Celtricia

[Tybalt]

Interesting. You know it is quite helpful to have pc generation examples as I'm sure you are aware, so you might want to do that for character generation explanation.

Out of curiousity has it been difficult for your players to keep track of all the names of groups, factions, places and classes, which all seem very creative and unique to your setting?

[LordVreeg]

Yes and no, as to the keeping track.
Due to the the level of consistency in the game, the guilds and factions are pretty well known.  Some of the newer players have some problems, but not once they've ben there for a while.
The mechant and trading guilds are a different story, but they are supposed to be.  The Sceding Tree, the Winfire trading group, and the Vissipee trading group are the big players, but the Teque Traver's guild, the Hallier House of Value, The Grayse family Traders, the Rissa House have all been introduced to the Igabrians, though the lesser ones are all allied with bigger trading corporations.  The Grey Legion, the name of the last Igbarian group, actually incorporated and chartered at 'The Grounds of Dismissal', and had actually rented a major table in that assembly.
I say thay are supposed to be, becasue I encourage the confusion that goes on there, the new money and their attitude, and how it runs into old wealth.  Vinivixias, TrAder-Prime from the Sceding Tree, was the groups main patron, while the group also kwept finding clues that the Winfire group was actually selling weapons and taking bribes from the FireHazer Humanoid Clan in the Wibble Hills outside Igbar.

But for the main, I will take some credit but also say that every player I choose is very, very into character development. It is to the point that much of the depth of a guild comes from them.  The Church of Amrist, God of the Harvest, has been developed to a ridiculous point, due to a few players.  Having the players that are really into what the name of their holy texts are (the Chaff of Life, Seeds in the Wind, Scythe & Season, in Amrist's case--The Book of Travels and The Road is Home, for Oblimet...etc), other guild members, the history of the guilds and factions, really has become a point of pride and place for the players.  

I will try to expand on the character creation of the Igbarians over the next week.

[LordVreeg]

Celtrician Worship

Worship is an essential part of the puzzle of Celtricia.Worship is not merely motions to go through, the relationship a person has with the church or churches they belong to says much about their personality.  People are expected and encouraged to go to different churches, and while there is a lot of competition, the 'Pact Veritus' of High Priestess Manwessa holds true in all most of the Celtrician continent.
For there is no doubt that the gods are real.Too often have their avatars made plain their opinions, too often do they nudge events, too plainly do they bicker, and sometime, too obvious are their favorites.
The 'Pact Veritus' states that a person shall not be be held to a church, and no secular penalty or favor can be levied based on a person's religious affiliation.  In practise, there is some nepotism, but the 'Pact Veritus' is strong, and all the churches will rush to enforce it.  

Gods have different aspects, as they are large, old and complex beings, beyond the ken of the Iesuicua (White Omwo~ for 'Earthbound'). There can be no complete knowledge of a being so complex.  Madrak is a Lord of the Earth, and of solidity,  He a patron of wrestlers and of Gems.  The Klaxik viewpoint sees him as a stern father figure, while another view knows him as Minious Stottar, patron of Clan leaders, and of hard choices.  Hewecar is the Demon Lord of Blood, and of liquids.  Alchemy and poison are some of his bailiwicks, And he is also a God of Transformations.  
As such, different churches will focus on the aspects of the deity they feel are the real ones, and it is the incomplete earthbound understanding of these beings that cause this.  The Igbarian Church of Grazzt the Redeemer is has a very different view of their deity, and a very different focus, than Onacon's Church of the Sword of Grazzt.

There are dozen;s of major Deities, and probably close to a hundred minor deities in current worship.  It is agreed by every major sect that Oronath created the Prime Existence with his brother Thanatos.  And while the planets were still globs of mud circling the twin suns, they created their children, the Major Celestial Planars, which were formed in this order; Madrak the Mighty, Nebler the Defender,  Anthraxus the Decayed, Asmodeus the Ruler, Amerer the Balance, Pablar the Steel General, Orcus the Shepherd of the Dead, and then Jubilex of Chaos.
These eight beings, while sometimes in great strife, made much of the foundations of Celtricia and the Prime existence.
After Celtricia had been arranged, the Celestial Planars dwelt on it.  And many of their children were formed.  Ceminiar, father of the Omwo~, Zeldar and Wakikchon, the Makers of the Klaxik,  Yeenoghu, who made the goblin and gnoll races, Grazzt, father of the Sauroids, and many more.  This was the beginning of the Age of Legend, when the Planars walked the earth.  The Omwo~ and the Sauroid, their first servants, created the first Douh'is (White Omwo~ for 'Great House') in the Vale of Silence, and the early Omwo~ and Sauroids learned from them.
The Omwo~ created their first legendary city, The White City in what is the first recorded act of the Iesuicua, in what is 'Dadem An' (Common Omwo~ for 'Cycle First'), or -7150 in the Reckoning of Nebler.  Keith and his fourteen followers were the first inhabitants, were the sole inhabitants, until the first birthings of the Omwo~, procreation, the gift that took all the planars to conceive of, as it took so many of their attributes, of life, and death, and balance, and more.

Later, I will tell the stories of the Accords of Presence, and of Anthraxus rebellion of them, and how it ended the Age of Legends, and yet began the Age of Heroes.

[Tybalt]

MOST interesting--so you have adapted a number of traditional D&D deities/demons and made them into what appear as normal benevolent ones! One thing I rather like is that these are all part of a pantheon so that they fit together. A few questions:

1. Is Thanatos the traditional god of death?
2. Is Orcus an ambivalent and necessary deity like Hades?
3. Are the humanoid deities respected by humans as well?

[LordVreeg]

Tybalt,
Good questions to my strange cosmology.  But don't feel like the Demons and devils are all cookies and butterscotch; the important dynamic to understand is that while Jubilex of Change and Irony is worshipped in Igbar as a very popular church, Ther is a sect of the Zyjmanese humanoids, to the north and east of Igabr whose priests worship Jubilex the Chaos-bringer.  The key to understanding Celtrician worship is the incompleteness of the Earthbound knowledge of these Celestial PLanars, and how these gods foster that gaining worship.

[blockquote=Tybalt]1. Is Thanatos the traditional god of death?[/blockquote]

Yes and no.  In the 'Song of Creation', Thanatos is the created, schizophrenic opposite of Oronath, the Bringer of the Song.  So Thanatos is the partially a God of Death, but is more a God of Uncreating, a God of necessary endings, as well as of Death.  He is nominally the ruler of the House of Death, but actually does no ruling, and has little interaction with the other, later Gods.  He was worshipped heavily by the Steel Isle Venolvians, and the Prelacy of Xamdu has shrines to him, far to the south.

[blockquote=Tybalt]2. Is Orcus an ambivalent and necessary deity like Hades?[/blockquote]

Again, yes and no.   Orcus the Shepherd of the Dead, and the keeper of ancestry is worshipped by the Grey March Necropolian Guard, on what was once the Corpusmount.  Almost all people make prayers to him as well as well as others to help guide the souls of the recently departed to the Well of Souls in the House of Death, and there to be sped to the keeping of their God.
Yet Orcus is also a god of the Undead, and has an aspect that spends time promoting the agenda of un-life over life.  Powerful Necromancers, Vampires and Lichs find favor in Orcus' strength, as they create more undead.  

[blockquote=Tybalt]3. Are the humanoid deities respected by humans as well?[/blockquote]

Aspects of them are.  Ceminiar is also God of the Forests and the deep woods.  Zeldar might have been one of the sons of Madrak that created the Klaxik, but many warrios of many races worship his aspect as a Lord of Just Vengeance.
So there are not really humanoid deities.  There are deities that had a part in creating some of the humanoids, and as such have a special place for them, but there is no god of the elves, just a god who created them but has many other aspects.  The fastest growing Hobyt deity in Northern Celtricia is AMrist, God of wheat and the Autumn Harvest, and of the seasons.  Amrist is a son of Ceminiar, and so neither had any part in the creation of the Hobyts, yet they have a deep love of growith things and the planting of crops, so Amrist's tenets suit them.

Hope that made some sense.  Did you read the 'Song of Creation' on my first post on the thread?

[LordVreeg]

Hosta Hab Needleswine-Klaxik Lord of Frigid Song in Igbar
The Frigid Song is one of the pre-eminent Bardic guilds in Igbar, and is known as such.
They have skalds singing or playing in a dozen stages in a given night in Igbar, hearing all, and seeing all.
Hosta is a Klaxik in his decided later years, that is to say, he is strong and mean, as all aging dwarves are, but there is a certain amount of grey in his aging beard.  The Lyre is Hosta's major instrument, and he carries with him a adamantine lyre of influence (+15% on all social /charming).  He wears scaled leather armor of silence (+15% on Basis sneak).
Most often found in the Frigid song guildhall, Hosta can still be found in the dives of Igbar looking for undiscovered talent.  He is also seen in the Harou sections od town.
Hosta was very close to the blackstripes at one point, and now harbours something of an 'anti-thief' attitude.  He disdains all the thieve's guilds, but especially the Blackstripes.

[Tybalt]

Good replies on the deities, that makes a great deal of sense and says a lot about the moral ambivalence that seems to prevail in your world--am I right in understanding it thus?

I quite like your skald...unfortunate that he got stuck with the name "Needleswine" though--is that inherited, earned or what?

[LordVreeg]

Could anyone possibly type as badly as I do?  

[blockquote=Tybalt the reknowned]I quite like your skald...unfortunate that he got stuck with the name "Needleswine" though--is that inherited, earned or what?[/blockquote]
Which leads me to another of the idiosyncracies.  Hosta Hab Needleswine could be translated as 'Hosta of the Hab family of the Needleswine clan"

The Needleswine Clan is a clan of primarily Hybern Klaxik.  Hybern Klaxik are dwarves that have interbred heavily with Hobyts, so they are slightly smaller and less hairy (the same way that Red Hobyts, who have interbred with Klaxik, are taller and stronger than normal Hobyts).  The Needleswines are a newer clan, 3 generations old, but are part of the Klaxik group planning a return to Nebler's Shield Mountain.
Also, Karm Vix Klaxik means Karm of the Vix family of Dwarves...this signifies the Vix family has no clan affiliation.  Gartier and orcs use the same name pattern, as do some other humanoids.

[blockquote=Sage Tybalt]Good replies on the deities, that makes a great deal of sense and says a lot about the moral ambivalence that seems to prevail in your world--am I right in understanding it thus?[/blockquote]
A few notes on this..
First off, people see what they want to in their Gods.  People have imperfect understandings of these beings, and that is one of the underlying themes of the Celtrician mythos.  I dislike simplified, static Churches.  Nothing is more satisfying to me as a GM than when the mythos is deep enough so the players actually can understand and extrapolate fomr it, due to the sense of realism.  Drono Bidlebee took a seedling from the Stenron PLatrform of Harvest, where they have a huge, old second generation Asslewood tree in the center of the Platform (Asslewood trees are actually from the House of Earth, and even second generation (slightly debased) Asslewood is extremely rare, wonderful and valuable) to the Miston Platform of the Harvest, but it was his idea.  It was not a GM setup, or even on my radar.  But he knew that it would be tremendously meaningful to the Amristians of Miston.  A great moment for any GM.
Moral ambivalence...Hmm.  There certainly is a lack of moral absoluteness in the mythos, and if that is what you mean, you are right.  Gods are rarely all good, or all bad.  Grazzt certainly has a noble side in Celtricia, and Abradaxus has an absoluteness of justice that borders on the cruel.

Also important in understanding the cosmology is understanding the different power sources in the void, which is also where the Celestial PLanars all hang out, since the Accords of Presence.  Daemons live on the House of Death, Devils on the Ninth House, Demons on the Eight House.  Spells that use chaos actually pull  actually pull from the Well of Chaos on the Eight house.  There is a House of Earth and a House of Water, but the House of Fire is no longer, and the Well of Fire was recreated on the Third Station in the Void, but it is still weaker than the original Well on the House of Fire that is no longer.

[Tybalt]

Actually that's brilliant--of course many of us assume that it is fantasy rpg and therefore everyone knows the gods like they're close cousins when in fact they are likely to be mysteries. I really like that.

[Numinous]

I've been lurking on this thread a lot, but Tybalt seems to have the critiquing under control.  With a lack of anything useful to say, there's little reason to post.

However, I did think it was worth stopping in to applaud your use of speciific aspects of deities being worshipped differently based on the various facets of a godlike being.  I use this approach, combined with the influence of faith upon a being formed from thought, as the rule of thumb in my settings as well.

Keep up the good work, and I'll keep reading.

[LordVreeg]

Ritual Magic
Witchcraft is another facet of the Celtrician world.  Due to the level systems used, and the many types of spell power sources needed for higher powered spells, there comes a time when the pc's, and even more when the NPC's need a little crutch for casting.
Witchcraft is a casting skill that uses ritual to allow a caster to cast spells that would be beyond their level, or to add that skill onto their spell success %
Ritual magic is a skill.  Using it requires basic reagents, and tripling the reagent's needed for the spell.  It also takes a minimum of 1/2 an hour, or 10 minutes per segment the spell actually takes to cast.  So if the caster is trying to cast Vernidale's Hold, which has an initiative of 3, it would take 3* 10 minutes, or a thirty minute ritual.  A write magic spell has an initiative of 20, so casting it as a ritual would take 10 min*20, 200 minutes, so 3 hours, 20 minutes.  
 [note]Yay!  Celtrician spellbook is up to 467 spells[/note]
If used as a ritual, the care and time taken add the ritual magic ability to the spell success ability of the caster, increasing the likelihood of success.  In addition, the caster's abiliy is added to the spirit spell points of the caster, allowing spells with higher spell points than normally possible to be cast.
Witches often come from areas where the teaching of the different spell types is somewhat weak, so that to augment their weaker abilities, they are strong in ritual magic.

There is a subskill of ritual magic, hard to learn, called 'true Ritual'  This is the abilty to have multiple witches come together to cast.  

[LordVreeg]

Kasarack Kabi Bekin-Klaxik All-seeing Viewer of the Eyes, Member of Stenron's Scythe, and Bookholder of the Cartographer's Library of Stenron.
Yes, that means Kasarack of the family Kabi of the Clan Bekin, for those of you reading many of the posts.
 The plural at the end of Eye is intentional.  The Eye is the name of the Thieve's guild Kasarak patched together in Stenron, capitol of the Grey March, the largest city of Celtricia.  Back in 879, He and his band slew the master assassin of The Tightened Torq, a vicious band of assassins that had a contract out on Gandon Brightbluelimbs, another member of the Scythe.  At that point, Kasarak was already near the top of his own guild, the Headmen.  Kasarak went to the Headman, and 'explained' that it would be best if he combined the two guilds, with him in charge. The Headman became head-less, and this left Kasarak, only 29 years old (barely 20 in human years), as the head of 2 guilds.  He changed the name to 'the Eye', and by 882, had become the dominant guild in the richest, largest city in the known world.  
Not content, he set his sights on spreading the Eye to different areas, and he used other members of the Scythe of Stenron (his adventuring band) as a hammer to back his moving into other guild territory.  In 890, he Julian Sempre Lerianolies (also a Stenronian Scythe)and his guild were instrumental in helping Palimar foil a coup attempt in Igbar.  Today, the Eye has major representation in most of the Stenronian Alliance, and is trying to break into cities in the Argus-held territories.  (and Julian is the Unicorn Steward, acting King of Trabler).  The Eye has grown to rival the blackstripes of Heliopolis Von Arbor as the largest Thieves guild.
So anyone with the title 'Eyes' instead of 'Eye' has a title in the small group that loosely runs the confederation of guilds.
Kasarak is 42 now, not even middle aged yet.  His eye is steady and his view is long.  He's a black klaxik, stubby and barrel shaped, and wears a suit of black hardened leather armor with 2 lines of red piping coming doen his right shoulder, and 2 that circle him as a belt.  This is armor of the Bard, created in the Age of Heroes for the followers of the Warlock Numansongs some three thousand years before [note=Armor of the Bard](-15% avoid, protect as splint mail (23.6), +15% to hide skills, 10% mr vs all).[/note]  He wields a scythe of rending that gives out a reddish tint when he is not careful.  [note=Scythe of Rending] (+19% to hit, +3 damage, +15% backstab and assassinate skills, Reaves twice a day on command, Enhance Poison-2, once per day)[/note]
Kasarack is also a minor caster specializing in artificing (L5 Spirit-22, L3 artificer-18, L2 chaos-9, L2 mentalist-4).
His thieving abilities and subkills are some of the best in Celtricia.  He is L18 Basic sneak,  and L15 basic trap, and has all the subskills.  
Kasarack has a black sense of humor, sounding like a bugbear for all his quiet, ironic prophesies of doom.  He has not adventured since Pious Pilfer and Bartholemew convinced he and Julian to go looking for Ralphred Regisalio the Ancient red dragon, some 5 years before,  He clearly misses it.  Though he builds both friends and enemies quickly, and both are legion, he recognizes talent, and some of the highest ranking members of the Eye and Eyes were once enemies who he spared.
Kasarak knows people.  He has connections in every court, and uses them to punish rival guilds and to smooth the way for his own.  His best friend rules Trabler, and he is well aquainted with Shambar Eltrinio, newly-crowned Orbhand of the Arcanic table of Orbi.
Kasarak worships Lucky Ishma and Jubilex of Black Humor.  He also donates to the temple of Lost Amerer.
Kasarak spends most of his time in Stenron, and a large amount of time in Hobyt Inn and Igbar.  Igbar is on the front lines, and is the closest city to the coast near Coom Isle, where Heliopolis' Blackstripes reign supreme.  Kasarak has lost many friends to Helioplois and his men, and he hates his rival with a bitter passion.

[Stargate525]

Okay, this thing is awesome. Get yourself a badge, this cool of a system deserves one kicking sweet graphic to go with it.

I will definately try and reveiw this whole thing some time this week. But not toniight, becuase I'm tired and battling a case of food poisoning.

[Tybalt]

Very nice--I really like your npcs. One thing that is striking about them is that they epitomize the uniqueness of your campaign world in every particular, from class to worship to affiliations. Is it common to worship more than one deity? I find that this sort of thing makes one more pagan than otherwise. (the example from my game in my thread is more of a pc having a strong personal allegiance that she gains spells from and then not following the dictates or finding loopholes in them)

[LordVreeg]

Friends, Romans and threaddoctors,  there will come a time when I can get maps up here, and cease my badgeless state.  That's going to take a little more knowledge from other sources.

However, onto the next posting.  I'm posting info from some petty random NPC's, except they all deal with the Igbarian campaign.  Kasarak is more of a 'National Level' NPC, one of those guys the characters hear stories about or legends about.  Many of these types are actually the older characters.  Palimar, Pious Pilfer, and Bartholemew, who have been mentioned in the Kasarak posting, are all examples of old PC's that are still being controlled by their players, but in a very 'big-picture' sort of way.  

[blockquote=Friend Tybalt]Is it common to worship more than one deity? I find that this sort of thing makes one more pagan than otherwise. (the example from my game in my thread is more of a pc having a strong personal allegiance that she gains spells from and then not following the dictates or finding loopholes in them)[/blockquote]

Well, this begs a little analysis.  First of all, allegiance to a faith is somewhat different in a polytheistic society.  In reality, different churches mean different faiths.  St. Marks and St. Paul's are both Catholic churches, and there is not going to be anyone throwing rocks from one to another.  
What we see in many of our mileau are different patrons, not different faiths.  So there is no betrayal in showing obeisance or respect to another church, as it does not mean a turning away from one religion or another.  
And in Celtricia, there is something to be said for the right god for the right situation, as in most polytheistc religions.  Churches in Celtricia tend to reflect this, as the Church of the Lawful Triumverate (Nebler, Rakastra, and Abradaxus) is a construct of men wanting to worship three similar, lawful deitiees with differnt aspects of the law (in their myriad aspects they all share).
Understand also that unknown to the PCs and the world at large, the deities derive a large part of their personal power from worship, and so having the Lawful Triumverate and the Church of Nebler the Shield of the Theocracy of Nebler both in Igbar actually Helps Nebler, though the world does not know it.  There is great competition in the different churches for worship.
It is actually considered normal to show healthy respect for as many of the Celestial PLanars as a person can.  Can't hurt, might help, as they saying goes.
Priests are a somewhat different story, obviously, as they are the shepherds, the salesmen, and the voice of the churches all at once.  This still does not mean that you won't see a priest of Kiminus the Whole in a Temple of Orcus after he has a death in the family.