ASSORTED NOTIONS & ASSUMPTIONS

Novel Notions

1. Clerics can’t currently heal or cast spells. Outsiders think that based on the past, when the gods were present.
2. Could Tholm think he has magic, only to discover at the worst possible moment that he was mistaken?
3. Cleric Corporem - the Learned Order Corporem - perform autopsies.
4. Rites and Sanctities of the Zenithal (including burial rites).
5. The Ulta (ironically) are themselves atheist.
6. So goes for their creations, the Grogan.
7. Relics of saints exist. Finger bones and what not.
8. Krytuss is linked by maddening visions to Faldrighel, in perpetual entombment beneath the icy sea. Coldkeep was built by hands beset with fever dreams.
9. It’s strange angles dictated thus to them, courtesy of things yet unknown.
10. The Abbey of the Sacred Fulguration is dedicated to the old ways. The Zenithal as a whole. As such, it has fallen from favor with the crown. Not officially, but practically.
11. Head of the Zenithal perhaps called the High or Arch Theocrat.
12. The Solti, though thought to be exclusive to Neishmehil, are in fact not the sole representatives of their race on Gothenya.
13. There is a more… direct/obvious/unpretentious offshoot living on, and ruling a lost island chain east of Hariel Minuta.
14. They are more openly oppressive and imperial, holding sway over the other local inhabitants with an iron fist. Like Meliboneans.


Peace Bound Weapons
1. Brightly colored fabric cord wrapped around crosspiece and scabbard. Usually yellow. Cord covered in brightly colored (opposite or red) wax.
2. Finally, a gold stamped seal pressed into the wax at a position most likely to break apart with tampering.
3. If tampered with, the wax would crumble and expose yellow beneath. Making it obvious. Also not easy to repair if the seal is broken.

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Big Ideas - Worldbuilding

*OPTION* THE INTELLIGENT DEAD (a new caste/culture)
"Many are the dead, and but few are the living."
1. The dead always "rise." Not necessarily as hungry, mindless zombies. Possibly as an entirely new “class” or form of life.
2. Disconnect and dissociated from their previous existences. They can no longer relate and can only find solace and understanding amongst others who have “risen” like them.
3. Older/previous risen as mentors?
4. This could work for movie, book or campaign.

WOMEN IN THE WESTERN WORLD
1. Role of women in the west. Women can become warriors of the crown, though this is quite rare. Those that do are assigned to segregated units, typically assisting the healer templars.
2. In Varuum things are much different. The women warriors of the Hassir’s corps are amongst the most feared. They are known as Quillar Nev or Swift Shadows. They move in and out, killing before one even knows they were there. Not assassins. At least not officially.
3. Lentokk, for all its issues, makes no distinction between the sexes. Amongst the Eight, the female members often still take the moniker of godking for themselves.

Weird DCC Ideas

1. Dead god, body torn asunder and scattered to the winds… with a cult bent on returning the pieces together. After which, their diced god will allegedly return to the lands. This is, the parts are long decomposed and turned to dust. But they return, separately, each appendage “borrowed” by a living human from whom it must be severed and taken. None know who are those few (un)lucky bearers of godly gifts. They themselves are unaware of the power entrusted to them. But they won’t be for long.
2. One of the gods (Zenithal or otherwise) should be the “crafter” of the Grogan. Strout & Pikel. Is it Hindelaine (perhaps in conjunction with another)? Or could Hindelaine have a more stern, “rock-solid male” aspect? Something approximating the traditional dwarven gods of the forge.
3. Strouts are “sculpted” in appearance, and therefore exhibit a wide variety of looks. Though all have certain traits in common. The skin tone, pallor, and tactile hardness (high natural armor class). The overall lack of hair (some are obsessed with wigs and other false appliances). The glowing, pale yellow, eyes. The ability and craving to devour mineral rock. The small stature and slow speed. The legendary resistance to pain.
4. Most clothing and virtually all armor are difficult on the Strout. Their designs reflect the rigid lack of flexibility exhibited by their overall forms. Very angular, with long openings and seams.
5. They can turn their own epidermis into a fashionable “outfit” of sorts. Even change it, given enough time.
6. Strout can also alter (semi-permanently) their own facial features and, to a lesser degree, their physical body shape. This is a form of sculpture and is based upon their pain resistance. They do have a standard, unique appearance (just like any living being), and eventually, their bodies will grow back anything carved away and revert to these parameters. They can be masters of disguise (as long as you want a Strout to look like another Strout).
7. Under certain conditions, they can - when motionless - appear as regular stone.
8. They are not actually made of rock. This is a misnomer. They do have an extremely high mineral content in their makeup, however.
9. They are strong and durable yet slow. However, they are subject to additional harm from blunt weapons.
10. Conversely, Pikel have a similarly high content, but in their case, it’s vegetable matter (moss).
11. Strout are often obsessed with humanity and love to emulate their culture. For this reason, they form cultural norms mimicking those of feudal society (or whatever is around them). They even gave false gods that manifest similar to those of men.
12. Pikel are more absent-minded and insular. Loners. Nutty professors. They are very “in their heads.” Strout are far more outward-facing and less overtly cerebral. Easier to deal with for sure.
13. The Strout maintain the rocky edifice that allows the colony ships to pass as naturally occurring rock formations. Their stone-like makeup was chosen for this purpose. They do what the Ulta (and their human techs) cannot, at least not safely.
14. The Grogan are called the “young races,” as they only came into their own (meaning were left without a pre-ordained purpose or commands from their creators) after the Sundering and the silencing of the gods. Sometimes they are referred to as “the emancipated,” along with the fortreal (though for different reasons).
15. Mironesra. Only in mirrors can the mironesra actually choose the form they desire. This idealized form is not their “neutral” look (natural) but rather the way they aspire to be.
16. Perhaps the mironesra reproduce in that moment they are truly able to become the person in the mirror they wish to be. That image becomes flesh and their consciousness transfers to it. The original body now a stranger. A “newborn” mironesra who must now find its own way and its own mirror wish.
17. Or is it all just a silly fable? A fool’s desire?
18. Mironesra feel physical pleasure via the transference of that of another. They make perfect courtesans for this reason. It brings them pleasure, literally, to give pleasure.
19. The Mironesra, in natural form, is transparent, and with only vague suggestions of shadowy internal organs. They almost appear as vessels, empty yet waiting to be filled. They only thing vivid as always… the thing that can never change… their eyes of gold.
20. Mironesra use the juice of certain berries (the small moon, or pinch moon) to temporarily mask their eye color, shifting it towards the blue end of the spectrum. This process is painful, as such juices are caustic to the aqueous humor and the cornea.
21. Could Tholm love a mironesra pretending to be human? Do mironesra natively have genders? How do they reproduce? Or are they like the Solti? Perhaps they were the result of a failed experiment in reproduction by the barren Solti. Human specimens combined with a protoplasm derived from the fabled “solid” Eret Si’nu. A plasm that shifts and modulates. Unstable and without set form.
22. Humans made to endure the elements with Sidhe (Vala’suun) blood have possibly developed mental powers to manipulate the external world. They are also called Vistraal (like the half-elves) and the natural-born Vistraal are essentially the closest anyone can get to the upgraded humans on Gothenya. The original technology has been cut off from them.
23. The female of the Solti, in particular, despise human women. As they are able to both bear children and command the Eret Si’nu in a fashion far more potent than that of the Vala’suun.
24. Man is a candle that burns bright yet quick. If extended it must do so at the expense of much of their inner light.