The Campaign Builder's Guild

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. :)