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Orcs (species) is the collective name of both goblin and Orc (adult of the species). Same reason we have kit and fox, and fox refers to the species as well as the adult fox.

edited 24th Jan '12 12:55:23 PM by Exelixi

Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-

Ogre could be one of those misconception names though.

Edit: JACKPOT!

edited 24th Jan '12 3:18:55 PM by Vyctorian

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Main page updated.

Of course, now I have to catch up with all the stuff not included because of the re-voting. -_- Oh well. I'll post THOSE tomorrow.

Edit: Oh, also finally added the Logo. It's not quite what I had meant to do, but I couldn't find a generator with more exotic Celtic-style letters like I intended. Oh well it's a good enough first try I think. Opinions?

edited 24th Jan '12 5:24:05 PM by Sijo

On voted I like to ask that Nigh Kin's back story and the actual creature being different votes or a sub vote. As I've mentioned I'm not attached the the back story, but I do love the creature, and would hate to see the back story drag it down.

Also ...

The Hardened

The Hardened are creatures of all races and types born within ley nodes. Their main trait is their resilient and very hard to put down, due to their magically effect growth.

The magic within a node changes them while they are in the womb and nobody knows how or why. They tend to be much stronger and faster than those around them. They often being mistaken for juggernauts even though those are different as Hardened creatures have no control over theses boosts in ability. Their skin is often thicker and harder to cut than most of their kins, even though it may look the same. Hardened creatures also heal much quicker than their kin. One of the few banes to a hardened is the fact that they are unable to cast magic, and often give off an aura magic user find displeasing to be around.

—-

Figured these guys would be good for both martial artist/ fighter type characters in high power campaigns, and good Boss in Mook's Clothing to throw at PC's.

====

Location: The Stress Shack

The stress shack is a mysterious magical location, it is a bar and restaurant that seems to travel across space and sometimes even time. It's shows up in the place of run down building, and sometimes even as a large food cart with seats and blinds.

Those who enter the shack will suddenly forget any relationships they have while they are there. Bonds of family, friendship, love, hate all gone while they are inside everyone is a perfect stranger. Another effect is that people feel more open and willing to talk, while inside. Upon leaving the memories of relationship return but any memories made within the bar vanish, they also always leave where they came in from even if they leave with someone who entered from another location

Anyone who enters the bar with the intent of shutting it down finds themselves in the empty building. In addition the bar never has any brawls as everyone seems more docile while inside, with the exception of a small fighting ring when the bar is in fact in a building, in which case both parties always obey the rules of combat and no match is ever to the death or the pain.

The bar is tended by a balding middle-aged and aging man in rugged clothes he can make any normal dish or drink and always knows what your regular is even if you've never been there before. Everything said in the bar is heard in the speakers native tongue regardless of the language actually being spoken, and the true meanings behind the words is always known.

Items can be brought into the bar by one person and leave with another, and any item can be brought into the bar as long as it's won't destroy it. While the memories made within the bar do vanish, the bar itself, the food, the good feelings, and the barkeeps smiling face always remain in the person mind. Even in cases where another force wipes all other memories out.

—-

The Barkeep may or may not be the celestial God of memories or something created by him.

edited 25th Jan '12 2:44:19 AM by Vyctorian

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Wanted to post this before I started the listing for the next update:

(note: this is an extension of the Theory Of Magic idea)

Geases

Geases (and Curses and Blessings, they are all related) are magic spells created for the purpose of causing magical effects on living beings. They were among the first types of spells invented. It says something- not very nice- about sentient beings that the first thing they did once they realized that words had power over others (when combined with magic that is) was to start using them to influence them according to their own agendas.

There's a huge variety of Geases, ranging from a simple Good Luck Charm cast by a minor priest on a traveler to excruciatingly complicated curses with painstakingly described targets, triggers, effects, and countereffects (for all geases, regardless of nature, MUST have a means of being undone, apparently due to the laws of of magic) that have been passed along certain family lines for centuries. It is rumored that vampirism and werewolfism started as curses (whether this is true or not depends on their exact nature on the campaign- note that even if false, many people still believe this.)

The more complicated and powerful a Geas, the longer it takes to recite. This makes most of them impractical to cast in battle, for an interrupted Geas fizzles uselessly. Geases also usually require some physical connection to the target eg. a drop of blood, a tear, her favorite haircomb, etc.

Most Geas-users -known as Charmcasters- tend to be either Priests or Witch Doctors. They are rarely Elementalists or Mystics, who use magic more intuitively.

Many Artifacts and Legendary characters have had powerful Geases cast on them.

edited 25th Jan '12 2:58:48 PM by Sijo

Love the Celtic Mythology plug, but it's properly Geis (singular) and Geasa (plural).

As far as that last part, I'm slightly disappointed there's no mention of the Fairies using them and Witches being skilled with them (since Geasa were originally a witchy thing) but it's overall solid.

edited 25th Jan '12 3:00:55 PM by Exelixi

Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-

And Geas, in Scottish lore: [1]

Btw, how'd you like the logo?

Hakiro The Hunter of the Damned, The Watchdog of Thoughts

Hakiro was a priest of a strict religion, the sort with an Overgod spawned by concepts of purity of soul and such. Despite this, Hakiro's mind was plagued by evil thoughts. He never acted upon them, but his disgust for himself drove to rage and madness. He began to mercilessly persecute his own flock for their 'thought crimes', until fed up with his reign he was disposed of and driven out. He died in the wilderness, cursing himself for his inner weakness.

His spirit lived on in the Aether, unable to join his god and ancestors. Hakiro became metaphysical focus of every good man's guilt for his every evil thought. He transformed, eventually, into a Terrestrial God. He styled himself the Hunter of the Damned and sought out all those with evil thoughts and tormented them in their minds and dreams, some to death. He made no distinction between those acted upon their malice and those who resisted their inner demons, earning the moniker Watchdog of Thoughts.

. . . And then something fucked him up, right? Because otherwise, there's nothing stopping him from turning every sentient being into a nervous wreck.

Sij: The logo's pretty cool.

Hm, we need moar steampunk.

edited 25th Jan '12 3:13:29 PM by Exelixi

Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-

The way I view Mystics, they would use the crap out of Geases. Of course, their version is less a magical compulsion within but without, a curse upon their luck or their family line, as long as certain prerequisites are met.

Mystics, as I described them at least, are not intuitive: They're Rules Lawyers.

Witches are lawyers coupled with linguists. (Which makes sense, since they're basically the same thing. Have we made it official yet that Witches are a subcategory of Mystics?)

Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-

Dunno

He chooses one victim and sticks with them for a long while, so he's so rarely seen by anyone (Nearly not at all), that's he almost unheard of and believed by many to be an urban legend or story told to scare children.

As someone who suffers OCD, I would consider this person a Big Bad. Also how can him and Hrod exist in the same universe.

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Ah, I see.

He could be a pretty sweet plot device, then.

Vyc, he and Hrod exist in the same universe because Hrod hasn't kicked his bitch ass to the curb yet.

Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-

Hariko has stayed under the radar so far. Not purposely, mind you, it's just his nature doesn't lend itself to being widely known. He's on Hrod's to-do list but depending on how much other crap is going he may fall down in priorities.

"Hmm Hrod really acting up, but little Timmy just spat in Sarah's pudding so I'll have to wait awhile before I get to him."

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Thing is, though, Hrod doesn't have evil intentions. He does horrible things for excellent reasons.

Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-

Jamar and Cerberus

It's awfully vague if he is a Terrestrial God or a Celestial Overgod, but Jamar is known as the Protector of Children and Patron Deity of Domesticated Dogs. His dedicated cults are nearly non-existent except in nurseries and dog kennels but many pay tribute to him, especially parents, and it is believes he keeps himself alive with the familial love and the laughter of children. He is responsible for the creation of three-headed dogs, the cerberus. Where Jamar's influence is strongest, these supernatural beasts can commonly be found guarding nurseries and schools, leading children from danger and hunting down those who would harm them.

He originated on the opposite side of the World Spine then the Black Empire, but as soon as he was discovered his iconography was incorporated wherever appropriate and his hounds welcomed.

edited 25th Jan '12 4:14:15 PM by God_of_Awesome

Hariko sounds to me like someone who's VERY confused about what his real role is (do we even know why he had those impure thoughts? It could have been evil magic from outside, or more mundanely, just a form of insanity.) It is amusing to think he might skip people like Hrod just because they're honest with themselves about their motivations, tho.

(PS: If anyone has any idea to post that you want to be included in the next update please post it ASAP, as I'm working on the list.)

( Now that's a twist on an old familiar icon. )

edited 25th Jan '12 4:25:29 PM by Sijo

He had those impure thoughts because sometimes people have those thoughts, even if they don't act upon them.

Wait, you mean he just felt lust or anger and just couldn't believe it? Though that HAS happened to some people -especially those brought up in conservative societies where the very idea of, say, sex was a sin- I don't think they would be common in our setting. It makes him sound even more pathetic.

edited 25th Jan '12 5:46:57 PM by Sijo

Factor this: He doesn't target people who thought of jay walking, he targets those with thoughts and temptation of things of the caliber of criminal. Those were -his- temptations, truly despicable, unethical things. He wasn't a petty man, he had issues that he kept in check but recriminated himself for in his own mind.

Location: Spireroc City

Spireroc city is a massive floating multi-layered mechanical and steam powered city/airship that floats several miles off the coast line. It's original creator or creators are unknown, as well as it's purpose but it appears to have never been inhabited before though it is fully habitable and seem to be made for that purpose. It was first spotted several year before flight was practical, coming through the could cover and many in the east thought it was a second moon. It has a vertical orbit about 20 miles off from the coast, and varies between 3 miles above the water and 7 miles. It's completes the orbit every five months.

It stands (more floats) almost a mile high*

and is 2 miles wide at it's largest. It's shaped much like an upside down drill with a pyramid style city building up to a castle on a spiral shaped hill.

Wizards finally attaining reliable flight were sent up to investigate it and found a full city at it's top. they found out that the structure is filled with hollow rooms and corridors, that included viewing windows and even a landing bay. At the very center of the structure is a large piece of stone riddled with gemstone veins. On top of this stone is a small room made of steel, within the room is a magically enchanted book made of stone with care instruction written inside in all languages. The book automatically flips open to the operates most fluent language.

In the middle of the room is a large circle surrounded with various runes, at least 10 of which were unknown of until the book was discovered. The city can be moved by a mage but is kept in orbit by the stones and will always move in said orbit, the magic required to move the city drains even the most power mages of their magical energies for a day. The runes control direction, height, temperature inside the city, and even oxygen density among other things. It has since been moved closer to the shore and is only about 5 miles out.

The city is large enough to support several million people, due to it's various floors. It's is currently in mutual ownership by The Eastern dominion*

, While it is not a node it is theorized that the central stone was once apart of a node, as it is magical in nature.

The lower city is made of brass, gray and white stone. while the upper city is almost entirety made of white stone. On each side of the landing platform are two massive turbines with three smaller turbines around them. They are powered by a combination of both magic and clockwork gears, and seem to be used to direct the city when it changes direction as well as keep it in it's orbit above the sea.

The flat lands around the city are very fertile and act as farm land, and despite flying through clouds the city has it's own weather system around it, which appears to be un-controllable from the central HQ.

The Eastern dominion hopes that they will be able to replicate the way these runes work to create more reliable airships int he future, though with magic suddenly failing there is also the fear that if the city could crash into the ocean and if a mass of that size hit the water, the tidal wave could easily wide out the Eastern dominion capital as well as half of the country side.

Drones

Drones are mechanical birds developed by The Eastern dominion as a way to get people up to Spireroc city. They are actually Giant cyborg birds who have been magically bonded with clockwork parts which allows a rider to control their movement*

. At the current time they are all owned by the government but they can be rented for several years at a time, the process to create them is long hard and risky with a 1 in 3 chance of them failing, so currently only about 300 of them exist with 10-15 new ones being created each year. Many find the practice barbaric, and inhuman(oid), and several mages are working both inside and outside of government to try and find an alternative from of reliable flight.

They would use airships but after the last great leader died, from an airship accident that resulting in there being a massive burning hole in the capital, airships have been required to never ascend past a mile above the city.

—-

More Steampunk.

edited 25th Jan '12 7:58:08 PM by Vyctorian

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Hawt.

Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-

"I have alternate means we could get up there."

"This delegation does not recognize Black Emperor Hrod at this moment."

"No, no, here me out. See, you point at the ground, jump up and cast fireball."

"No, Hrod."

"Catapult."

"NO, Hrod.

"Railgun."

"No, Hrod!"

"What's a railgun?"

"Rocket. We have rockets, right?"

"NO HROD!"

"Oh, fine."

"Also, put on some clothes."