is thus integral to the process of Reification, a principle they call the Fallacy of Infallibility. But once the thought is in the head, it is only a matter of making the thought stronger and then getting it out. Exotic nootropic drugs and hallucinogens help achieve the first goal. Each Evocation often requires its own concoction, and reifiers tend to design their own.

When the power of the thought reaches a certain point it will start manifesting. It will begin turning into a Geist; an animate spectral entity of meaning. At this point there is no stopping the process; the Geist will attempt to tear itself free of the mind and then it will attempt to possess a living sentient creature. Why it possesses the living is essentially unknown, but it is theorised that it seeks to take solace in the presence of thoughts and words. The Reifier will usually be their first victim. It's possible to fight the possession and subdue the geist for a while, but it is terribly risky and most prefer to contain it beforehand. In this modern day and age this is usually done by powerful magnetic fields.  

Now a manifested geist can only really be dealt with in four ways: It can be destroyed, it can be stored, it can take possession of someone or it can be bound to the body by the reifier. Destruction is most commonly achieved by destroying a vessel holding the creature, but there are more esoteric ways to do it. Imprisonment requires pure iron: a substance which has an intrinsic meaning keyed to impregnability and strength. The geist will react to this meaning and be powerless to break through it. To make it bond to the inside of the container, usually a flask, the inside is carved with the word the geist is derived from as a lure. Possession is easy to achieve. Merely put a living body in the vicinity of the geist. Lastly, there is binding.

Binding is the most difficult and painful. Again, pure iron is used but this time in the form of nails ubiquitously carved with the geist's word in minute letters. With a small hammer the nails are driven through the spectral geist and into the flesh of the reifiers arm, binding them together forever. The reifier thus shares a small part of his body and soul with the occult being, and can draw on some of its power.      
 

wow. This is a lot (yay). Good thing I have tomorrow off.

So far I've read just the Cold, the Flood, and the Promise, and they are all good stuff. I like the Cold, because it creates a unique device as to why the northern lands are unsettles, unconquered, and uncouth. The Flood is also good, but could use a shot of BV strange, it just seems like the Mongols in the China, but with black skin.

The promise is neat though, it rings of anachronism (which I do believe you're going for), future plot devices, and also a good reason why the Cardinal Houses are so wealthy.

I'll read more in a bit. And i do believe the gauntlet has been thrown, so now I'll REALLY have to work harder - which is not saying much considering how much I'm working now.

Quote from: Conundrum Crowconstant obsessing over minor details

Got that same problem myself. But a good deal of your stuff here seems pretty well-developed to me. The Therennial Cycle and the Nowhere Legion for example.

Is there no significant variation in accuracy, range and the speed of reloading between the crossbow brands?

@Leetz: the shot of weird is always the hardest, especially when it has to fit with the rest of the setting. I'll think about it. It would probably involve some quirks about their reign. I'm not really sure why you call the Promise anachronistic exactly, but I'm glad you like it! Quite fond of that as well. I do also like anachronisms, so you were right in that as well. I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of your comments!

@Ghostman: yes, it's a horrible habit. Although it does often result in decent writing.
What I wanted to do with crossbows is to essentially make it take the place of firearms. A loaded crossbow screams of being a dramatic and visceral weapon. A gun is essentially an easy-to-use death wand: point and stuff dies. This is a simplification, of course, but guns do tend to be very undramatic. There is no "skill" to them (that isn't to say that everyone can shoot well, just that anyone can pull the trigger). There is a reason they invariably end up on the floor in movie scuffles and there is a reason everybody loves the nonsensical pneumatic crossbow from Van Helsing.
(this basically boils down to "crossbows are cool")    
But I wanted crossbows to be a bit more than just copies of Standard Issue 1.0. Just like you often hear of swords made by famous smiths in fantasy books, I wanted crossbows made by famed master craftsmen.  

That was a very long rant which managed to not answer a single of your questions. What I tried to say was merely that, just like different guns have different characteristics, there is a lot of difference between individual crossbows. Even from the same craftsman. Gormalyev crossbows would have a long range because of the sheer power they produce, but they are probably not terribly accurate compared to Havinger crossbows, which might have been custom-made for assassins. And when you get to the high end brand, such as Kronecher, Amester-Holt, and Havinger, you get to draw on small bits of fantasy and anachronicities to make those weapons very fearsome. This also adds a nice progression for roleplaying games. In the beginning you might only have a sturdy Crowlsmith or an old Holmein but as you progress you might get your hands on more formidable crossbows.  

Quote from: Conundrum Crow@Leetz: the shot of weird is always the hardest, especially when it has to fit with the rest of the setting. I'll think about it. It would probably involve some quirks about their reign. I'm not really sure why you call the Promise anachronistic exactly, but I'm glad you like it! Quite fond of that as well. I do also like anachronisms, so you were right in that as well. I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of your comments!

just because the peace settlement seems very modern, very sophisticated, and very, well, peaceful.

Quote from: Conundrum CrowBut I wanted crossbows to be a bit more than just copies of Standard Issue 1.0. Just like you often hear of swords made by famous smiths in fantasy books, I wanted crossbows made by famed master craftsmen.

I've been trying to do the same thing - make items and equipment more interesting and personal - but by using different materials instead. Anyways, though, I also really liked the crossbow companies. I hope you don't take offense to this, but it reminded me of the wand-makers in Harry Potter (I mean that in the best possible way) and also of 18/19th century English companies of whatever.

Ah yes, at least from the Hororine perspective. I'm pretty sure war will occur shortly thereafter between the new landowners; instantaneously transferring all government across an entire continent into new hands can't go down too well logistically.

Any comments on the rest of it Leetz? (or others)
I'd especially like some feedback on Ensoulment and Reification.

Your writing is evocative with out being wordy, I'm very jealous.

I love the 4 Elder Gods, their lore and names are great! I'd love to read more about them in general.

On Reification:

That took me a few reads to fully understand. Very Kafka-esque. But what exactly can Reification do? Are the geists tangible allies or ephemeral advisers? If the reifier Evokes a chair, like your example, will you eventually get a sentient ghost chair? I'm somewhat confused on that.

Ghouls
One of the eeriest beasts to prowl the moorlands and forests of Besmakia, the ghoul is a creature surrounded by more myth than fact. Some claim the ghouls are the risen corpses of those who were too greedy in life, but  sages and scholars of Kisvem and Old Setch swear they have seen beating hearts under the cold, clammy skins of captured ghouls on the vivisectionist's table.
Yet even after years of study, many unanswered questions remain. Where did they come from? Why do they look so like us? The ghoul appears much as a naked human, but its body is hairless and its limbs disproportionately long.Their bodies are gaunt, yet sinewy, with sickly pale skin draped loosely across it. Its eyes are the narrow dark eyes of a hunter and its mouth is framed with the yellow fangs of a predator.  
They run and hunt in packs at night with a loping quadropedal gait and feed mostly on corpses and carrion. They have a taste for human flesh and are known to linger around graveyards and the sites of battle. Especially in the winter, they are known to attack living creatures, but fire and sheer numbers have been known to scare them off. Ghouls will gorge themselves if food is readily available, stretching their loose skin until taut. To aid them in this effort they have the uncanny ability to unhinge their jaw, an ability they use both in feeding and displays of dominance. After a significant feeding, a ghoul can live off its fat for days or weeks and often fall into a deep slumber for a time.
They are not intelligent but they are cunning like most  other scavengers and carrion eaters such as the raven and the rat. They do not talk, but they communicate within the pack, often by clacking their teeth,  and possess a final disconcerting ability: the ability of mimicry. They have been known to imitate human voices and while the sages again claim their use of words is innocent, any superstitious outdoorsman will be quick to tell you otherwise. It only makes matters worse that most repeated voices are the last words (or dying screams) of the last human they encountered. While their voices could be misinterpreted as human, especially at a distance, their is a distinct raspy inhumane note to it. The nature of their  "human" screams is much more apparent; most who hear that sound will be haunted by it for days on end.
Although they will luckily never pass for human, a few eccentric noblemen (especially Eberian and Khierian) and would-be vogues have claimed chained ghouls as pets. Although often displayed as freaks by their master, the ghouls will often grow close to and protective of its owner.        

A small entry from the Broken Verge bestiary. Is it evocative enough? Or did I perhaps go too far in my feeble attempts to make them horrifying yet intriguing, turning them into overdone clichéd feature-pillars?

I love the section on crossbows.  Really adds detail and history to an otherwise mundane bit of equipment.

I missed some of this the first time round.  I love the gods in the first post.  Are there any other cosmic beings in the Therennial Cycle (dead gods, demigods, demons, titans, angels, spirits, what-have-you), or are the four gods the only beings recognized by the faith?  Would followers of the four recognize the existence of other deities, such as the Lady of the Sweetest Breath?

I really like the imitative nature of the ghouls, and the idea of keeping them as weird pets.

The part of worldcrafting that troubles me the most is still putting the parts together...
The Therennial Cycle was always meant to have sprung from more primordial traditions and faiths and it might well have carried a few of their superstitions and myths with it. On the other hand, it is very much an established religion. I'm in the beginning stages of developing a more ancient counterpart to it in the form of the Urd. It will be spirit worship steeped in occultism; right now I'm going for the feel of "East European voodoo". I'm thinking the Therennials might have something of an ongoing feud with the Urdists as they share common roots while the Church isn't keen on sharing its worshippers.

I love saints, devils and pilgrims, but I'm having some trouble featuring them all. Saints will be featured primarily through the Church of Inheritance who maintain that the god(s) are dead and humans have inherited the earth and the saints will guide us to glory. Only issue is, that most of their living saints have died (see Berend). I think this "religion" would do nicely as a sort of enlightened renaissance man-worship which draws its worshippers from the ranks of other gods by claiming their demise. Only the way they are currently implemented (again, see Berend) really doesn't describe them properly as a religion. Also, they are too centralized when I'd rather have them be scattered. Still, I love Berend and would hate to tear it apart.

As to devils, I was considering drawing some inspiration from the published setting Golarion. I'm not overly fond of it, it being a DivSet setting to the core, but it does have a few good ideas. E.g. troll augurs who read their own entrails. Always makes me smirk. Anyway, it also has Cheliax; its big, bad, decadent empire. Which has turned to devil worship. While mine would not be so big, and probably have more worship than actual devils, I like the idea. Only wish I could have more devils or at least place them in connection to a faith. Probably won't be the Cycle though, as it draws more from pagan faiths; malevolent spirits and trickster godlings are more fitting.

I have also considered angels, but they probably won't be tied to a religion. Instead they will be big, horned, faceless and speak in riddles.

Quote from: Conundrum CrowI have also considered angels, but they probably won't be tied to a religion. Instead they will be big, horned, faceless and speak in riddles.

I'd just like to say that this sounds freaking awesome. Would be a shame to not have them included.

>>A small entry from the Broken Verge bestiary. Is it evocative enough? Or did I perhaps go too far in my feeble attempts to make them horrifying yet intriguing, turning them into overdone clichéd feature-pillars?

How long have Ghouls been seen? Are they a recent phenomena or have they always been around?

They have been around as long as anyone can remember. They are neither necromantic experiments nor symptoms of a plague. They simply are. Yet their appearance and behaviour sets them apart from a common beast in the eyes of most people.  

This might not mesh perfectly with what I have previously written, but this gives a pretty good view of how I see the setting at the moment. I'm finally beginning to set some of the geography in stone! I'll try to post more in the near future, but my schedule is hectic. Tell me if there is something you don't get or want to hear more about.  

A note on geography: the main continents (Chimer/Besmakia) are in the east and the focus of the setting is on the southern hemisphere where Besmakia lies (although the Penitent States mentioned below are north of the equator). The Known World is smaller, denser, and a little colder than our own world, but the continents are otherwise fairly earth-like.    

Regions of the Known World

The Nemeic Sea, the Severs and the Penitent Kingdoms
At the veritable center of the Known World lies the Nemeic Sea. While much of the sea's coastline remains dark and sparsely populated, the torch of civilization shines a bit brighter in the Nemeic Sea. Dominated by the Eberian navy, the trade lanes in the northern reaches of the sea are some of the safest in the world. It is here one finds the prosperous harbor-cities of the  Penitent Kingdoms, the most important hub of trade and culture in all of the many seas. Sadly, they were also the ones who suffered the most during the Fourth Plague and they have yet to recover fully.
Separating the Nemeic Sea from the Sea of Prayers are the Severs, a chain of small rugged islands off the Eberian coast. As the Northern gateway to the Nemeic Sea, several fortresses have been built on these rocks, but a few monasteries and shrines to gods and saints, particularly those of the sea, are also found here.

Further south the waters turn rougher and less patrolled. Here private trading companies and privateers prowl and the trade is centered around the outlet of the river Umber, where iron is shipped upriver from Ferzest, as well as the passages to the Low Sea and Besmakia.          


The Jorinter Sea,  Besmakia and Beyond
South of the Penitent Kingdoms, past the Black Garden Passes, lies the rugged continent called Besmakia.   Trapped in the grasp of the Cold Years up until 900 years ago, civilization remains a fledgling thing. Besmakia has a long history of war and plague and has been ruled by both Hororine, Setchmen and a madman. The madman, the Winter King, was the last to shape the dark frontier into an empire and it was this brief golden age that kept Besmakia from a life of obscurity and occupation. The last World Exhibition was set to take place in the old imperial capital of Kolyaev, but the Fourth Plague came first.
Besmakia and Itelghast are separated by a frigid sea called the Jorinter Sea which reaches all the way to the prosperous Whisperlands who hold the monopoly on Ambrosia. Beyond the Jorinter lies the Ocean of Leviathans. Only storms, monsters and drowned men reside there. The Jorinter Sea is known for being plagued by corsairs, but it is also much frequented by whalers and merchants from further north.      

Regions yet to be detailed:
 

*

The Low Sea and the Lonely Ocean
*The Bay of Sighs and the Quenyian Sovereignty
*The Sea of Prayers and the Islands
*The Cold South
[/list]

Religions

Therennial Cycle
Originating in Setch from where it spread to the colonies and the Penitent States, even as far as Olm in the Low Sea. With deep roots in old pagan faiths its rituals are fraught with sacrifice and  humble reverence for inhuman gods. Its pantheon is constituted by 4  capricious deities, each encompassing different aspects of the divine nature.  

The Dyadic Divinity of Paende
Although the Paendites believe in an all-powerful Creator, it is not He they worship as He is great, but uncaring. Instead they offer prayer to his servant Paende, brought into being to appease the Creator's loneliness. She saw what humanity could become with her guidance and stole flame and thought from her master. She was punished for her blasphemy and torn into two, one half stuck in dreams  and the other in fire. The Paendites believe the world to be made of Agony and Dream, sensation and contemplation. Fire and dreamtelling obviously have major roles in the rituals of the religion.  

Urdism
Older than even the Cycle, Urdism is a term that encompasses the occult lore of old Besmakia and southern Chimer, a combination of withcraft and animism. Although only a religion in the loosest sense of the word, its followers have long been oppressed by the therennists and the paendites. Powerful and sometimes malevolent spirits such as Baba Yogol and the Howling Tree play central roles in the practice of the religion.    

The Black Faith
The Black Faith is almost only followed in the Whisperlands, but there it is ubiquitous. Living in a harsh world, they believe there is no good, only evil, taking the form of the tormentor spirits called the Many. Humanity must cower and keep a pure heart to avoid their notice. The Black Faith has strict rules about every aspect of life and their entire culture is built around it. Their holy men take the sins of their flock upon themselves and cry blasphemies from tall towers so that the Many will come to them and not pursue the common man.      

Inheritism
At its core, Inheritism preaches that the gods, whoever they were, have died or abandoned us and that mankind will take their place. They place their faith with the saints, men raised to near-divinity, and follow in their footsteps. The cult is small but influential and there exists several pilgrim and templar orders within their ecclesiarchy.  

(the river/mountain mysticism of the Union, for those who remember that, will probably be a sect of the Cycle. The Setchic might have an (un)orthodox sect of the Cycle as well)

Races and the World
Moshrayah
Moshrayah can be found in most cities and sometimes even in smaller communities. Although they still leave many at unease they are accepted by most excepting a few right-wing factions. Some dwell in regular housing, but most inhabit the underground ghetto-bazaars of their kind. Usually under their own de facto rule, these places are dens of vice and safe havens from prejudice. Humans often venture into their domains in search of their craftmanship and illicit wares.

The Melek
The Melek are still viewed with great suspicion. They are often confined to small neighborhoods and in some places they are more likely to be slaves than free. Those who don't live in the cities are either part of small travelling troupes or savage clans who've forsaken the new path chosen by their Freemen brethren. Many of the communities still keep a Fury: a bestial guardian who fuels its bloodthirst with secretions from its own body. In some instances they are the only sign that you are not amongst humans anymore. Humans are especially afraid that the Melek will steal their children in the dead of night and leave their own twisted offspring instead. The stories behind this urban myth are of course far more often a question about how human the father actually was to begin with.

Swarm Gods
Less numerous than the other races the Swarm Gods follow many different paths. There is much prejudice against them and both fear and ignorance feature in most interactions with them. They are always at risk of being denied service or common courtesies, but they have less to fear from slavers and murderers than the average human. Any attempt on their life is likely to be horribly misguided by superstitition. Some people in Besmakia treat them with a nervous reverence instead of fear and on occasion they go as far to present them with gifts and sacrifices.

Urluq
The Urluq are met with wonder and healthy respect rather than hatred and this is the way it has always been. The ancient humans cleverly agreed that war with the Urluq would be unfruitful. Urluq are often wanderers and their visits are seen as signs of good luck. People often come to  them to seek guidance or simply to gawk.Besides these visitors, they are mostly left alone. The Urluq cultivate few friendships if left to their own devices.          

The Black Faith is pretty interesting and original. How do they maintain a unified collective knowledge of their taboos, if these are as complex and numerous as it seems?

The rules will be passed on to the children by parents, priests and teachers and the priests especially are of course rigorously trained in all of the rituals. The practice of some of the rituals is limited to the priesthood, but everyone knows the common rules of living: to speak only in hushed voices, to wear dark colors, to cover one's skin from the eyes of the Many, how to eat properly, how to speak. All of the rules are also recorded in ancient books bound in reindeer skin, kept in the vaults of their cities. The whisperlanders (named for the fact that they never raise their voices) do not live in a secular society and their justice system and government is tightly interwoven with their religious webs of taboos, doctrines and edicts.

I'll admit that I haven't read the entire thing yet - though I fully intend to, this setting is freaking awesome, but I the Nowhere Legion is A) the most awesome name for a fantasy doomsday terrorist cult ever and B) I want more information on them because what I have so far is amazing. Why do people join? Do all seek total civilization downfall, or do some have other goals? Did they really burn the Library? Who are there typical members, and what are they like? Please more!

All fantastic. haha, sorry if you wanted more, but thats about it. religions are particuallry good. and the Rregions, love the name Neimic Sea, Severs is also fantastic, very Meville.

only thing that seemed jarring was the World Exhibition. I love the idea, but would change the name. Maybe a made-up name to better fit the setting?

Most join the Nowhere Legion because they believe in the cause, a few join because they want to lash out at a world that wronged them. The fall of civilization is the first goal, but not the final goal, as they want to make a new and better world out of the ruins of the old. Some ambitious members might already be laying plans for this second step. A Legionnaire could be anyone, really, that is what makes them so terrifying. They will try to pass for ordinary people until their knives are needed and they are in the right place at the right time.    
Since you like them, how do you feel about the existence of the Harbinger as a figurehead? Would they be better off as a completely faceless organization of doomsday revolutionaries? I'm leaning towards the latter, would be good to hear another view on the matter.

Leetz, I agree that the World Exhibition is a bad term... I was close to not writing it at all, but it is a pretty significant event in their history so I had to write something and I had no better ideas. A council implies an entirely different kind of gathering and World Fair carries the same 1900's tone. I'm also a bit on the fence as to the name of the Black Faith. I like the contrast between the very dark religion and the kind-hearted people who believe in it, but I fear using the word Black lumps it together with names in the vein of "Mountains of Doom".  

EDIT: what about Great Centennial instead of World Exhibition?

Thaumaturgy
The world around us is in many ways but a fragile illusion. One little secret whispered in your ear and the world you thought you knew disappears forever only to be replaced by something stranger. The thaumaturgies are secrets like these, secrets which make the world seem fluid for an instant before it settles again and reveals that not everything that is impossible can't be done.
There are no unifying laws of magic, nothing to connect one thaumaturgy to another. They are lonely secrets, each with their own doctrines, pitfalls, and limitations. The following are a list of the most common thaumaturgies, but, secrets being secrets, there might be many more.
The common populace knows little of the following and their knowledge of magic is restricted to what they have heard of in myths and stories. The only magic they know is the one of lucky amulets , muttered curses and words of omens and caution passed from mother to child for generations.  
 
Musesong
An extraordinary ability carried by the Muses of Quenye. Stories of their exploits have spread far and wide enough for the Muses to be surrounded by awe rather than obscurity, although the myths are now more lie than truth. Their voices are the sound of soft silk and sweet honey and their screams are harbingers of ruin. The Muses were bred by the courts  of Quenye first to entertain and later for war and now their descendants walk the world as artists and mercenaries. Most Muses are female, but the most powerful of their kind remain the male Ur Castrati.    

Reification
Reifiers toy with what laymen call language and bring the abstract to life. They deal with the things lost somewhere between sense and nonsense, where ambiguity and doubt turn existence fluid. They enforce their will on the linguistic constructs they call from nowhere and bind the spirits to their own mortal flesh with iron and metaphor. The words they subjugate grant different abilities, but most make the world bend in strange and wondrous ways. Some of the words that are known to have been bound are Word-Aligning-with-Memory, Presence-Unwanted  and Sense-in-Pieces, geists of Truth, Fear and Ambiguity.      

Deathtelling
Those who cross the border between life and death, even if just for a few terrible moments, can never truly come back to the world of the living. While the truly dead can't return, there are a few who have stradled that terrible precipice before their breath returned. These people risk becoming deathtellers. The tellers are cursed with brief flashes of ruin and putrefaction scarring the world around them, enough to drive many mad. These visions seem to be meaningless although terrible, but in the presence of cadavers their insight turns uncanny. They always know the cause of demise and exactly when it took place, just by looking at the body and if they look into its cold, dead eyes they see the last few moments of the deceased reflected in them.

The Empty Path
Originally a Paendite monastic order, these monks acknowledge that the world is perceived through agony and that the only way to see behind the Veil is to excise one's very existence. Only by not being seen can you truly see. Through ritual and mutilation they shed the mortal coils one after the other, destroying their human senses so other things can take their place. They even remove their names and their blood, replacing the first with nothing and the latter with sand.
The Empty Monks are no one and everything, faceless and serene. The last thing they excise is their very humanity, or what passes for it, and their quest for a singular moment of both perfect immorality and perfect innocence makes them some of the world's foremost assassins.            

oh I like the idea of the World Exhibition, its really only the name that sounds trange.

Also, love Empty Path, seems strangely familiar...

hehe, yeah, the Empty Monks are based on the same idea that you used to make the Aethemar. You just took it in a slightly different direction than I originally proposed so I thought I might as well do them myself too :p
Hope they are different enough. I have some half-designed mythology to back them and the sand is new.

haha go for it dude. Also remind me of the Faceless Men from SOIAF. Good stuff alla round.

After a fight with my computer and some trouble redoing all the work my computer threw away I can now present this really amateur map. I would have done more work on it tonight, but my driver's license test is tomorrow and I started learning GIMP yesterday so that will have to wait. Just thought you guys might want some insight into the world of the Verge.
The outline was done by hand, scanned in, and cleaned up with edge detection, thresholding, some basic morphology and good ol' manual labor.
 
[spoiler=Known World]

(//../../e107_files/public/1305750072_406_FT131552_knownworldmap_.jpg) (//../../e107_files/public/1305750072_406_FT131552_knownworldmap.jpg)

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It seems that the world is mostly covered by dry land, with enormous continents all fairly close to each other. No real oceans to speak of, and the lion's share of existing landmass appears to be located in the tropics/equatorial zone. What do you percieve as the overall size of the world? Similar to Earth or bigger/smaller?

I wrote this in one of the earlier posts.

Quote from: Superfluous CrowA note on geography: the main continents (Chimer/Besmakia) are in the east and the focus of the setting is on the southern hemisphere where Besmakia lies (although the Penitent States mentioned below are north of the equator). The Known World is smaller, denser, and a little colder than our own world, but the continents are otherwise fairly earth-like.    

When I say denser here, I mean that the continents are more tightly packed together as you yourself mention. This is intentional. What is perhaps not made very clear by the map is that the Lonely Ocean in the west and the Ocean of Leviathans in the east are not necessarily the same body of water. This is the Known World, and as such there might very well be other things across the sea. Sadly, the seas are rough and stormy and thus act as impassable barriers surrounding the cluster of land. By making the world so land-heavy I'm trying to convey a tone of isolation and confinement, while also granting the land and earth some majesty and scale that is usually reserved for seas.
Although I am kind of an idiot when it comes to scale...
While the globe is smaller, the continents are still fairly big and the entire world is pretty vast by itself. The biggest problem as I see it is that with the planet being a sphere, there isn't a lot of space left west and east. I could perhaps stretch it out, or leave more water at the edges?        

you could just focus on the regions around the Nemeic Sea, with Kolyaev jutting up from the south and other continents poking in on other sides.

Although the Nemeic Sea is a cultural center, the actual focus of the setting is on Besmakia and Itelghast/the Union instead of the old centers of civilization such as Setch (far north-east), the Penitent States (the coast of the Chimer bay) and Quenye (the enclosed bay in Quenye).

I think this setting screams for fire-arms. It would actually be a good thing in this setting. And crossbows too, keep them as well.

I'm a bit torn on the subject of firearms. On one hand they fit an anachronistic setting like BV perfectly. On the other they simply make death too easy. A gun is power, and it is easy power. So it's really a question of how the setting handles them.
I'd probably make them somewhat difficult to come by. Should I restrict it to low-level blackpowder or do revolvers and their ilk seem a closer fit for the tone of the setting?  

Quote from: Superfluous CrowI'm a bit torn on the subject of firearms. On one hand they fit an anachronistic setting like BV perfectly. On the other they simply make death too easy. A gun is power, and it is easy power. So it's really a question of how the setting handles them.
I'd probably make them somewhat difficult to come by. Should I restrict it to low-level blackpowder or do revolvers and their ilk seem a closer fit for the tone of the setting?  

I think very basic, single-shot muskets and pistols. You get one shot, one shot that is unpredictable (could easily work in a mechanic to see if it works properly or backfire or doesnt ignite or even explodes in the users hand!) that is very innacurate and only deadly if it hits something squishy. A cross-bow bolt would probably be a more reliable weapon and just as deadly. Reload times would also be a burden, and price could be high as well. Even if you had an entire brace of pistols, you only would have a couple shots before all the guns were exhausted or your enemies draw close with pointy things. Could easily work in BV.

I have a policy not to include undead in my setting, but these guys get fairly close. They are not so much dead (or undead), though as they are very, very alive. They are one of the beasts of Broken Verge, although a man-made one, and the idea for them is from my mental archive of old setting ideas. I posted something similar in one of the older incarnations of BV.  

Maruts
Close to the instant separating a man's life and his death, one would find that the man's body stays the same on both sides of the Veil. The secret of life doesn't lie with the material and alchemists and sages through the ages can hardly be blamed for their belief in what they call the Animating Force; the thing separating us from the rocks and water.
It seems so simple. We as well as creatures much more insignificant than us are infused by this force.We are in a way but machines of flesh and blood driven by the vital essence we ourselves produce in a near-perpetual cycle. Yet the secret of life eludes the human sciences.
There are those who still seek for it, though, and the Maruts are their creation. They know that all machines the body can be stripped of its superfluous elements, made more efficient. So instead of making life themselves they chose to remake what was already there.
Flooding a man's veins with esoteric alchemical substances they can make the body more than alive; they can make it burn with Life Itself. Sadly, few mortal vessels can truly withstand such intense vivacity. Any sane mind will be scoured away by a rampant flood of pain and passion. Yet the body carries on. The body will inevitably start to shrivel as the water evaporates. Yet the body carries on. Then, ever so slowly, the virulent life will pick apart the very flesh it inhabits, adding fuel to its own fire as it does so. Yet the body carries on.
These twisted mockeries of men live their lives in a state of revelry and agony until they finally burn out and the last of their body disintegrates into dust. To prolong their existence, their makers cut them open while the transformation is yet incomplete and fill their body with sugar and preservative fluids.  
The Marut can be discerned from ghouls and men by the bright electric fire burning within their mouths and where their eyes should have been. Sparks and arcs of electricity leap from their skin and if truly angered they have been known to throw bolts of lightning flying through the air. They never sleep and they feel the steady flow of life through those around them. They do not rely on eyes any longer since they evaporated along with the blood in their veins. Although their bodies are fragile, this, along with their inhuman strength and grace, make them excellent guardians for those who can control them. Or maybe they will reveal the real secret of life if we look closely enough.  

That is it for the description. Do these things constitute a good creative idea? Personally I like some of their quirks (like the sugar stuffing, the evaporated eyeballs and their state of constant mad revelry) and most of the writing, but I fear they lack something. Should they pose more of an active danger as escaped predators? Should there be some kind of incentive for them to work for their creators? Should I keep the part of their nature where they burn out quickly or should they be able to continue their existence by feeding off their surroundings (flowers wilting, metals rusting)?

There doesn't seem to be any real reason why their eyes would evaporate but they otherwise retain mostly intact forms. Perhaps it would make more sense if you made the brain a particularly charged-up organ, ejecting excess energy as electric bolts through openings in the skull (ie. eye sockets) during the creation of a marut. Although logically this should also destroy the nose and most of the soft tissue around the mouth.

I like the concept of overly vivacious beings locked in constant carousal before inevitably burning out. They do seem to lack a role as more than just freaky experiments though.

a still sentient Marut would make a great villain that you could maybe sympathize with.

and on a side not, they do not scream undead at all, maybe a little Frankensteins monster, but not anything like "uggghhh brains" undead. Two thumbs up!

and hows the debate with guns coming along?

I really should have read more of this sooner. It's great, but also very.. specific. I love the details of the crossbows, and of the Lady of the Sweetest Breath, and so on, but I want to see more about other equally cool things too! Also, are you aware that in the bit about the Lady you have a paragraph that ends mid-sentence? It makes me very curious as to what Her priesthood wear, almost as if it was an arcane secret that has been censored out of the text :P

Oh, and also, I have to disagree about firearms - I think their presence would cheapen the crossbows somehow, and seeing as you've given crossbows so much character, that would be a real shame.

Firearms and crossbows could coexist with less conflict if you shove them into clearly different niches. Much like Leetz suggested, guns could be cheap, inaccurate and unreliable, effectively single-shot weapons. Useful mostly for close-range firing and for arming masses of expendable peasant conscripts. The crossbows in contrast would be accurate even at longer ranges, reliable and reloadable, although they may lack the sheer power of bullets to pierce/dent armour.

Quote from: GhostmanThere doesn't seem to be any real reason why their eyes would evaporate but they otherwise retain mostly intact forms. ...

The idea was that all the water in their bodies would evaporate, including the water in the eyes. It doesn't seem hopelessly implausible, although saying the entire eye would evaporate might be going a bit too far.

I think I will make guns a very recent invention; the volatile toys of the nouveau riche. The only place they might have come into common knowledge is through duelling. They are by no means considered for the military yet.    

I hadn't noticed the missing paragraph. I will try to fix it, although my religion is currently undergoing some merging and redesign (with my most recent religion post as the newest baseline).
 

Quote from: Superfluous CrowI hadn't noticed the missing paragraph. I will try to fix it, although my religion is currently undergoing some merging and redesign (with my most recent religion post as the newest baseline).

Please don't get rid of the King in Stitches/Hungry Mother/Hanged Man/Beggar of Twos! Even just the names are so evocative, I love 'em.

Don't worry! I have no intention of removing those. :)