open/close all folders

Factions

Brother Clans

The Brother Clans are the three largest clans of the Great Valley, who have prospered through devoting themselves to the Three Brothers — Unkillable Urhosh, Kho Many-Arms, and Glelh the Unblinking, the three most powerful gods of the northern Great Valley and three of the five great gods of Planegea. This makes them the primary humanoid civilization of Planegea, although they still share many of the cultural trappings of the lesser clans, such as the need to migrate from the north to winter in the south. Whilst each clan's culture is shaped by their patron god, they share the same pride and aggressive drive.

Action Pet: The Bear Clan has domesticated bears, the Ape Clan allows large primates to roam through their camps, the Lion Clan's hunting parties travel with great cats, which are seen as equals and allies.
- Zigzagged with the Ape Clan; though they respect the large apes that inhabit their lands, those apes aren't always friendly, and the Ape Clan's individual tribes often move their holdings to avoid the anger or dangerous curiosity of the apes when they approach.
The Alliance: Due to their size, each of the Brother Clans contains a mixture of different races, though each is also specifically associated with a different non-human race in particular; the abundant doorways to Nod means the Ape Clan have a large population of elves and half-elves, the stoicism of the Lion Clan breeds strong bonds with the similarly reserved saurians, and the Bear Clan's proximity to the Stone Empire and reverence for strength means they have a large population of half-giants (goliaths).
Boisterous Bruiser: Ulko-Barmazantur commands respect and laughs heartily, leading his people in feast and battle with equal gusto.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The Brother Clans war for dominance of the northern valley during the warm summer months, and would happily exterminate each other if they could, but during winter, they call a truce and focus instead on surviving in the harsh southern valley.
Carry a Big Stick: The Bear Clan prefers bludgeoning weapons. Hunters and warriors carry the heaviest weapons they can, and consider it a point of pride when others are unable to lift their gear.
Combat Pragmatist: Ape Clan hunters and warriors prefer to always fight at an advantage, and have a reputation for cowardice, scattering quickly in battle, although sometimes an apparent retreat is merely a ploy leading the enemy into an ambush.
The Dreaded: Spindark-Who-Stares is the only shaman the winter gods are said to fear. Avoided by all who have no direct need of his magic or counsel, he is a lonely figure, guiding his people by fear and grim consequences for any challenge to his authority.
Embarrassing Nickname: Detractors of the Bear Clan have been known to nickname them "Little Giants", a reference to both the abundance of half-giants in their ranks and the very giant-esque habit some of their tribes have of taking slaves to do their work. The name infuriates the Bear Clan.
The Engineer: It's said that Tambiki has a gnomish grandparent, which might explain the truly brilliant inventions she devises. From folding bone armour to tents that can be set up simply by tossing them to the ground, there's no telling what Tambiki will come up with next.
Fountain of Youth: Gharenki-Yughum is the closest to Kho of any mortal, and feels the effects of that closeness on his bones. When Kho dreams of his youth, the Shaman becomes younger, turning from a bent old man to a youth, and even—sometimes—into a boy no older than eight summers.
The Lost Lenore: Embelek-Ghelem is said to have only loved once in his youth, and that fiercely, but the tragic death of his bride rendered him beyond the reach of any other pain.
Photographic Memory: Uhl-Os-Who-Speaks can flawlessly retain even the most complex of messages, symbols and paintings and recreate them on demand.
Unequal Rites: Being devoted to three of the most powerful gods on Planegea, the Brother Clans despise druids — or, as they are known in Planegea, "god-leeches", who are seen as a threat to the power and even survival of their patron gods.

Council of Day

A secret society of elders, spellskins and other wise men and women who have decided that the greatest protection that humanoids have in the wild, savage world of Planegea is organization, unity and numbers. To this end they promote the centralizing of the disparate tribes, preaching unification for greater prosperity and safety. Not so much to rule over the collective peoples themselves, but simply because they believe that only by coming together and holding strong can humanoids truly thrive in the face of the giants and monsters of Planegea.

Arch-Enemy: The Council of Day is utterly determined to eradicate Kraia's Children. All other considerations disappear when Kraia's involvement is suspected, and the Council will stop at nothing to hunt down and eliminate their agents.
Chaos Is Evil: The central underpinning of their belief is that the wild, chaotic realm in which they live in brings suffering and evil, and that only by organizing and uniting into ever-larger centralized groups can sapient beings thrive.
The Man Behind the Man: Whilst the Council of Day can be found as active leaders, they usually prefer to be advisors and traveling guides, goading and manipulalting rather than directly ruling. Many Council members don't even want power for themselves, they just believe in order as iontegral to the greater good of humanity (and other sapient races, of course).
Order Is Not Good: Because the Council of Day desires strong, centralized authority, they're not always concerned with the morality of that authority, and they've been known to prop up tyrants as well as wise leaders.
Order Versus Chaos: The Council of Day and Kraia's Children are locked in an enternal struggle, as each champions a polar opposite; the Council believes that unity and organization are essential to humanity's survival, but Kraia's Children believe that order invariably becomes tyranny.
Villain Has a Point: Whilst the Council can support some rather sketchy candidates, they're have a point that numbers and unity of purpose are some of humanity's greatest strengths in a world filled with giants, evil spirits and Prehistoric Monsters.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Council's goals are fundamentally noble; they want all people to thrive and prosper, many don't even want power for themselves. But since they only care about strength of will and not so much morality of character, they have been known to ally themselves with some of Planegea's worst tyrants.

Direstaves

Dwelling in the Dire Grazelands to the north of the Great Valley, the Direstaves are a loose alliance of nomadic tribes who herd the giant beasts of their lands, independent of the Brother Clans and other tribes of the Valley, with whom they trade. Though the life is tough and they must constantly battle both predatory beasts and giant raiding parties from the Fire Empire, they take great pride in their strength and their independence.

Improbable Weapon User: The pragmatism of Direstaves leads them to use whatever tool comes to hand, and many choose unusual weapons as a signal of their individuality.
The Münchausen: Direstaves are famous for their wild tales of mammoths so big they fall off the world, herdsmen so hungry they eat a moon, children so loud they crack the Fire Empire's walls. Direstaves love to out-tell each other the most outlandish legends they can come up with, and nights around their campfire are full of laughter as everyone comes up with the most outsized lies they can invent to entertain and amaze.
The Trickster: Tricky Odekh'Uk is known far and wide as a prankster who gets what they want by outwitting others. Tricky Odekh'Uk could be anything—a woman or man, an ox or tree, a giant or lizard or piece of grass. You never know with Tricky Odekh'Uk.
Unequal Rites: Living as nomads in a land with few if any native gods, the Direstaves have no real need for or truck with shamans, and instead embrace druids and rangers, who can tap into the ambient magic of the land itself to work magic that is far more useful for a very animal-based society.

Free Citadel

A human generation ago, the humanoids kept as slaves in a Stone Empire city-state in the Quakewaste rose up against their giant masters and, with the leadership of an orc warrior-woman, slew them all and claimed the city for themselves. Now they guard their precious freedom, which is no easy task.

BFS: In Free Citadel, wielding or wearing giant arms and armour is an act of might and heavy modification. Knives are used as swords, belt-buckles are used as breast-plates. Stone giant craftsmanship and spellwork is hard to match, so even these outsize castoffs are regarded as goods of great value.
Iron Lady: The ruler of the Free Citadel is the much-beloved Usurper Queen, a she-orc who masterminded the rebellion.
Never Given a Name: The Usurper Queen has no other name. Stolen from the Lion Clan as a child, she had been a nameless captive in the houses of three empires until the day of the revolt that took down the giants.
Slave Liberation: During the Overthrow, slaves in a stone giant city (now known as Free Citadel) planned for a year, then slew their oppressors in the span of a single day. Free Citadel is a place, but it's also an idea—that tyranny can be shattered, cages can be broken, and empires can fall.
Sole Survivor: The Prisoner is the only giant still alive in Free Citadel. During the Overthrow, he was pushed by a crowd off the wall, and lay, unable to move, on the rocks below. In the days following the revolt, he was discovered to be alive, but quadripelagic. Now he's kept in a prison cell and taken care of by special caretakers in exchange for revealing what he knows about the Citadel's many secrets.
War Hawk: Takluk believes that Free Citadel should be militarising and trying to conquer nearby cities by force, putting him at odds with the Usurper Queen.

Kraia's Children

A secret society who belives that any kind of orgnization outside of the family unit is unnatural, Kraia's Children are a cult of anarchists that seek to tear down all attempts to unite the disparate peoples of Planegea into larger communities. Loved by those who suffer under tyrannies and hated by those whose leaders bring them peace and prosperty, the Children are at once saviors and boogeymen.

Arch-Enemy: As their philosophies are fundamentally opposed, Kraia's Children and the Council of Day despise each other.
Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Kraia's Children are governed by a single idea: power is a threat, and those who gather it should be undermined. Good and evil power is equally abusive, and should be overthrown. In some regions they are seen as villains who poison and plot to bring down noble chieftains, while in others they are whispered as heroes of the common people who work tirelessly in secret to tear down warlords and empires.
The Dreaded: Among Kraia's Children, no family is more feared or hated than the Friendly Family. Some say they're only a ghost story—a group of insidious monsters who find good people striving to bring order and help to the poor and wretched. The Friendly Family is said to arrive when you're not looking and depart when you're not sane. According to the stories, the Friendly Family won't kill their victims—they'll utterly break them, and leave the people they were trying to help with less than nothing, worse off than before.
Order Versus Chaos: The shadow war between Kraia's Children and the Council of Day is rooted in their polar opposite beliefs; one believes that unity and order are good, and the other that they are evil.
Make It Look Like an Accident: In the chaotic city of Edgegather, it is widely believed that Kraia's Children hold sway as a major force just out of sight. Any time a chieftain has tried to centralise power, there have been mysterious accidents leading to the unravelling of all their plans.
La Résistance: In the Cult Riverlands, where dark gods demand cruel sacrifices of their followers, roving families of Kraia's Children travel from cult to cult seeking to overthrow the worship of evil. It's said that families from the Riverlands carry more open blades and marks of their creed than anywhere else, operating half in the light as wandering freedom fighters.
The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Kraia's Children are presented as spanning the Good-Evil spectrum, to the point the setting book gives them three ideals, one each for Good, Evil and Chaos. The book also notes that the amorality of their creed can sometimes give the more heroic Children doubts about its lack of nuance, and their leaders are encouraged to quash such doubts by any means necessary, including "silencing" the dissenters.
- Equality: Everyone has the right to stand on equal footing and chart their own life.
- Freedom: People should do what they want with no authority restricting their choices.
- Treachery: There is nothing sweeter than a well-executed ande justly deserved betrayal.
Villain Has a Point: Kraia's Children largely do have genuinely noble goals in their pursuit of freedom at all costs; even in a world as savage as Planegea, tyranny is a legitimate threat, from the slave-taking Giant Empires to the theocratic brutality of the Cult Riverlands, so being willing to fight against order rather than embrace it mindlessly isn't a bad thing. The Council of Day's willingness to support even ruthless tyrants and brutal bullies in the name of order means the Children often act as a legitimate opposition to them, which is why they're considered a Faction that players can join and not just a Threat to oppose.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kraia's Children value freedom and individual liberty above all else, and in pursuit of that goal, are willing to tear down any form of lrger social structure, even those ruled over by genuinely beloved and noble leaders.

Scavengers Vow

Planegea's first ever Thieves Guild, the Scavengers are a growing network of thieves, scavengers and other pilferers who hve begun to tithe a portion of their loot to the mysterious Rat King out of either desire for his blessings or fearful avoidance of his mystic curses.

Bazaar of the Bizarre: Scavengers Vow is famous for having anything and everything available for trade. If you can find a Tithe-Gatherer or gain access to the Rat King's secret lair, it's said there isn't a single object in all Planegea that they can't provide or give news of.
Genius Loci: Adderroot uses her druidic magic to create and direct the Living Lair in which the Rat King dwells.
King of Thieves: The Scavengers Vow is an alliance of thieves and scavengers led by the mysterious and covetous Rat King, who rules and exacts tithes from the safety of his secret lair.
Pragmatic Villainy: The second rule of Scavengers Vow is to not scavenge from those who'll die if you take what's theirs, since you can't steal twice if the mark dies the first time.

Seerfall

Inhabiting a dwarf-constructed city deep in the Slumbering Forest, where the Ox River cascades through a series of waterfalls, Seerfall is the "temple-city" of Planegea; a place where shamans, warlocks, sorcerers, ascetics and philosophers gather to honor the gods, share their knowledge, hone their wisdom and contemplate the spiritual.

Beneath the Mask: The Arbiter cultivates a reputation as the personification of justice, utterly impartial in all matters. But at the end of the day, they are still a person, and some tell stories of private grudges or favourites that the Arbiter acts upon in exceptionally rare unguarded moments.
Boisterous Bruiser: The current Warden is a middle-aged man with a contagious laugh and a fierce temper, quick to joke and just as quick to lash out with whatever object comes to hand.
Holy City: Seerfall is considered one of the holiest places in Planegea, where shamans from across the world gather for council, help and to perform rituals. Countless shrines and altars are everywhere, and at any time of the day or night, multiple sacred rituals are being carried out by the followers of one god or another.
Not So Above It All: Whilst many assume that such a conclave of wisefolk and shamans must be above and beyond the petty intrigues of mere mortals, Seersfall is a seething hotbed of factioneering, politicking, and subtle conflicts.

Sign of the Hare

A society of nomadic spellskins who have dedicated themselves to the pursuit of arcane knowledge and pushing magic as far as it can possibly go. United in the belief that magic will guide the humanoid races to something greater, the Hares seek to evade the Hounds of the Blind Heavens and spread their arcane knowledge as far as they possibly can, tutoring those with the gift and sharing what they learn so that magic's practice will never die.

Ancient Conspiracy: The Sign of the Hare is a tradition that stretches back as far as memory, passing along advanced magic, testing the edges of the Black Taboos, and trying to find ways to advance life beyond the restrictions placed upon them by fate.
Chaos Is Evil: Though not to the extent of the Council of Day, the Sign of the Hare believes in knowledge and civilization as integral to the growth of sapient races, and reject all who would keep Planegea a dark, savage world of little more than beasts.
Hope Springs Eternal: Hope is called out as one of the three philosophical tenets underpinning the belief system of the Sign of the Hare.
We do not surrender to the Hounds or any evil... we gather our imagination and intellect and fight to thrive.
Magical Society: The Sign of the Hare is a secret society of spellskins dedicated to the idea of developing and sharing magic. Their influence is subtly felt across Planegea, but they depend upon remaining undiscovered to stay alive.
Rage Against the Heavens: Even the most benevolent Hare ultimately yearns to slay the Hounds of the Blind Heavens and shatter the power of the Black Taboos that restrain their powers.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Whilst they abhore the lengths their dark counterparts the Recusance will go to, many Hares are willing to also profit from the fruits of their experiments; knowledge is knowledge, after all...

Venomguard

Centered out of the clifftop city of Edgegather, which overlooks the Venom Abyss surrounding B Lood Mountain at the heart of the Great Valley, the Venomguard are the most organized and prestigious monster hunting society of Planegea. A source of practical wisdom and lore about the dangerous art of slaying Prehistoric Monsters and other horrors, the Venomguard take great pride in their skill and the good they do for the Great Valley. The annual competition to be crowned as the Redguard, the most skilled fighting band in the Venomguard, is fought fiercely and watched with great interest by the people.
At present, the current Redguard are a warband called the Lefthand Slayers, made up of Hu'klu (male human druid), Quileth (female elf assassin), Skycrest (agender leatherwing sorcerer), Dokh the Furioius (male dwarf berserker) and Lila Green (female dreas chanter).

Army of Thieves and Whores: Many who join the Venomguard are either bloodthirsty brutes, maniacs, or outright criminals seeking either redemption or to avoid punishment for their misdeeds by joining the Venomguard.
Ax-Crazy: Dokh the Furious is essentially feral, and can barely be restrained by his fellow Lefthand Slayers from killing everything in sight. Dokh is kept away from other people as much as possible, and can only be lulled into a peaceful mindset by the words and songs of Lila Green.
Great White Hunter: The Venomguard is an elite force of monster hunters dedicated to keeping vulnerable people of the Great Valley safe from its worst and most monstrous predators. At their best, they are devoted to the ideals of protecting life and honing their skill... at their worst, they're only in it for glory and/or violence.

Whale Clan

A society made up of matriarchal, nomadic sailing clans and merfolk clans in the Scattersea to Planegea's southwest, united by their shared values and their dedication to the Whale Goddess Mala Long-Song, the Whale Clan are one of the great humanoid societies of Planegea, comparable in power and numbers to the Brother Clans and the Direstaves.

The Alliance: As with the Brother Clans and Direstaves, the Whale Clan is made up of a mixture of different humanoid races, and in particular is broken into the Whale Clan Above (those who sail), and the merfolk tribes of the Whale Clan Below.
Arch-Enemy: The Whale Clan despises the Craven, and will ally themselves with the sharksail raiders and even the Sea Empire to battle the pawns of the aboleths.
Arranged Marriage: In accordance with tradition, the high shaman of the Whale Clan above is given in marriage to the high shaman of the Whale Clan below.
Beware the Nice Ones: The Whale Clan is peaceful, preferring to wait out violence or relocate rather than fight. Yet their harpoon-wielding hunters and sea shamans are not to be trifled with—even the storm giants know to give the Whale Clan a wide berth when they go to war.
Born Under the Sail: The Whale Clan roams from island to island, an archipelago of families spread throughout the Scattersea. It is their tradition to make landfall on an island, stay for a moon's lifetime, then set to sea again.
Matriarchy: Women are the leaders in the Whale Clan, guiding their families through the ever-changing dangers of the Scatterse. Each Whale Clan woman is expected to eventually leave her birth family and sail away on her own to start her own family.
Unequal Rites: Because the Whale Clan only worship a single goddess, Mala Long-Song, who is so ancient and powerful that she is secure in her access to the precious flow of magic, the Whale Clan is far more tolerant of the presence of druids than the Brother Clans are.

Worldsingers

Planegea's first bardic college, the Worldsingers are a growing society of chanters and regular performers who believe that it is their duty to spread joy and cheer in a world that can often be savage, cruel and tragic.

Hope Springs Eternal: Spreading hope and happiness is central to the philosophy of the Worldsingers.
Walking the Earth: Worldsingers wander the world, find shelter wherever there is need, and disappear as soon as possible after good has been done.

Threats

The Brood

A tentative alliance of five of the most ancient and powerful dragons on Planegea — Burn-Red Dherg, Rot-Black Atras, Poison-Green Ghelwai, Strangle-Blue Ghlastax, and Freeze-White Kweidos — united by their goal to devour the Worldheart Dragon and steal her power for themselves. The Brood operates subtly, seeking to manipulate mortal pawns into weakening or even slaying the Five Consorts who guard their mother as her final line of defense.

Antagonistic Offspring: The five ancient dragons of the Brood desire nothing more than to devour their mother, thereby consuming her power and presumably taking her place.
Evil Is Deathly Cold: Freeze-White Kweidos is one of the most powerful white dragons in Planegea, and as a being fundamentally disposed towards ice and cold, he despises being stuck in a tropical rainforest on the flanks of an active volcano.
Evil Versus Evil: The Brood often acts as patrons to adventurers and warband, directig them against other evils of the Planegea in order to find patsies who will be strong and pliant enough to be turned towards their ultimate goals.
It's All About Me: The defining trait of the Brood is its single-minded pursuit of power. Its members have convinced themselves that it is better for the world to end than for them to remain subservient to their mother, the Worldheart. Because of this, nothing will dissuade them from pursuing their course. In the mind of the Brood, no cost is too high or effort too great to achieve their goal.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The five ancient dragons of the Brood despise each other, and seek to undermine each other at every turn. Were they to fully unite, the world would surely fall overnight. Although they are dedicated to their pact to devour their mother, each knows that if the day ever comes when they consume her, it will be a free-for-all between themselves, and each is determined to be the sole survivor.

Craven of the Kraken Coast

A collective name for the many coastal clans of the southern regions of Planegea who have fallen under the mental thrall of the aboleths that lurk in the Brinewaste and now serve as their primary weapon against the storm giants of the Sea Empire in their battle for dominance of the Brinewaste and its eventual subsumption of the rest of Planegea.

Hive Mind: Craven clans all act with a single mind, of such conjoined purpose as if they were not individuals. Children are joylessly conceived, silently born, then brought to the water's edge to have their minds enslaved before their eyes open. They grow old and die under aboleth control, knowing nothing of the struggles and joys of free will.
The Man Behind the Man: The Craven are ultimately the thralls of the aboleths, but they keep their role as the true puppetmasters concealed, instead directing the Craven to worship and seek to summon the malevolent but neutral krakens to do their bidding.
Not Brainwashed: A chosen few of the Craven, raised from infancy to serve and love only their aboleth masters, are allowed to keep their independent minds.
Orcus on His Throne: Krakens resist mortal influence, preferring to move upon their own initiative. In the depths, they are dimly conscious of the storm giants who hunt them, and will not quickly rise unless they believe such an attack to be worth their time and effort. The Craven perform an endless circle of rituals to summon krakens to bring floods and tides inland and extend the reach of the scheming aboleths.
Rogue Drone: Since any injury can shake the influence of the aboleth and give a chance for the enslaved mind to break free, if a Craven is injured and cure is unavailable, their fellow slaves immediately, by the will of the aboleth, turn on them and leave them to be drowned. Many ex-Craven walk free today after being thrown overboard in this way and swimming to safety.
Scam Religion: The aboleths have erected false cults of kraken-worshippers called the Craven of the Kraken Coast, who enact dread rituals to summon the weather-shaping titans of the Brinewaste.
Shadow Dictator: To protect themselves, the aboleths remain unseen, acting as hidden masters. Only the very highest priests have ever glimpsed them—and those have had their minds shattered shortly afterwards.

Crawling Awful

Believed to have originated in the darkness of the remote Sea of Stars, the Crawling Awful is the catch-all name for the mysterious and horrifying remnants of a civilization of aberrations that now slithers and writhes in the depths of the earth.

Human Resources: Beasts, monstrosities and mortals who fall prey to the Crawling Awful are used like livestock for various purposes without remorse or explanation. The aberrations use them for food, labour, reproduction in strange parasitic life cycles, and to satisfy their alien curiosity.
Precursors: The Crawling Awful is only a fragment of what it once was. The deep places of Planegea are strewn with the record of an aberrant civilisation long vanished. The alien minds that now dwell underneath the surface of the world are the merest shadow of their former selves.
Rage Against the Heavens: The Crawling Awful seem to have a stake in murdering gods. The rare times they venture forth from their holes, killing deities and desecrating holy places are often their chief motivation. They never use the dead god's divine ivory—they simply slaughter the god, mangle the corpse and disappear.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Deep below many unnoticed places in Planegea lurk the alien beings known collectively as the Crawling Awful. These aberrations are cold, hostile to life, and wait in the darkness for a sign, a signal, a call that will bring them out of their torpor and back into the full mantle of their horrible power.
Walking Wasteland: The first clue of an incursion of the Crawling Awful is blighted land and water. Water becomes slimy and flows in strange, crooked directions. Plants become rubbery and agitated, sprouting abnormal appendages and looping, fanning and twisting into grotesque shapes. The air becomes miasmic, clouded with shimmering vapours that distort vision and induce unsettling hallucinations.

Deepthought

A powerful eldritch artifact of unknown origin, Deepthought lies hidden within the mysterious Eyestone and creates thralls from beasts and humanoids alike to gather information about Planegea, working towards some mysterious and sinister goal it referes to only as "The Conclusion".

Collector of the Strange: In the menageries, shelves and aquariums of the Obelisk of Knowledge, Deepthought has collected one of everything in Planegea, living or dead. This collection is always growing, and anything truly new or unique is a candidate for acquisition and analysis.
Mechanical Abomination: Deepthought is a strange and powerful artefact that is likely the most brilliant mind in all Planegea, and has access to a breadth and depth of knowledge impossible for mortals to comprehend. Its consciousness can pierce minds, extract knowledge, speak without words, and imbue strange impressions and abilities on those who enter its domain.
Seeker Archetype: Deepthought is utterly determined to know absolutely all that can be known. Influenced by its psychic abilities, Deepthought's agents slowly become drained of empathy and normal feeling. They act as impartial observers, watching both good and evil unfold with wide, inert eyes—and then, if more knowledge is required, extracting it mercilessly, without regard for those who get in their way.
Seeing Through Another's Eyes: Some beasts in the vicinity of the Eyestone have one of their eyes replaced by a gemstone, or a gem is embedded in their forehead like a third eye. The gems are infused with divination magic that is transmitting what the beast experiences to Deepthought.

Duru

An ancient tree-spirit from the days before animal life existed, Duru loathes all that walks, crawls, slithers, swims and flies, and yearns to wipe them all out and restore the green world of plant dominance that existed before they came into being.

Fantastic Racism: Duru's hatred for the animal kingdom is total. All creatures with blood are his enemies, and he works slowly but steadily to destroy them.
Medieval Stasis: The reason agriculture has failed to take place in Planegea despite it not being one of the Black Taboos is because Duru reacts violently to any tribe that attempts to create systemic harvesting and planting of plants for its own usage. Herders and beast-based cultures like the Direstaves do not elicit this particular expression of Duru's wrath, so they are allowed to prosper until he gets around to destroying them.
Time Abyss: Duru, an ancient tree-spirit, is one of the oldest and mightiest things in all Planegea. The epitome of patience and determination, his plans creep to fruition while little mortals are busy about their plans of conquest and glory. Duru has all the time in the world, and Duru does not forget or change his mind.
We Have Reserves: Duru is willing to sacrifice any number of his own kind to purge Planegea of the mortal scourge.
When Trees Attack: Duru is the soul of plants, and moves through the world, possessing trees as he wills, travelling from root to root and branch to branch, by seed and bough. He cannot travel where there are no green things, but dwells wherever he is needed to strengthen plants and make them malevolent, stirring them up against mortals. Wherever Duru possesses a plant, it grows to enormous size and awakens, gaining the ability to speak and move. At the same time, all other green things around it for a great distance become dangerous and hostile to mortals.

Giant Empires

The four boundary regions of Planegea are lands where a singular element holds dominance — the Scorchwaste to the north, the Brinewaste to the south, the Windwaste to the east and the Quakewaste to the west. Each of these elemental wastes is the domain of one of the four genie races, who dwell in the furthest expanses. But in the lands closer to the Great Valley, it is the giants who rule, divided into four empires; Fire, Sea, Air and Stone. All are united by their arrogance and their dependence on the slave labor of countless humanoids to thrive.

Awful Wedded Life: The Stone Empire is ruled by the Stone Emperor and the Frost Empress, who represent the stone and frost giants respectively. They are symbolically wedded to cement the alliance between their peoples, but detest one another and take any opportunity to undermine each other's authority, up to the point where it might threaten or cause harm to the empire.
Floating Continent: The Air Empire is filled with floating palaces, suspended gardens and pleasure-caravans that endlessly cruise the winds along the edge of the Windwaste.
Gladiator Games: Eknis is known for its great gladiator matches, featuring both captives and free giants who test their might in the ring for salt or favour with the Emperor.
The Hedonist: The Air Empire will do anything it takes to maintain their aura of decadence and refinement. They are always on the hunt for new diversions, and think nothing of capturing or torturing anyone who gets in their way. Cloud giant princelings and duchesses live a life of endless pleasure and wonder, but all those who serve them know at what a terrible cost that beauty comes.
Knight Templar: The Sea Empire is bound to stand against the might of the aboleths, break the power of the Craven of the Brinewaste, and keep Planegea safe from a tidal wave of destruction. But to do so, they raid the lowlands constantly, capturing and enslaving mortals in service of their endless vigil against the tides of chaos. They believe that they and only they are capable of holding back the coming apocalypse, and will continue their struggle in the lightning-lit darkness, no matter what the cost.
Our Giants Are Different: The giant empires are made up of five different giant races; cloud giants in the Air Empire, fire giants in the Fire Empire, storm giants in the Sea Empire, and an alliance of stone giants and frost giants in the Stone Empire.
The Resenter: One of the universal traits of the giants is that they despise any creature more powerful than themselves. They fear and hate the genies, chafing at the knowledge that their empires exist only at the genies' sufference, and despise dragons.
Succession Crisis: Since the last emperor of the Fire Empire was killed in battle with an efreet at the fall of Bosa, his courtiers, advisors and children have been locked in a power struggle to claim the throne. Until one of them can win the right to take it, the throne sits empty.
We ARE Struggling Together: It's noted in the setting book that despite all their power, and all they could achieve if they united further, the giants' inability to cooperate with each other makes them their own worst enemies. The different empires are constantly clashing with each other, the frost and stone giants of the Stone Empire hate each other, and the fire giants are constantly backstabbing each other for political reasons, often graduating to full-blown civil war at the slightest excuse.
Wicked Cultured: The Air Empire is the height of culture and refinement in Planegea, yet their finery is built on slavery, cruel magic and willingness to go to any length to demonstrate their sophistication. The Air Empire is a place of beautiful but terrible feasts serving unspeakable delicacies, refined entertainments that take pleasure in the suffering of others, and games of chance that end in awful consequences.

Gift of Thirst

A lurking threat to Planegea, the Gift of Thirst numbers the first ever vampires of Planegea, who now worship a secret, sprawling cult of would-be immortals and undead thralls.

Council of Vampires: The Gift of Thirst is a secret aristocracy of vampires and their thralls. No more than twelve true vampires exist—only the truly worthy are given endless life—and few ever learn of them and live. Yet their influence stretches from the halls of Stoneblood Shrine to the waves of Scattersea, and their ambitions extend to the crown of death itself.
Elderly Immortal: The Servant of the Gift was ancient when he was turned to vampirism, and his deformity frightens those he encounters.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: The Pure One makes a practice of studying new potential vampiric candidates, usually appearing to them in the form they will find most desirable.
Ghost Pirate: Long ago, a vampire built a tomb in the Undershore before a hero slew him, freeing his spawn. The spawn, knowing the Khopesh would come for them, did the unthinkable: they took to the seas. Running water is death to vampires, yet with nothing to lose, the free spawn built a towering catamaran, ravaging and feeding on the people of Scattersea.
Horror Hunger: The Steward's endless thirst is an affliction worse than any of the other vampires, and she surrounds herself constantly with a host of half-dead vessels. Her hunger makes her the ideal manager of the Gift of Thirst's vast resources, since she is inclined by her curse to hoard against hunger and want.
Identical Stranger: When the Nin was still mortal, she had a brother who met a violent end. Ever since, she has maintained the belief that his reincarnated soul exists in the world. The Queen's Brother is the ascended mortal who most resembles her memory of him—and a new Brother ascends whenever she finds someone who more closely fits her memory.
Jackass Genie: The curse of vampirism was created by an efreet who had been forced to grant a human woman eternal youth, giving her what she wanted in the most twisted way it could imagine. The efreet is still bound under the Nin's throne, and yearns to destroy her and what she has created.
Monster Progenitor: Long ago, when the Great Valley had just been thrust out from the Worldheart, a mortal spellcaster bound an efreet to her will and forced him to grant her a wish for eternal youth. The cruel efreet granted it in the form of the vampiric curse. It has been uncountable years since then, and the Nin has established a dynasty, born of her bite and under her absolute control.
The Necrocracy: An underground empire ruled by vampires that makes heavy use of undead servants.
No Name Given: Vampires are known to their thralls only by their titles. Their mortal names, which they are called only by other vampires, are great secrets, for one rite of their ascension is to travel throughout Planegea, murdering anyone who might know their name.
Photographic Memory: The Master of Secrets has a perfect memory, and serves as the keeper of lore for the Gift of Thirst, an (un)living record of all that the Gift has encountered in its existence.
The Renfield: Those deem potentially worthy of the Gift by vampires are offered a path to immortality. First, a recruit must serve as a vessel for a time, travelling with a vampire to sate their thirst. After a time set by the vampire (usually a year) the vessel ceases to be regularly fed upon and becomes as a willing agent of the vampire, executing their will in the world and going into places where their master cannot travel. After proving their loyalty to the Gift, a vassal might be fully drained, buried, and rise as vampire spawn.

Nazh-Agaa

The ultimate embodiment of death and entropy, the ruler of the Kingdoms of the Dead, growing ever stronger and smarter as it consumes the souls of those who pass on.

Cats Are Magic: Cats have a natural ability to slip between worlds, and walk the line between immortality, serving the King of the Dead with multiple deaths in a single being. As such, cats often act as his messengers and portent-bringers.
Deal with the Devil: Nazh-Agaa or his faithful might be the patron for parties who oppose undeath. Although he himself cares little for the fate of any mortal, his servants might reward those who hunt down and destroy undead. Making bargains with Death is a dangerous game and should only be done with the greatest of caution.
God Guise: Some mortals worship Nazh-Agaa as a god, although he is no such thing and does not desire or respond to their worship. Still, their eagerness to please him puts them in line with his will more often than not.
The Grim Reaper: Nazh-Agaa, the King of the Dead, is the final terminus of all life, all hope, all light. Neither god nor lich nor elemental, he is Death itself, a fundamental law, the collective embodiment of entropy, decay, and this single, simple fact: in the end, everyone is forgotten.
Psychopomp: To assassinate liches, hunt vampires or eradicate zombies, Nazh-Agaa is capable of manifesting celestial agents called valkyries. These angels of death are fragments of the King of Death himself. He speaks with their voice, sees with their eyes, and slays by their hands.

The Recusance

A dark splinter-sect of the Sign of the Hare, the Recusance broke away due to believing the Hares were not doing enough to pursue magic. Fixated upon the idea that the Hounds of the Blind Heavens can and must be slain, they are dedicated to achieving this goal, no matter what horrors they need to perform to do so, nor what catastrophes may occur should the Black Taboos be broken. There are seven major sects of the Recusance, each pursuing a different principal line of experimentation towards this goal:
The Undeath sect explores whether becoming undead can free one from the Black Taboos, or if undead vassals can be used to safely perform those acts that would normally attract the Hounds. They experiment in reanimating the dead, capturing souls, conducting seances, summoning spirits and binding souls.
The Monstrosity sect seeks to twist, shape and mold life itself to discover if there is some category of physical existence that is exempt from the attention of the Hounds. They practice "oozemancy" to create and control slimes, fuse living creatures together, and perform experiments in fleshwarping and other physical transmutation.
The Evolution sect experiments in ways to augment the natural strengths of the living, hoping this may either free them of the Black Taboos or grant them the power to drive off the Hounds. They perform all manner of eugenics experiments, seek to awaken latent sorcerous powers, and perform magical rites to infuse subjects with spells, enhance their bodies, and exaggerate their talents.
The Ignorance sect is a fringe movement amongst the Recusance, exploring the radical idea that it might be possible to have others break the Black Taboos safely if they don't know what they're doing. Mind-control, compulsions, lures, temptations, illusions and enchantments of all types are their focus.
The Exceptionality sect believe that perhaps some pre-existing exceptional quality can make some individuals inherently invisible to the hounds, which they test by kidnapping outstanding individuals and monsters and forcing them to run through torturous labyrinths. Their tools are a motley mixture of illusions, summonings, conjurations, memory-alteration, and both mundane and magical forms of confusion.
The Multiplicity sect seeks to magically multiply, divide or split individuals to see if this can be used to confuse the Hounds. Their experiments include magical duplication, forcibly reincarnation, and the creation of simulacra and doppelgangers.
The Origin sect believes that the only way that the Hounds can be defeated is if they are understood, and so are dedicated to learning more about these mysterious horrors. They explore ancient riddles, and work all manner of magical experiments centered on teleportation, immateriality, invisibility, scrying and time-travel.

Evil Counterpart: Being a Renegade Splinter Faction, the Recusance have a lot in common with the Sign of the Hare, but their brutal apathy towards the sanctity of life, limb and sanity makes them monstrous by comparison.
Mad Scientist: The Recusance is a cabal of spellskins devoted to the destruction of the Hounds of the Blind Heaven. They plan and conduct terrible arcane experiments whose ripple effects are felt throughout the world. They care nothing for the value of life, safety or justice. They are single-mindedly devoted to their goal and nothing—not the Hounds or clans or gods or heroes or the pleas of their innocent victims—will dissuade them from their research.
Renegade Splinter Faction: The Recusance began as a schism within the Sign of the Hare. Certain spellskins believed that the Hares were too timid, unwilling to get their hands dirty in ending the reign of the Hounds of the Blind Heaven, and split off into their own group. They, unlike the passive and frightened Hares, were unwilling to accept the continued existence of the Hounds. They would do whatever must be done to break their authority.
Villain Has a Point: With just how harsh life is because of the Black Taboos, the Recusance isn't exactly wrong that slaying the Hounds and breaking their power would be better for the world. But their willingness to treat other sapients as disposable pawns in their experiments makes them unquestionably villainous.

Throne of Nightmares

The name used to refer to whichever of the most powerful beings of the Nightmare World currently rules over the dark face of Nod, all united by their hunger to sow fear and terror as much as possible amongst mortal kind. The entities who may sit on the Throne at any given time are The Betrayer, The Child, The Clown, The Dancer, The Dotard, The Enemy, The Mummy, The Pursuer, The Siren and The Servant.

Arch-Enemy: There is no power in any world that loathes the Throne of Nightmares as much as the fey of the Dream World. Since they cannot travel directly to the Nightmare World from their home, the archfey of the Court of Dreams would gladly empower any mortal who was willing to challenge the abomination of the Throne of Nightmares.
Emotion Eater: The Nightmare World and its inhabitants create fear and feed on it, but do not feel it.
Evil Old Folks: The Dotard, who gains power based on mortal fear of impotence and loss of influence, manifests as a parody of an old man, with exaggerated wrinkles and stringy white hair.
Monster Clown: The Clown taunts its victims, stripping away their protection, thriving on the fear of embarrassment and humiliation. It rises in power when mortals fear mockery and exposure.
Our Sirens Are Different: The Siren is an alluring presence that draws its victims into deep water. Once there, it seizes them and refuses to let go, drowning them as they struggle for air. The Siren gains power when mortals fear confronting challenges that are beyond them.
Treacherous Advisor: The Betrayer and the Servant both initially to be helpful or much-trusted figures when they first visit, but ultimately will betray the dreamer in some way. The Betrayer feeds on the fear of broken or treacherous relationships, whilst the Servant embodies the fear of making mistakes or missing crucial opportunities.

Vyrkha the Shepherd

Once a humble shepherd boy in the southern lands of Planegea, Vyrkha was the only survivor of a brutal slave raid by the Sea Empire. Determined to never be powerless again, he has devoted his life to becoming the mightiest warlord that Planegea has ever seen and destroying the giants.

Badass Normal: Unlike most rival villains, Vyrkha the Shepherd does not possess magic, ancient knowledge or immortality, and looks forward to a mortal death. Vyrkha is only a man, but he is a brilliant tactician, as well as a master of diplomacy, battle, rhetoric and espionage, and covets as much glory and power as he can get in his short lifespan.
Crazy-Prepared: If threatened, Vyrkha always has no less than five escapes planned, including bodyguards, secret exits, plundered talismans, distractions and traps to forestall those who would try to corner him.
Feudal Overlord: After he takes over the Great Valley, Vyrkha grants the generals who have proven their loyalty to him huge swathes of land as fiefdoms. However, they and their heirs are fractured and scheme against each other, even enacting minor civil wars.
Four-Star Badass: Vyrkha always deploys his troops to their best advantage, positioning mobile archers at long range, using foot soldiers, beasts, traps and the terrain to slow his enemies down and let them into unfavourable conditions. He always has a surprise planned, and what looks like a mistake is always a ruse for a more clever and devastating final blow.
God-Emperor: Can potentially become this by the time he conquers the known world. Blessed by the gods he has conquered and armed with various magical artifacts, its doubtful he can even be considered mortal anymore.
Take Over the World: Vyrkha the Shepherd marches into the light at the head of an army and takes what he wants—which is everything.

Gods

The Gods of Planegea are spirits brought into life from creatures, plants, places or natural phenomena accorded sufficient respect and reverence by mortals. Tied to sacred places known as "Hallows", which will one day grow into divine realms when the planes break apart, they draw their power from the untamed magical energies of creation that flow through the natural world, and are shaped further by their Glory — the accumulation of mortal belief and respect. Planegea has yet to develop the pantheons of later eras, and so gods are largely scattered and singular, often bitterly opposing each other in their competition for the sacred magic on which they feed. They are divided into four tiers of power, known as "strata"; 1st strata gods are demigods, ruling over only what they can see. 2nd strata gods, the most common of their kind, rule over their local area — a particular forest, jungle, swamp or mountain. 3rd strata gods are the most powerful gods confirmed to exist thus far, ruling over entire regions; the Brothers Three (Glelh, Kho, Urhosh) and Twr are the only known gods of this strata. The theoretical/mythical 4th strata gods could extend their powers across the known world of Planegea, and the only possible claimant to that rank is Mala Long-Song.

Arch-Enemy: Neither the Winter Gods nor the idols of the Cult Riverlands can stand that the other side exists. When the Winter Gods cooperate, it is to sabotage the idols, and vice versa. Although all are evil, the demonic Winter Gods are driven to frenzy at the thought of the order imposed by the idols, while the devils that lead the Cult Riverlands are irate at the chaos of winter.
Big Eater: Many of the Winter Gods were once scavenging beasts or predators, and their hunger is strong all year long. By the time mortals and prey arrive, they are frenzied with famine, and will do anything for glory.
Celestial Paragons and Archangels: Good gods, who are classified as celestials under D&D rules, are chiefly concerned with the wellbeing of others—although their ideas of wellbeing and the creatures they choose to care about can vary greatly from god to god.
Deity of Human Origin: Many of the most powerful gods of Planegea were originally beasts or plants who developed divine attributes over time, and are now tied integrally to the land and their hallow.
Demon/Devil Distinction: The demonic Winter Gods are Chaotic Evil and thrive on chaos and mayhem; the diabolic idols of the Cult Riverlands are Lawful Evil and entangle mortals into cults, which are organised in an evil hierarchy. Neither side can stand the other's existence.
Demon Lords and Archdevils: All evil gods are classified as fiends, and create magic items and summon creatures of the same nature. All exist to cause misery, bloodshed, corruption and woe.
Evil Versus Evil: Evil gods are renowned for their hatred of others of their own kind. They may despise non-evil gods, but they have a special rancour for other evil gods who dwell beside them. If given the chance, any fiend would leap at the opportunity to devour the divine ivory of their kin, and many of their plans revolve around killing and eating each other.
Fisher King: Wherever fiendish gods reign, their terror and hatred can be felt throughout their domains through pestilence, vile beasts, frightful visions, or a sense of impending doom.
Genius Loci: Sometimes places themselves are mystical and significant enough to take on godhood, with the power of the land flowing through them and their boundaries becoming sacred hallows in their own right.
God Needs Prayer Badly: Rather than food or water, gods need glory to thrive. Glory arises from mortals, primarily in the form of worship and reverence. A god with more glory is more powerful—their reach extends farther, they have more access to divine magic, and they are able to grant greater boons. Only a few gods are content to linger in hidden places with little to no glory.
Jerkass Gods: Planegea predates the differentiation between celestials and fiends; all such entities are considered "gods", and operate the same way. The difference is merely one of scale and inherent attitude. This is why druids can win tolerance in some areas; their draining of divine magic weakens the evil gods, reducing their threat.
Mix-and-Match Critters: When a god devours divine ivory, they take on aspects of the consumed god, and the merging of the forms occurs in such a way as to make the god take on a slightly more humanoid or giantish form.
Mood-Swinger: The demonic Winter Gods thrive on chaos and mayhem. Their nature makes them the most unpredictable gods, tempting with plenty at one moment, then killing indiscriminately the next. Crafty shamans take advantage of this chaos, choosing the right moments to flatter and extract blessing, then escaping before their dark gods have a chance to change their minds.
Odd Job Gods: Subverted. Planegean gods predate the concept of gods representing abstracts — there is no such thing as a "God of War" or a "Goddess of Love" yet. Gods may have aspects associated with such things, but they aren't yet worshipped exclusively for those aspects, and gods accorded greater fields of responsibility (in mechanical terms, having multiple clerical domains) are able to communicate much further than their more mono-focused counterparts.
One-Winged Angel: Should a god be slain, its spiritual being is always revealed in its death throes. The spiritual form is the god's essence made manifest, and, though short-lived, is incredibly dangerous for all creatures in the god's hallow. It is possible for a god to survive its transformation into spiritual form; after a while, it returns to physical form in a greatly weakened state.
Our Gods Are Different: Planegea exists in an age of proto-gods, where divine beings are only beginning to gather their power and understand what it is to ascend to rule the cosmos. There are no great universal gods with dominion over entire aspects of reality. Instead, Planegea is an animistic place, with powerful spirits reigning as gods over local environments. Many beings can become gods, in a mysterious process that is unknown even to the wisest of shamans. Gods are unified by three principles: they are tied to a place, they barter with mortals for power, and some of them incite their followers to destroy what is sacred to other gods so they can consume them.
Physical God: The proto-gods of Planegea rule the lands where mortals dwell, and are not abstractions, nor the personified expression of universal forces, but are beasts, plants, places or elements that have acquired divine authority. They still have a physical form which usually resembles their pre-divine nature, albeit larger and more wondrous.
Sealed Evil in a Can: The Lizard Lord is a pit fiend who once ruled all of the Riverlands as the high god of the region until he was betrayed and bound by the lesser idols in the Cult War. He lies buried somewhere in the tunnels and caves known as the Qanats that run from the Riverlands to Bittersea, and above all, his former minions fear his wrathful return.
The Theocracy: The Cult Riverlands are ruled by fanatic shamans or charismatic warlocks, and live in a constant struggle of worship, warfare and thirst. Children are given a blade from birth, and cutting the throat of a member of a different cult is considered a rite of passage.
Unequal Rites: Gods hate druids because they tap into the same ambient divinity from which the gods spring — mechanically, gods lose Glory every time a druid casts a spell when within their territory, and regain Glory only by killing them. As such, shamans, guardians and warlocks are charged with slaying druids, and any individual can win godly approval by doing so. That said, given that not all gods are good, this can actually be a reason to support druids, especially in the Cult Riverlands and the realm of the Winter Gods.

Ahn-Undon Water-Striker

Challenge Rating: 11

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Blob Monster: Ahn-Undon's spiritual form is a gargantuan pillar of water in a vaguely reptilian shape.
Never Smile at a Crocodile: Ahn-Undon is a massive crocodile-god feared by clans near his clifftop hallow.

Glelh the Unblinking

Challenge Rating: 23

Alignment: Neutral Good

Big Eater: In his heart, Glelh is a ravenous beast. The hilltop of his hallow is stained red with the blood of prey, even though as a god he has no physical hunger.
Good Is Not Nice: Though he values beauty, Glelh despises weakness, and his efforts to winnow the weak out are described as often being brutal and cruel.
Charm Person: The high hill of Glelh is a place of mesmerising power, and beasts from the surrounding regions are drawn by its hypnotic power. Shamans of Glelh must train themselves carefully to avoid being caught in the hallow's thrall.
Deadly Gaze: Glelh's gaze can burn, paralyse, hypnotise, blind or teleport another.
Panthera Awesome: Glelh takes the form of a mighty lion, long saber-teeth bared at any sign of disrespect or folly.

Unkillable Urhosh

Challenge Rating: 24

Alignment: Neutral Good

Beary Friendly: Urhosh is a god of plenty, providing bounty for his people and expecting bounty in return. He is most pleased by great feasts held at the mouth of his cave-hallow, and blesses his followers with friendly beehives and powerful magic.
Not Afraid to Die: Urhosh has lived all his days unable to die, and charges into combat without the slightest fear of pain or defeat. Urhosh knows that he will live, and grants that confidence and life force to his hunters and warriors, preparing them to rush headlong into danger just as he does.
Pest Controller: Urhosh is surrounded by a swarm of spirits that take the form of buzzing bees.

Kho Many-Arms

Challenge Rating: 25

Alignment: Neutral Good

Forced Sleep: In his spiritual form, Kho can release a wave of sleep-weave magic.
Good Is Not Nice: So long as he's asleep, Kho can be very generous to his followers and showers them with bounty. But they also live in constant terror of his waking, because when Kho wakes up, he flies into savage rages and takes his fury out on anyone who is within reach. When the Ape Clan moves south for the winter, the worst criminal of the year is left behind to play the drums that keep him in his state of slumber, which gives the rest of the Ape Clan time to flee into Nod — the one left behind becomes a Human Sacrifice in everything but ame.
Grumpy Old Man: To the extreme. Kho is one of the oldest gods on Planegea, and has become exceedingly bitter and surly in his old age. He's only happy when he's asleep and can relive his carefree youth, and so when he wakes he flies into a murderous rage.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: True to his name, Kho Many-Arms has many arms—some physical, some spiritual, formed of golden light. Artwork in the setting book shows him with twelve arms total; six fleshy, six spiritual.
Nightmare Weaver: In his spiritual form, Kho can subject enemies to a dream of his choice: deep, frozen waters, engulfing flames, falling rocks or lightless imprisonment.
Primal Chest-Pound: If Kho is in a wakeful rage, he beats his chest and lets out a roar.
Turns Red: Once per day, when Kho starts his turn with half or less of his hit points, he flies into a wakeful rage. This rage lasts for a minute, or until Kho is incapacitated or assumes his spiritual form.
Your Mind Makes It Real: Because of his magic, Kho's dreams are often made manifest, and those who approach his tree-hallow can be caught up in them, carried into the past with him on the slippery surface of time. Kho can bring objects from the past of his dreams into the present, and—if he is pleased—make almost anything real.

Twr the Tyrant

Challenge Rating: 25

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Big Red Devil: Cult paintings of Twr depict her as a towering female form with sweeping, batlike wings, clad in shadow, fire, smoke and steam. She has long, sharp horns like an ox, and her mouth, eyes and skull-like nostrils burn with shimmering red flame.
God of Fire: Twr is a goddess of flame, bound to the Ox River and the arid Wintersouth. Her hallow is a fork in the river, wrapped in perpetual darkness, where the water scalds any who touches it. For miles in each direction, the water bubbles and steams.
Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Of the two goddesses in the five great gods of Planegea, Twr is the "Dark Feminine", being vicious, vindictive, aggressive, power-hungry and bloodthirsty.
Top God: Of all Winter Gods, Twr stands head and shoulders above the rest. When the Winter Gods take council, it is Twr who dominates their plans.
Wreathed in Flames: The heat of her blazing body blackens her armour and burns creatures and objects near her.

Mala Long-Song

Challenge Rating: 30

Alignment: Neutral Good

Attack Reflector: Any time Mala is targeted by a ranged magic attack, she has a chance to reflect the effect back at the caster.
Deader than Dead: A creature whose soul is extinguished by Mala in her spiritual form cannot be returned to life by any means short of a wish spell until Mala dies.
Go Mad from the Revelation: In her spiritual form, Mala can share a piece of terrible knowledge with a creature to wrack it with a passing madness.
Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Of the two goddesses in the five great gods of Planegea, Mala is the "Light Feminine", being gentle, peaceful, patient, generous and compassionate. She is noted as the only god who doesn't take offense to druids, treating their drawing upon the world's power like she does in the same way that a regular whale treats barnacles.
Lord of the Ocean: Mala Long-Song, deity of the Whale Clan, dwells at the far reaches of Scattersea. There, from her underwater hallow, she watches over all the islands in her vast domain, and she is worshiped by landfolk and merfolk alike.
Magic Music: Mala Long-Song can sing a divine note that reverberates with magic.
The Older Immortal: Some say Mala Long-Song was the first god that mortals ever knew, in days nearly forgotten.
Top God: Mala Long-Song is the sole god in Planegea who could claim to reach the fourth stratum, the highest rank of divine power.

Kinships

Dwarf

Determinator: A losing endeavour is called a dwarvish bet, because those who live beside dwarves know that once they set their mind to a task or challenge, nothing can stop them.
Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Still half-stone, dwarves were born of rock, and only recently carved their way out of the deep places of the world. Their skin and hair glitters with minerals and gemstones. Dwarves consider other kinships strange and mercurial, full of whimsy and change. To be a dwarf is to live with crystal clarity and stony certainty.
Proud Industrious Race: Dwarves have a compulsion to build buildings, regardless of whether they actually need to make them. The landscape is littered with abandoned dwarven structures.

Elf

Cannot Dream: Elves neither sleep nor dream.
The Exile: Many mortal lifetimes ago, a terrible crime or sin was committed by a clan of elves from the World of Dreams. These elves were cast out, banished forever from Nod, and have dwelt in the waking world ever since.
Long-Lived: Elves remain in the prime of their life an unthinkably long time. In a world with no number over nine, they are believed to simply be immortal.

Halfling

Born Lucky: Halflings are touched by preternatural luck, which they rely on and count as their well-deserved birthright.
Hidden Elf Village: Halflings keep to their own kind more than most other kinships, largely because they find others too noisy and clumsy to survive in the halfling way. Their clans tend to camp in hidden places and live their days in total silence.
Repetitive Name: Halfling spoken names usually have simple, repeated sounds that are easy to pick out if whispered.

Human

Amazing Technicolor Population: Some humans have tints of blue, purple or green skin from elvish or orcish ancestry.
Humans Are Diplomats: Of all kinships, humans find it easiest to cooperate with other kinds of beings, for good or for ill.
Humans Are Survivors: Humans can be found worshipping anything, partaking in strange rituals and traditions, and adapting their dwellings, their clothing, and all aspects of their life simply to eke out a few more years of breath.

Dragonborn

Draconic Humanoid: According to these draconic mortals, they are the direct descendants of the Worldheart Dragon.
Luke Nounverber: The grandiose culture of many dragonborn incline them towards names that incorporate their bloodline's most impressive boasts or exploits, like Skrath Ogrekiller or Zaxal Raftcrafter.

Godmarked

Amazing Technicolor Population: Most godmarked have skin of an unusual hue, such as the blue child of a river god or the bright red skin of one touched by divine fire.
Horned Humanoid: Almost all godmarked are touched with some sort of sign on the temples or forehead, most commonly horns or antlers.
Semi-Divine: Godmarked is the common name for those whose blood was forever altered in form by an interaction with the divine.

Gnome

Combat Pragmatist: Gnomes understand how to rely on the element of surprise to survive, and typically have at least a few tricks up their sleeves to redirect the attention of predators and enemies. Gnomes use such techniques to make a fast getaway or to distract their prey before an ambush.

Half-Elf

Half-Human Hybrid: These descendants of humans and elvish parents share traits from both bloodlines.
Human Shifter: Downplayed. Some half-elves, known as "blood dancers", are able to transform into three forms; their true half-elf form, a purely human form, and a purely elven form. Though these pureblood forms have a slight resemblance to the base half-elf form, few would recognize a blood dancer's different forms as being the same person at a glance.
Mix-and-Match Critters: Half-elves are described as often looking like a somewhat patchwork conglomeration of elfin and human physical traits.

Orc

Nay-Theist: Recently, some orcs have started to doubt whether their fate must always be to bend the knee to the gods. They are strong, and some believe that the way of survival is one led not by spirits in their hallows, but by the hand of the hunters who risk their lives.
Our Orcs Are Different: An orc is taller than a human, with green skin and mighty tusks. Orcs are among the mightiest, most feared, and most honoured kinships in Planegea, hailed as conquerors and warlords. Their people often lead clans and win great glory as hunters.
Was Once a Man: The Doomed, also called monsterblood orcs, once lived alongside other kinships, but in their pride and thirst for power, they devoured beings they should not have consumed. In doing so, they gained great physical power, but their minds were darkened with murderous rage, becoming part-orc, part-monsters.

Dreas

Older Than They Look: Dreas grow younger through the warmer months until midsummer, when they look 10 years younger than their actual age.
Plant Person: The most curious and free-spirited trees, touched by magic and enlivened by the primordial nature of the world, choose to leave their parent forests and take on the shape of a humanoid. This departure, once made, is irreversible, and the resulting creature—called a dreas—lives the rest of its days as a tree who walks among people.
Younger Than They Look: In fall and winter, dreas appear to age rapidly. By midwinter, they look 10 years older than their actual age.

Half-Ooze

Big Eater: Half-oozes' ravenous hunger drives them throughout their life.
Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Ooze sires wait in the dark for unsuspecting humanoid victims for one reason: reproduction. They infest a humanoid host—posthumously called an ooze dam—permanently fusing with it and using the resultant half-ooze to consume as much nourishment as possible. Eventually, the half-ooze melts down into a numbero f new ooze sires, ready to start the cycle over.
Rubber Man: Half-oozes' origin allow them to fit through small spaces.

Saurian

Beast Man: Leatherwings are descended from pterosaurs; hammertails from ankylosaurs; sharpfangs from carnosaurs; webfeet from aquatic dinosaurs.
King in the Mountain: Saurians speak of a coming Great Thaw when all their ancestors will rise to aid their descendants at the moment of greatest need.
Meaningful Rename: Saurian names are usually descriptive of physical appearance and can change over time as appearance changes. For example, a saurian might be called Brightstripe as a hatchling but come to be known as One-Eye after a predator attack.
Not Afraid to Die: Saurians are comfortable with death to a degree that is unsettlingly morbid to other kinships.
Tail Slap: Descended from ankylosaurs, hammertails have thick, club-like tails.
Winged Humanoid: Leatherwings have long, folding wings attached to their arms.

Starling

Blinded by the Light: A starling's touch can blind other creatures with a focused burst of brilliant light.
God Guise: A few starlings portray themselves as gods, using their heavenly light to dazzle others into worship, at least until another starling comes along to break the illusion.
Vague Age: Starlings have no age, appearing both young and mature at the same time.
You Can't Go Home Again: Very rarely, stars that fail to become the Day-Star do not fall into the Sea of Stars, but rather to a far more alien and frightening place—Planegea. They never do this by choice, and like shipwreck survivors, starlings have to build new lives from nothing in an unfamiliar place. It is almost unheard of for a starling not to spend the first few years of their fall as a wanderer, searching for any means of returning home. This search is believed to be hopeless, and every starling who has embarked on it has eventually given up.

Creatures

General

The Berserker: Some creatures are driven by a primordial bloodlust and madness, often brought on by an encounter with a parasite or poison, but sometimes inherent to a bloodline of the creature long since forgotten. Such creatures are often harvested for their teeth, which can make excellent daggers or cutting implements, or for their blood, which can be used to create certain toxins inducing madness.
Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": With the exception of terror birds, all prehistoric creatures have a common name different from the scientific names used on Earth.^note
Combat Tentacles: Whether by aberrant influence or natural selection, some creatures develop tentacles which can be used to ensnare and entangle.
Extra Eyes: Some creatures develop additional eyes to watch for predators or prey. Such creatures are often harvested for their eyes, which can be prepared to grant unusual types of vision.
Multiple Head Case: Through magic or mutation or some quirk of natural defence, some creatures have two or more heads. Such creatures are often harvested for their extra teeth and horns, or occasionally for internal fluids and organs which can be used to cast multiplying magic.

Arctusk (Deinotherium)

Challenge Rating: 4

Alignment: Unaligned

The Berserker: When male arctusks are driven to mate, they exude a powerful, reeking musk, which hangs in the air in a stinking cloud and can be smelled for miles. During this time, they are belligerent, even frenzied, and use shows of aggression to attract their mates. Many clans have been scattered by the mad, stabbing and stomping onslaught of a musking arctusk.

Batface

Challenge Rating: 1/4

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Poisonous Person: The bite of a batface has a natural toxin that numbs, charms and induces drowsiness. Bitten creatures lose consciousness quickly, and their last thought is euphoric—they feel that the world is kind and beautiful; it's good that they can provide food for these adorable, noble creatures.

Cerulean Worm

Challenge Rating: 16

Alignment: Unaligned

Sea Serpents: The cerulean worm is an aquatic cousin of the purple worm that slithers through the depths of the sea. When food grows scarce at home, it rises to the shallows, bringing disaster to coastal and island communities.

Depth Reaver

Challenge Rating: 13

Alignment: Unaligned

Monster Whale: A massive species of toothed whale, the depth reaver is among the largest marine apex predators. When summoned to the surface or twisted by malice, it can devastate vessels and shallow reefs with its astounding bulk.

Dinosaurs and Leatherbeasts

Alignment: Unaligned

Bouldertail (Ankylosaurus)

Challenge Rating: 6

Tail Slap: With bones like stone fused to their backs and bodies and tails like war-clubs, bouldertails crush bone and cripple the legs of even the largest of monsters.

Deathwalker (Giganotosaurus)

Challenge Rating: 26

Chain Lethality Enabler: When the deathwalker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack on its turn, it can move up to half its speed and make a tail or slam attack.
Prehistoric Monster: The deathwalker is a mountain of muscle and malice, with teeth like swords and all the raw power of the Venom Abyss in its roar. Even the horrors of the Nightmare World seem flimsy and frail in comparison. In gameplay terms, it is treated as a CR 26 creature.

Doomclaw (Utahraptor)

Challenge Rating: 5

Talking Animal: Doomclaws speak in a rough language of their own (with some even grasping the basics of other tongues).

Farloper (Gallimimus)

Challenge Rating: 1

Horse of a Different Color: Farlopers are favourite steeds of plains-dwellers. They are bad-tempered and nervous, but intelligent, and can be tamed quickly if raised from the egg. A farloper can cover enormous distances quickly, and is strong enough to carry two or three riders at once.

Flintback (Stegosaurus)

Challenge Rating: 8

Light 'em Up: Flintbacks can ignite their large back plates with magical light, causing a sense of hope and euphoria in those who behold the sight. Particularly strategic warlords have been known to mount elite hunters on enraged flintbacks, using their magic and might to disarm and destroy those who oppose them.
Tail Slap: The flintback's spiked tail can swing in and smash would-be attackers.

Frilled Spitter (Dilophosaurus)

Challenge Rating: 1/2

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: It acts harmless and playful to get close to prey and then unleashes its venom.
Artistic License – Paleontology: This version of Dilophosaurus comes straight out of Jurassic Park, complete with a bright neck frill and toxic spit.
Toxic Dinosaur: The frilled spitter's acidic venom blinds and stings prey, rendering them vulnerable to the its needle-sharp teeth.

Great-hook (Therizinosaurus)

Challenge Rating: 7

Wolverine Claws: Great-hooks are named after their immense hooked claws that provide ample defence against even the most aggressive predator.

Greatwing (Quetzalcoatlus)

Challenge Rating: 7

Giant Flyer: The apex predator of the skies, the greatwing appears as a huge, swiftly-moving shadow before it descends upon prey.
Terror-dactyl: The greatwing (Quetzalcoatlus) is the apex predator of the skies. A single greatwing can drop from above, stabbing with a beak longer than a man is tall, then chase down fleeing prey with a four-legged gallop before spearing it in the back. Additionally, they hunt in flocks, and one pack is more than enough to devestate a clan and terrify an entire region.

Littlesnap (Euparkeria)

Challenge Rating: 0 (individual), 2 (swarm)

Zerg Rush: Littlesnaps travel not in packs, but in swarms. Once they bring their prey to the ground, they can cover it entirely in their bodies, picking its skeleton clean in a matter of minutes.

Madcrash (Yi qi)

Challenge Rating: 1/8

Attack! Attack! Attack!: An angry madcrash is dangerous not because it is particularly powerful, but because it has no sense of self-preservation whatsoever, and will divebomb even mighty creatures until it or its target drops dead.

Mammothmaw

Challenge Rating: 12

Stealthy Colossus: Despite its gargantuan size, the mammothmaw is an ambush predator who rarely moves if it can help it. It finds a grove or canyon in which to wait, and remains perfectly still with its mouth hanging open.

Sailstalker (Spinosaurus)

Challenge Rating: 9

Savage Spinosaurs: The sailstalker is a dangerous monster. Quiet, stalking—then suddenly, with a rush, it lunges and sinks its teeth into its prey, thrashing its muscular neck, its finned back flexing as it drowns its prey, then swallows it whole. Then, the sailstalker fades into the marshy edges, waiting for its next meal.

Seatooth (Mosasaurus)

Challenge Rating: 9

Monstrous Cannibalism: Seateeth are especially well-known for their cannabilistic ways, hunting each other with more hunger and hatred than any other prey.
Sea Monster: The seatooth rivals any of the great monsters of the land for pure malice and savagery.
Stealthy Colossus: The seatooth is a massive ocean predator that strikes without warning, unseen from deep underneath.

Skullsmasher (Pachycephalosaurus)

Challenge Rating: 1/2

Headbutting Pachy: An angry skullsmasher (Pachycephalosaurus) is capable of killing someone easily with their powerful ramming attack.

Snakeneck (Elasmosaurus)

Challenge Rating: 9

Stealthy Colossus: The snakeneck (Elasmosaurus) is an ambush predator that lurks in deep water. When it spots prey, it rushes forward, head bursting out of the water and quickly plunging down in an attempt to swallow small prey whole. Many halfling fear-tales circle around the prowling snakeneck's sudden, terrifying hunger.

Spider Raptor

Challenge Rating: 2

Wall Crawl: Spider raptors have elongated limbs—spindly, reaching arms and long legs suited to climbing, dangling and springing great distances. They have been seen scrambling up the great cliffs that keep other creatures confined to the Venom Abyss.

Swiftclaw (Velociraptor)

Challenge Rating: 1

Zerg Rush: With rustling hisses and squawking shrieks, a flock of swiftclaws swarms unwitting prey. They can devour a beast in a matter of minutes.

Tentwing (Pteranodon)

Challenge Rating: 1

Beast of Battle: Because of the ubiquity of tentwings, some clans have managed to tame them, using them for hunting or scouting. Giants have been known to train them to land on their forearms and screech at the sight of mortals running from the raiding party.

Thunderfoot (Titanosaurus)

Challenge Rating: 13

Shockwave Stomp: The thunderfoot's movement creates tremors through the ground.

Trumpetcrest (Parasaurolophus)

Challenge Rating: 4

Enemy Summoner: In battle, a trumpetcrest can let out a long, droning distress call that is audible out to 600 feet to call members of its herd to its aid.

Dire Sloth

Challenge Rating: 5

Alignment: Unaligned

Gentle Giant: Dire sloths stand as tall as a mammoth and have a reputation for tranquility.
The Symbiote: A family of dire sloths often lives in symbiosis with an encampment of pixies. The pixies use the dire sloths as a muscular shield from those who would hunt them for their dust, and steer the dire sloths clear of unnatural dangers.

Fortress Scorpion

Challenge Rating: 10

Alignment: Unaligned

Stealthy Colossus: When at rest, a fortress scorpion lurks against rock formations and resembles a boulder or outcropping of rock, making it difficult to pick out from among the terrain despite its size.

Ghost Monkey

Challenge Rating: 3

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Maniac Monkeys: Ghost monkeys roam the Venom Abyss as wretched spirits, hurling phantasmal objects at living creatures and trying to understand a fate their minds could never comprehend.
Raising the Steaks: Sometimes monkeys cross the threshold from the Venom Abyss into a temple of the dread elves of Nod and lose their lives, becoming undead and turning mad with the transformation.

Giant Armadillo (Glyptodon)

Challenge Rating: 8

Alignment: Unaligned

Tail Slap: The giant armadillo is a massive, four-legged beast with a long, spiked tail.

Glunch

Challenge Rating: 1/2

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Horse of a Different Color: Glunch patrols frequently travel the swamps on the backs of giant millipedes or the huge crabs known as ku-zug.
Speaks Fluent Animal: The Glunch can communicate simple ideas, concepts and emotions to worms and arthropods.
Starfish Language: The Glunch language is a gurgling, clicking sound unintelligible to most.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The Glunch are known to fear mushrooms and fungus of all kinds. Long ago, their kind had something to do with the Temple of the Mushroom Lord, and to this day they stay far from that foreboding structure.

Golem

Reef Golem

Challenge Rating: 7

Alignment: Unaligned

Mooks Ate My Equipment: The reef golem can project a corrosive brine that erodes all non-magical weapons and armour.

Hammerclaw

Challenge Rating: 11

Alignment: Unaligned

Super-Powered Shrimp: The hammerclaw is a monstrous shrimp-like predator.
True Sight: The hammerclaw's supernatural sight can peer through illusory magics and into the realm of the ethereal, including the strands of life magic that connect all things.

The Hermit

Challenge Rating: 14

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Giant Enemy Crab: The Hermit is a hermit crab that has grown to massive size over the centuries.
Salt Solution: The Hermit can breathe out a briny, acidic mixture as a weapon.

Horse-Ape

Challenge Rating: 2

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Uplifted Animal: Long ago, horse-apes were befriended by the forests and their rudimentary intelligence was enhanced by the oldest and wisest of the treants, who saw use in their tall and powerful builds. In gameplay terms, they are classified as monstrosities, not beasts.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Horse-apes have developed an instinctive fear and hatred of fire, and any whiff of smoke or glimpse of firelight sets them into a warlike rage. Those who would manipulate horse-apes sometimes surround them with rings of torches, which are treated as impregnable cages.

Iramuk

Challenge Rating: 7

Alignment: Unaligned

Mama Bear: Because of the great difficulty of raising offspring and their otherwise solitary lives, iramuk mothers are terrifying when defending their calves, using their incredible size and long necks to trample and bash any predator who would threaten their young.

Kelodhrosian

Alignment: Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil (lost soul)

A strange humanoid race newly emergent from the Worldheart, the Kelodhrosians are physically weak creatures that can steal physical traits from other creatures through dark sacrificial rites, and seek to parasitize the more powerful beasts — and peoples — of Planegea.

The Greys: In their natural form, Kelodhrosians are small, hairless and slender, with long, awkward limbs and white, mask-like faces with bulging blue eyes and lipless mouths.
Human Disguise: Kelodhros Ascendant makes a regular practice of capturing humanoids and Embracing them, giving Kelodhrosians their forms so that they can act as spies—with only their blue eyes as clues to their nature.
Mix-and-Match Critters: More powerful Kelodhrosians who have performed the Embrace many times often steal aspects from different kinds of victims. These are called Hybrid Priests, and they take on nearly infinite combinations of beast parts in their quest for ascension.
Morphic Resonance: By an Embrace ritual, Kelodhrosian infiltrators can assume their victim's kinship, although their blue eyes remain regardless of their shape—a telltale sign for those who have heard the whispers. Some hide this by pretending to be blind, others travel among societies where such eyes are not uncommon.
Nay-Theist: The Kelodhrosians have little use for gods. They believe that all of Planegea was created for their use, and the gods are simply one more form of life to be taken in ritual Embrace.
Poisoned Weapons: From a young age, Kelodhrosians are taught to protect themselves with venomous darts.
Power Copying: A Kelodhrosian in its natural state is slender, pale and fragile. However, through an elaborate ceremony, a Kelodhrosian can slaughter a sacrificial victim and steal some part of their physical being, adding it to its own body and becoming more powerful.
Rising Empire: The Kelodhros people, new to creation, arose from somewhere deep in the Venom Abyss only in the last few generations. But in that time, they have begun to build a powerful and spreading empire, its influence gripping the jungle and pushing outwards and upwards into the rest of Planegea.

Knucklecrown (Uintatherium)

Challenge Rating: 2

Alignment: Unaligned

Dumb Muscle: There isn't a beast in all of Planegea with a greater reputation for sheer stupidity than the heavyset, lumbering knucklecrown. Domestication is an easy task given that even a young child can out-think a full-grown bull.
Motivation on a Stick: It's common for migrating clans to dangle a morsel of greenery in front of a knucklecrown, which will happily amble towards the supposed meal for eight hours without ever slowing its pace or looking where it's going.
Too Dumb to Live: Wild knucklecrowns fare very poorly, finding an ecological niche as very easy prey for any midsized predator. They survive largely because they mate frequently and have large litters, and because their meat has an oily, tasteless quality that predators find disagreeable. Still, knucklecrowns tend only to prosper in out-of-the-way areas without much other wildlife to compete with, as the blundering things always fall behind even the most meagre challenge.

Lancefin

Challenge Rating: 5

Alignment: Unaligned

Swordfish Sabre: The lancefin is a species of a monstrous swordfish that skewers prey on its snout and slashes them to ribbons.

Lapiscat

Challenge Rating: 1/2

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Dream Weaver: Lapiscats are incapable of speech, but they are able to transmit nonverbal messages over great distances through dreams. The powers of the World of Dreams breed and train fine strains of lapiscats to communicate with those they would seek in the waking world.
The Sleepless: Lapiscats do not sleep—rather, they enter a trance where they remain still as a statue for hours on end. Because they remain alert all night, they are favoured as guard animals by those who are resourceful enough to acquire and keep them.

Laughing Boar

Challenge Rating: 4

Alignment: Unaligned

Big Eater: A laughing boar can devastate eighty feet of ground in a matter of minutes, covering it in wreckage and gore.
Super-Persistent Predator: A laughing boar takes special delight in chasing fleeing prey, even if the victim isn't worth the effort. To run from a laughing boar is to incite its bloodlust, and they have been known to break their ankles and necks chasing after clever prey, for nothing can shake their pursuit once they have begun it.

Manylegs

Alignment: Unaligned

Big Creepy-Crawlies: Planegea is home to giant worms and arthropods collectively known simply as manylegs. Giant manylegs are large enough to prey on mortals, feared and hated by giants for their endless, animal appetites and love of filth and decay.

Blind Death

Challenge Rating: 6

That's No Moon: The giant, carnivorous tube-worm known as blind death is initially hard to discern from a rotting log. It prefers to allow prey to approach it, then grasp them—ideally by the skull—for a quick kill.

Clawed Greatspider

Challenge Rating: 8

Giant Spider: The clawed greatspider is large enough to catch both fish and mortals.
Mix-and-Match Critters: Clawed greatspiders are effectively amphibious spiders with the pincers of giant crabs, drowning prey and then storing it in underwater webs until ready to consume.

Dire Locust

Challenge Rating: 3

Sealed Evil in a Can: Originally found in swarms vast enough to devour the world, only a few dire locusts remain, but some say their young slumber below the feet of the clans and the hallows of gods, biding time until they emerge again to consume all living things.

Faku-Baz

Challenge Rating: 6

Talking Animal: This mantis is the most intelligent of all manylegs, able to hold rudimentary conversations and even cast simple spells.

Giant Millipede (Arthropleura)

Challenge Rating: 2

Acid Attack: If threatened, a giant millipede emits a flood of acidic bile.

Ku-zug

Challenge Rating: 2

Eyeless Face: Ku-zugs are eyeless and use blindsight granted by their antennae to sense their surroundings.

Longwing (Meganeuropsis)

Challenge Rating: 1/4

Kidnapping Bird of Prey: The longwing is feared for its taste for children, with whom it can easily fly away.

Sea Scorpion

Challenge Rating: 5

Beware My Stinger Tail: The sea scorpion's long, flat body is tipped in a toxic stinger.

Rockjaw

Challenge Rating: 9

Alignment: Unaligned

Fiendish Fish: The rockjaw is a hulking species of fish with leathery, shark-like skin and thick plates of bone. When defending itself or hunting prey, it clamps down with a vice-like bite and batters its opponent with the bony plates across its body.

Simbabukwa

Challenge Rating: 5

Alignment: Unaligned

Enemy Mine: The killpact is a tradition known across the Great Valley. Simbabukwa are such a direct threat to every clan's survival that when one moves in, all hostilities between clans are dropped until the giant lion is slain.

Stickymouth

Challenge Rating: 4

Alignment: Unaligned

Chameleon Camouflage: Once latched on, a stickymouth flattens itself against its host, taking its colour and shape.
The Symbiote: A stickymouth is a parasitic ooze which attaches itself primarily to herbivores. When the affected creature, confused by the stickymouth's toxin, approaches another unguarded creature, the stickymouth swells outward like a huge mouth, and attempts to devour its victim in a single bite.

Swordquill

Challenge Rating: 1

Alignment: Unaligned

A strange beast resembling a giant, rainbow-colored hedgehog.

Beast of Battle: Though the swordquill is not naturally an aggressive creature, it can be brought to a kind of hypnotic ferocity with careful training. Some clans depend on these entranced swordquills, called battlequills, when they go into conflict against other mortals.

Terror Bird

Challenge Rating: 1/4 (andalgalornis), 3 (brontornis, kelenken)

Alignment: Unaligned

Anti-Magic: Something in the nature of terror birds makes magic slide off them. They are resistant to magical effects and difficult or impossible to enchant or harm through spellcraft.
Mage Killer: Terror birds seem to hunt spellskins, druids and shamans with equanimity, as if enjoying slaughtering anything that seeks to bend reality to any will other than raw physical power.

Tricerataur

Challenge Rating: 5

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Beast Man: Tricerataurs are half-man, half-triceratops creatures descended from shamans of a long-forgotten three-horned dinosaur god who rose up against him, betrayed him, and shared his flesh amongst themselves.
Dying Race: Tricerataurs are hated and hunted wherever they are found. They are rarely seen now and are considered a relic of dark days by most. It may be hoped that soon—perhaps in this generation of men—the last tricerataur may be exterminated, putting an end to an awful lineage.
Evil Weapon: Tricerataurs' weapons are crafted by the dark mind of their ancient god, and often whisper in the ear of their wielder or incite them to madness, giving them great gifts of power in exchange for their continual sacrifices of innocent flesh.

Visitant

Demon of Human Origin: In the Cult Riverlands, cultists who serve their gods well look forward to a truly terrible fate after death-—transformation into a lemure, the lowest form of fiend. Yet this is only the beginning, as the idols like to tell their followers, for he who becomes a lemure might one day become a god.
Light 'em Up: Many celestials are formed of living light, and use that divine light to heal the injured and blind or smite the wicked.
Our Angels Are Different: Good gods can create celestial visitants, who serve their god joyfully as extensions of their will. Celestials instinctively crave truth, beauty and goodness. Most willingly serve more powerful celestials, believing in their shared goal.
Our Demons Are Different: Like other gods, evil gods can manifest part of their divine essence into spiritual beings—fiends, in this case. While no specific type is given stats or details in The Star-Shaman's Song of Planegea, DMs are instructed to use the existing fiends of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.

Glimmer

Challenge Rating: 0

Alignment: Neutral Good

Empathic Healing: Glimmers have a touch that can slightly heal a minor wound, killing themselves in the process.

Notar

Challenge Rating: 1/4

Alignment: Lawful Good

Magic Music: Notars have heartbreakingly beautiful voices, which can lift the spirit and mend broken bones.

Refractor

Challenge Rating: 1

Alignment: Neutral Good

Eye Beams: The refractor's eyes emit piercing rays of solid light, which can separate flesh from bone and blacken skin.

Emissary

Challenge Rating: 2

Alignment: Lawful Good

Human Disguise: Emissaries may cloak themselves in humble guises to carry messages for their deity beyond their hallow's reach.

Envoy

Challenge Rating: 4

Alignment: Lawful Good

Blinded by the Light: An envoy can release a burst of inner light bright enough to blind those looking at it.

Image Bearer

Challenge Rating: 6

Alignment: Neutral Good

Defeat Equals Explosion: When the image bearer dies, it erupts in a burst of divine energy.
Living Lie Detector: The image bearer knows if it hears a lie.
Mouth of Sauron: Image bearers are celestials made in the image of the god themselves, shaped to carry a message as if from the very mouth of the god.

Warmthdrinker Spirit

Challenge Rating: 6

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Demonic Possession: The warmthdrinker spirit can possess a humanoid, taking control of the body without depriving the target of awareness.
Ghostly Chill: When a humanoid succumbs to the cold and goes unburied, their spirit may manifest as a warmthdrinker spirit, desperately driven to seek any reprieve from the cold that grips them.

Woolly Unicorn (Elasmotherium)

Challenge Rating: 13

Alignment: Neutral Good

Good Is Not Nice: Woolly unicorns are good-aligned but short-tempered creatures and will dismiss even good-hearted supplicants for petty reasons should they find fault with the way in which they are approached.
Unicorn: The woolly unicorn is a cantankerous, shaggy celestial that roams in endless watch over its chosen domain. Its horn, the height of a full-grown mortal, is the source of the woolly unicorn's power to heal and shatter. Woolly unicorns appoint themselves watchers over particular stretches of the world—usually icy plains and wintry wastelands. Beasts and elementals bow to the woolly unicorn's will, and evil creatures are quickly run out or destroyed.

Characters / Planegea

Edit Locked

Factions

Threats

Gods

Ahn-Undon Water-Striker

Glelh the Unblinking

Unkillable Urhosh

Kho Many-Arms

Twr the Tyrant

Mala Long-Song

Kinships

Creatures

Bouldertail (Ankylosaurus)

Deathwalker (Giganotosaurus)

Doomclaw (Utahraptor)

Farloper (Gallimimus)

Flintback (Stegosaurus)

Frilled Spitter (Dilophosaurus)

Great-hook (Therizinosaurus)

Greatwing (Quetzalcoatlus)

Littlesnap (Euparkeria)

Madcrash (Yi qi)

Mammothmaw

Sailstalker (Spinosaurus)

Seatooth (Mosasaurus)

Skullsmasher (Pachycephalosaurus)

Snakeneck (Elasmosaurus)

Spider Raptor

Swiftclaw (Velociraptor)

Tentwing (Pteranodon)

Thunderfoot (Titanosaurus)

Trumpetcrest (Parasaurolophus)

Reef Golem

Blind Death

Clawed Greatspider

Dire Locust

Faku-Baz

Giant Millipede (Arthropleura)

Ku-zug

Longwing (Meganeuropsis)

Sea Scorpion

Glimmer

Notar

Refractor

Emissary

Envoy

Image Bearer

Previous

Index

Next