People of the Steppe

Here are last of the peoples of the Meager Country. The previous posts in this series are about the Rowing People, and the other Peoples of the River. So now the Meager Country has 5 new types of people and 11 different ethnic groups, which I think is a good number. As before, each group has its own spirit boon which players can gain access to by being initiated into that group.

(Artist)

The Seluk Confederacy:

They look just like the Bronze Folk. Maybe they’re a little shorter, maybe their eyes are a little brighter, but the broad strokes are the same. Even their style of dress is familiar, but far more practical. Their faces are covered in ritual scars, their legs are bent from a lifetime in the saddle, their color is green, and their Seven-Stranded Banner has flown over the steppe for longer than any other. They would laugh  at the fat merchants of the Bronze city, who think they know horses, who think they know archery. Every Seluk was born in a tent, underneath the endless sky, and each will ride a horse before they learn to walk. Their bows are recurve and their mighty tents are pulled on wheels by teams of bulls. They heard goats, sheep, cattle, and keep wolfish dogs who run beside the herds to keep them from straying. Their favorite drink is a hot thick liquid with the colour and taste of mud, they call it tea. Their horses are swift but tire quickly, every man and woman except the poorest owns several. The Seluk confederacy is a spiritual unity. Eight times the world has ended when the steppe was set alight and the rivers ran with blood and nine times it has risen from the ash. Each time, the confederacy has been united again. The souls of the Seluk people will always find each other on the fresh steppe and ride into the Final War as one. There are seven Seluk clans but each is divided into three strata. The Bull strata take after The Horned One, they are herders and craftspeople. The Horse strata takes after Thunder Shaker, they are warriors and defenders. Finally, the Eagle strata who take after Sky Father himself, they are shamans, generals, and leaders. These functions are divinely appointed, if one does not perform their function they endanger the survival of the Seluks past the next Final War. The Seluk Confederacy controls the eastern bank of the river Sargal up until it forks. Their domain is threatened by the Kazan, who push west every day. The Seluks merely tolerate the other peoples who inhabit their steppe. These others are but ephemeral, their civilizations particular and not eternal like the wheel and recurve bow and Seven-Stranded Banner. The whole Confederacy is organized from the Eagle Tent, a massive mountain of yellow fabric and hide which moves with the turning seasons up and down the river. Their current Khagan is Bahram of the Moon-Kissed clan, who are represented by a strand of white hair in the great banner. He is convinced the Final War will happen in his lifetime and is trying to introduce writing to the Seluks. He wishes to create a network of messenger birds so he always knows where his soldiers are.

Guardian Spirits: Thunder Shaker, Sky Father, The Horned One, The Twins, The Sun and Moon

Languages: Seluk Speech (Close enough to Bronze Talk to be understood by speakers of that language)

Traits as Bronze Folk

-Bull Strata Boon: At day break, can drink milk from a hollowed out cow horn which has not been properly treated as to be used as a drinking horn (smells terrible, everything in it tastes like wet cow) to do all physical work twice as quickly until the sun is risen to it's highest point in the sky

-Horse Strata Boon: Can dip an arrow tip in the blood of an enemy and wrap it in strands of horse hair for a day to make the arrow do an extra 2d8 lightning damage to the target who's blood was used to make the arrow

-Eagle Strata Boon: Can whisper a person's name to a feather from a bird of prey and throw it to the wind. Whichever way the feather blows is the direction of the person named. Can eat the egg lay laid by a bird of prey to see through its eyes but not its ears for a day. This causes temporary blindness and usually nausea.

By Bulat Gilvanov

The People of the Narrow Tooth:

In the shadow of high mount Tekdar in a country far north and a thousand years away, the black wolf lay down with the yellow hawk. They sired the People of the Narrow Tooth, who hatched from three eggs. Their skin is the deep yellow of turmeric, their pupils are milky, and their hair is jet black but turns gray before most reach the age of 17. Blue blood runs in their veins, it tastes of copper and burns hot in battle. They’re all born with a hard spine protruding from below their upper lip which quickly falls off, a remnant of the egg tooth their progenitors needed to crack their birth-prisons. Their features are angular and stern. They are nomads who herd yak, goats, sheep, and miniature deer across the steppe. Each of them is expected to be self-sufficient first and part of a tribe second. Tents are small, fit for only two or three people. Men and women are equal, all wear loose fitting pants and jackets of yak-fiber trimmed with fur or decorated with feathers, beads, and antler. Their horses are hearty and thick calved, able to drag and carry burdens great distances and almost immune to cold.  There is no type of meat they will refuse to eat. They cook and eat the flesh of ritually slaughtered animals, this is considered a terrible insult to the spirits by others. The meat is divided carefully, the choicest cuts reserved for those of high status or pregnant women. Their sense of smell is impeccable, war-bands communicate by burning specific herbs to send scents across the steppe. Poor winds have led to the destruction of whole armies. The People of the Narrow Tooth are split thusly.

Speed 30ft

-Adrenaline, gain 2 temporary hitpoints, to a maximum of 2 + your level, at the beginning of your turn in combat.
-Gain advantage on all perception checks which rely on smell
-Can communicate in a basic way with birds of prey and wolves. You can ask yes/no questions or questions which can be easily answered with a bob of a head or the stretching of a wing, such as asking for directions. It's a horrible idea to always trust these animals though. They want you to get lost so they can eat you when you tire.

The Koto Kete of the United Femur: Their last confederacy was broken when Khan Naran broke the femur of a sacred ewe during the moot-feast, leading to years of bloody war. Now they are joined together once again. Their domain rests in the lower river region and travels up the west bank until the river forks. Their warriors file their teeth to points and obsess over virtue and spiritual purity, which are both deeply intertwined. They have a tight grip on trade coming westward and extract tribute as they please. Sometimes this tribute is knowledge, great teachers are invited to spend years with the Koto Kete before continuing their scholarly journeys. Cults from Voich are making becoming more and more popular with the Koto Kete and the word of disgraced Besharan theologians is becoming accepted among them. The emissarys of the Sultan have been warmly welcomed by the Koto Kete and they work closely with them to protect trade going up and down the river. The Koto Kete are led by Khan Sarnai and her council of elders from each of the 10 Koto-Kete tribes. The moot-feast is held in the coldest month of winter. Leaders from all the tribes gather under one tent to plan the confederacy’s future. Every ten seasons, the elders elect a new Khan. The warriors compete in tests of endurance in the frigid weather, sometimes they die of hypothermia. It is a great honor to be chosen by the Winter Wind this way. Sarnai’s greatest ambition is to reform the Koto Kete so that officers are chosen based on merit rather than lineage, she will probably die mysteriously in a hunting accident.

Guardian Spirits: Black Wolf, Yellow Hawk, Sky Father, The Four Winds of the World

Languages: Narrow Tongue, Trade Tongue
-Can sing to a  silver mirror for 6 hours and hold it in the smoke of a ritual sacrifice to make the mirror show the true face of the world on it's surface. In the mirror, spirits appear as they are in the spirit world, magical disguises are erased, and crimes appear on people disfiguring the flesh while the good deeds look like beauty marks. The mirror loses this ability after 3 days.

7th Century Reliquary, Don river area 

The Kazan:
At the end of the Boulevard of Khans, in the Jet Palace, on a pile of twisted iron crowns, on a huge velvet pillow, sits a massive serpentine skull covered with gold leaf and festooned with jewels and precious stones. This is Sargal Toihor. Her spirit flies across the Meager Country like a bad wind. Milk curdles, women miscarry, yak sicken and die in her wake. She chose the Kazan two centuries ago, when they were just a minor tribe of the Koto Kete. They found her skull, hidden far north at the beginning of the endless forest of the Untamo and brought it to a place south of the river Altai. Here they have built the Venomous City and expand their new domain. They have two High Khans. One’s role is spiritual, he spends his days lavishing Toihor’s skull with praise and devotion. The other is a military leader, she keeps track of the movements of all the Kazan warbands. Lesser Khans and officers are picked from several powerful families. The lesser Khans operate with independence but compete for the favor of Sargal-Toihor and the High Khans. Toihor rewards princes and warriors who act with cunning and disrespect for human life with black scales and venomous breath and incredible strength. They can decapitate a man with a single arrow. These chosen warriors are waited upon by spindly kobolds who show up in the Venomous City at random. They were once vermin, but now they are little beady eyes and twisted ears for the Great Jet Serpent. Toihor values trade highly. She needs more jewels for her throne and greater power over all the business going up and down the Meager Country’s rivers. How she would love to speak with someone from the Bronze City. If only such a place existed when she had flesh instead of bone. Make no mistake, it will not be long before this whole country belongs to the Kazan. 

Guardian Spirits: Sargal-Toihor the Jet Serpent who wears 600 crowns and commands a million archers

Languages: Narrow Tongue, Trade Tongue
-Gain resistance to acid damage and advantage on constitution saving throws against poisons while wearing a belt of snakeskin with a piece of jet set in it. The piece of jet absorbs any poisons which effect you. If you are favored by Sargal-Toihor, it can turn into a serpent with jet fangs whose bite inflicts all the poisons absorbed by the jet stone on its victim. It may just as easily bite you if Toihor wishes it too.

Kalka by Pavel Ryzhenko

The Pomroy of Voich:
The kingdom of Voich is doomed. In a century or two the Kazan will burn it to the ground. But now, it shudders on in a hilled part of the steppe far west of the Sargal. The kingdom’s most notable export is the courage flower, which the Koto Kete buy is vast quantities. Its bright red petals are a powerful stimulant but the plant will only bloom where blood has been shed. Incidentally, Voich is one of the few Pomroy kingdoms to do away with public executions. They execute criminals on courage flower fields instead. Voich also produces wonderful tapestries which make their way to the Bronze City from time to time, they will inspire a generation of artists in an age far away from this one. There are four aristocratic families (Alma, Alba, Alra, and Alta) who control Voich, their grip is iron and they live in a world wholly different from that of the peasantry, who are no better than slaves. In the court of Voich, there are a hundred titles one can hold and it takes years of education to learn them all and then a lifetime to master the proper way of speaking to the holder of each. The drake knights of Voich ride slim, confident beasts with four limps, a long jaw, and large blue-green scales. Their war hogs are covered in hair the texture of steel wool. These beasts are docile until enraged and all animals fear them by instinct. The peasants carry on traditional forms of spirit worship. Their local customs involve burying liquor for the ancestors to ferment it and celebrating the arrival of shooting stars. The nobility have no time for such superstition. They follow a number of semi-magical occult groups, the most prominent being: the cult of Three Stars, the order of the Yellow Serpent, the disciples of the Empty Belly, the slaves of Chaos at Feast, and the inheritors of the True Flame. 

Guardian Spirits: Donar the Strong, Moss Beard, The Shooting Star Woman, The Earth Mother

Languages: Pomroy Patois (with a distinct Voichean drawl), Trade Tongue

Traits as Pomroy
-Can eat a piece of moss soaked in liquor to become brave and strong, gaining resistance to poison damage and becoming immune to fear effects. This lasts until the moon rises or falls.

New Items:
Courage Flower Paste. Held in a little wooden box with a red bloom painted on it. The case has a single dose of the paste in it. A round after you put it under your tongue, your flesh feels like it's burning and you forget what fear is for 10 minutes. You gain +2 to hit, +2 to damage with melee weapons, and +2 to Dexterity saving throws. At the end of your turn, make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw. If succeed nothing happens, if you fail, your body overheats and you fall unconscious for 1d6 hours. If you move half your speed or more on your turn, you gain advantage on this saving throw.

This post is dedicated to Ivan Mazepa, who sided with Charles the 12th at Poltava 

More People of the River

So last it was the Rowing People, now here are some other peoples of the river Sargal and the Altai. Like last time, each group has a gift from their guardian spirits which PCs could, in theory, gain access to being being initiated in to that group.

The Orluk:

Mother Huldra bore one child. A child with brown fur and beady black eyes. A long-necked child with dark whiskers. A strong jawed child. A clever child. A child with sharp teeth and a short tail. A child who grew up fast and was first of the Orluk. She is named Saumo and she is very old. Saumo’s children tend to fields of flax and cultivated water reeds. They wear clothing of dried and woven reeds which don't get heavy in the water, a useful trait.They drape themselves in heavy woolen cloaks in the cold months. The well to do wear fine fur hats and tightly fit linen vests, men and women both. The men have beards of thick, bristly whiskers.

Imagine this but with a more human face, hands, feet, and a greater hatred of eels
(Artist)

Every useful herb, every sweet-smelling fruit, every medicine root, and every use for river reeds is known to them. They live everywhere. Most settlements in the lower and middle river have Orluk enclaves but the largest Orluk communities are up the river Altai where domes of wood with mud bases sit on the river bank. These houses have an underwater entrance for escaping during wartime and for children to swim in through. The Orluk travel the rivers in small leather canoes or on the backs of Monster Toads, which they have domesticated. The toads drag cargo in water proofed leather bags as they frog-kick down the river. Orluk clans are large and closely woven, membership is passed down matrilineally. Some Orluks live like nomads on the river, only settling down for winter with the nearest cousin when its time for the toads to hibernate under the mud. There are secret handshakes and mundane rituals clan members use to identify themselves to their relatives on the other side of the river. Three clans control the trade in iron, extracted from the bogs around the Altai, and have entered an uneasy alliance. They indulge in Besharan spices and Voichean tapestries but live in fear of each other. Each clan has separately decided to store their money in the belly of a fat swamp troll who is muzzled, de-clawed, and heavily guarded. To get the coin out, a troll-cutting knife is needed. The Orluk clan-mothers gather together at the beginning of summer to honor Mother Huldra. They stand in the shallow river and hold hands and cover themselves in water lilies. This ritual was taught to the Orsuk by the Pike-Eye clan, but the Rowing People cannot understand Mother Huldra, they only understand salt and rhythm and blood. Mother Huldra is not the river Sargal. She is not the Altai. She is the whole waterway, every stream and reservoir between the two seas. She is the spine of the world. The Altai and western Sargal are her shoulder blades. All other things are just extensions of her. Every summer she exhales and as she draws in breath again winter begins. We are low before her.

The Orluk consider the River Folk a delicacy, their flesh is so greasy and muscular.

Guardian Sprits: Mother Huldra, Swift-Swimmer Saumo, The Lily-Witch, The Frog God

Languages: Orluk, Trade Talk

Speed 25ft, Swim 20ft
-Can hold their breath for an hour 

-Gain advantage on all nature checks relating to the Meager Country
-May move 5ft once a round as a free action without provoking opportunity attacks

Spirit Boon: Become immune to charm effects and life draining effects while wearing a crown of water lilies plucked at twilight. Once the blooms wilt, the effect ends.

You've sunk your last boat, pirate

The River Folk:

They look like huge black eels with two spindly arms where their fins should be. They have four fingers, their chests bulge uncomfortably when breathing air, and their striking yellow eyes are closer together than an eel’s should be. They spawn in the sea and make their way up the river Sargal as they grow. The farther up the river you go, the larger the River Folk. They do not care for their young. They form small groups of equals called pits, short for eel pits. Pits live in underwater burrows together and compete with other pits for resources. Pits of stronger River Folk make the members of weaker pits fight each other to the death for the right to join them.

Fear our slick sisters of the river

 The River Folk make short trips inland to gather wood and other materials. Sometimes they build small hovels of mud on the river’s edge to store supplies or for making smoked fish. The River Folk dress themselves with jewelry made of clam shells and with crude leather clothing usually made from horse hide. The River Folk are expert scavengers, they scour ship wrecks for useful materials, like iron nails and sailcloth. They also make shipwrecks. They attack boats at night, plunging hooks into their sides and pulling oars into the water. Sometimes they’ll follow sinking boats for miles. The older pits have learned how to make a flammable, sticky substance called eel jelly. It burns when wet. There is nothing more terrifying than a ring of fire appearing around your ship at midnight. The River Folk believe they were the world’s first people before the land was raised and legged creatures were born upon it.

Guardian Sprits: The Eel with 18 Coils, The Undertow Goddess, Mother Huldra, the Fisher of Men

Languages: HIIIESH

Speed 20ft, Swim 45ft

-Darkvision
-Amphibious, can breath water and air for 12 hours at most

-Can move at full speed while crawling without being slowed by difficult terrain and without provoking opportunity attacks
-Slippery when wet, checks made to grapple River Folk are made at disadvantage and they gain advantage on saving throws against effects which would restrain them

Spirit Boon:
-Can eat a pearl wrapped in water weeds to start producing a thick mucus from their skin, which grants resistance to fire damage, +1 AC, and keeps the skin moist. This lasts for a day.

UNHAND ME

The Limber Folk

Like ghosts they stand, tall and thin, among the spindly birches or the mighty pines. Everything about them is lanky and dry. Their hair is like summer hay in texture and color, they all prefer to keep it loose around their shoulders. When they are born, their skin is a light magenta, sometimes tinged with blue. As they age, their flesh becomes darker and harder. By 45, most have skin the color and thickness of tree bark and deep wrinkles. This is considered extremely ugly and disgusting. A few get lighter as they age, but their skin begins to thin and eventually peels off. Their thick, brownish blood, drips down their peeling skin and becomes hard as amber. This is considered very beautiful. The Limber Folk keep stout ponies, cattle with thin horns, and big flightless birds with brown feathers and good singing voices. Beyond this, and a great respect for mothers, the different groups of Limber Folk share little.

Speed 30ft

-Ignore difficult terrain created by vegetation and shallow water

-Treat half cover created by vegetation as three quarters cover

- Limber People gain +1 AC as natural armor for every 10 years they age over 15
-Thick Blood, advantage on all constitution saving throws

The Untamo:

The forests of the Untamo are dark and swampy. They build halls with long sloping roofs and wooden shacks on the banks of mossy lakes and among swampy stands of trees. They remember themselves as tall and mighty in an age long forgotten before famine and disease were invented, the age of Heroes and of Long Stanzas. They clear swampland to let their animals graze and grow their few crops, wheat and barley, upon. Their most treasured animal is a sheep with wool like silk. However, all the fabrics they wear are scratchy and dry, but this doesn’t bother them. The Untamo are masters of woodwork. They weave shoes, baskets, and backpacks out of birch bark and can build a boat without a nail. They still know ironwork though and the richest among them wear twisting copper jewelry. The Untamo are not well organized. Families live far apart in their own halls and come together for festivals, weddings, trade, and war.

Tell us how the world was born (Artist)

They have no kings or chiefs in the traditional sense. Authority is usually derived from age and experience, or from wealth in a pinch. Untamo shamans are called Singers. They remember the Long Stanzas, the record of the Untamo from the beginning of time and before it. By recalling the origin of a thing it can be controlled, if the right song is sung, the right magic words are used. The trees will bend to he who knows the story of how the world was made fertile. The wounds will close of she who knows how Oli Maki discovered iron. The greatest singers can make the spirits weep and sing flesh to wood, water to honey, and sand to grain. When a pair of twins is born, they are given to the nearest Singer to be instructed in the Stanzas. They will close their eyes, intertwine their hands, and recite the entire history of the Untamo in the darkness. Friend of Deep Waters came first and sung first, he planted seeds from which the Limber Folk sprung. He was born older than old. Oli Maki invented the forge and made the sky. The two had many adventures in that glorious age when starvation was unknown and men only made war for sport. The Blind Witch ended this age, jealous was she of the wonders of Oli Maki’s forge. The most sacred space of the Untamo are the Spirit-Trees, silvery birches which rise from the swamp floor. The most important festivals are held here. Each Spirit-Tree has, in the past, produced disks of Silver Chain and sheets of Sky Metal. Silver Chain armor is made by threading fiber or sinew through the perfectly square holes of each disk. Friend of Deep Waters left these for his people, the disks are etched with prayers for good fortune in his ancient language. Sky Metal is a dark purplish red color. It is incredibly hard yet flexible. This armor is treated with great reverence and only the most respected warriors may don it. Though the heroes of the past receive the most reverence, bear worship is becoming more common, and the abandoned spirits of the Hisvek are finding new worshipers among the Untamo.

Guardian Spirits: Friend of Deep Waters, Oli Maki the Primaeval Craftsman, Ahto the Sword-Singer, Uulou the Honey Eater, Rainbow Maiden, Water Mother, Sky Father

Languages: Limber Language
-Can be cured of all diseases and spiritual ailments (possessions, life drain, ect) by spending three days straight in a sauna without food or water

His songs are stronger (Artist)

The Lapuans:

What an age it was (Artist)

They are just barely people of the Meager Country, the Untamo have been pushing them northward as far as memory goes. A few clans have gone full bore and traveled far north as one can go. The Droven call them Reindeer Riders and are terrified by them. The majority of the Lapuans can be found north of the Altai or between the Uulung mountains. They are semi-nomadic. They build foundations of stacked stones and bury supplies in pits, then circle round between these camps the whole year round. Some tribes only have a summer and winter camp, they raise honeybees and grow crops like the Untamo. Unlike their arctic brothers, the Lapuans of the Meager Country just have their ponies to ride on, though they’re starting to catch onto this reindeer thing. Lapuan shamans are few and far between. They are outcasts rather than pillars of their communities. They can control the forces of disease and lay mighty curses on those who upset them. A word from the shaman’s mouth can be enough to shred your being into its five constituent parts. The phrase “crawl back to your mother’s womb” is greatly feared. The Lapuans maintain that it was The Blind Witch of the North who made the Limber Folk out of tree sap and snow and that the fault for ending the age of Long Stanzas (or the age before ages, as the Lapuans call it), lies with Friend of Deep Waters for trying to steal Oli Maki’s Engine after he could not have the hand of Rainbow Maiden in marriage. Maybe if he could keep his lusts to himself, the Blind Witch would never have had to give birth to the 9 Plagues.

Guardian Sprits: The Blind Witch of the North, Rainbow Maiden, The Lone Shepard, The 9 Plagues, The Mischievous One

Languages: Limber Language 

-Can easily call a spirit of the North Wind by burning a pine branch, a handful of snow, and a drop of blood. The spirit will swirl around the one who's blood was offered to it and give them resistance to cold damage. The spirit can be dismissed as bonus action. This creates a mighty gust of wind, all creatures within 25ft of the spirit's controller must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. Torches are snuffed out, water and food freezes. If not dismissed this way, the spirit will stay for half a day.  

The Lair of the Lynx by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1906

New Items:

A Jar of Eel Jelly. A small clay pot with a cork inserted through the center. One half is jelly, the other is water. If the jar is successfully thrown at an enemy, they are covered with ignited eel jelly. At the start of their turn, they take 1d8 fire damage. They may use an action to attempt a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw to get the sticky jelly off.

Silver Chain Armor. Heavy Armor, 17 AC, 13 STR, only takes up 6 inventory slots

Sky Metal Plate. Medium Armor, 18 AC, only takes up 4 inventory slots

Toad Whistle. Made of river reeds folded just so. Blow it and all frogs and toads within 120ft will be alerted and hop toward you. Blow it for longer than 10 seconds and all frogs and toads within 120ft will flee you.

This post is dedicated to Chris L'Etoile, who never responded to my email

Peoples of the Meager Country: The Rowing People

Ok, I should probably actually talk about what's in the Meager Country. Let's start with the people and the place they live. In this first post, I'll go over the basics and talk about the Rowing People, who my players have interacted with a lot so far. 

Fairy Forest at Sunset, Ivan Bilibin, 1906

Geography:

The Meager Country begins on the northern coast of the sea of Pearls, where the great river Sargal empties its frigid waters into the sea. From here, the Meager Country can be divided into 3 regions. 

1.The lower river is marshy, it’s wide delta tapering to a web of twisting streams. The steppe stretches east and west of the lower river, rolling in some places, rocky in others, soon finding the desert which hugs the north-eastern coast of the Sea of Pearls. 

It is home to the Koto Kete, the River Folk, the Orluk, and the Seluk Confederacy

2.The mid-river is straight and fast, the grasslands beside it are fertile and vast. Far west, the terrain become rougher, small forests spring up. This is Voich, it is where the Meager Country ends. 

The mid-river is home to the Koto Kete, the Kazan, the Seluk Confederacy, and the Kingdom of Voich

3. The upper river forks. The Sargal continues north-west, the river Altai stretches to the north-east, both explode into large and small tributaries. This region is covered in dense forests, pine and spruce. The Sargal tapers off into a collection of lakes connected by small streams, the lakes of Untamo. The Altai goes quickly northward, developing into swampy taiga. Eastward, its many streams run between the Uulung mountains.

It is home to the Orusk, the Hisvek, the Orluk, the River Folk, the Untamo, and the Lapuans

Some of these groups are the same type of people but are divided by ethnicity and history. Each has a number of guardian spirits who bless their people(s) of choice with certain gifts. If a PC gets close to any of these groups, they could be initiated into them and gain the use of that group's trait. No double dipping.

For those of you who can't imagine a turf roofed house

The Rowing People:

Two icy eyes with rectangular pupils, like a goat’s, set into a long face the white-grey color of shale. Four sturdy fingers pawing through hair like hay or like red blood or like muddy water. Women with woolen dresses and complicated braids. Men in tunics with shepherds crooks and round shields. Chiefs and elites with beautiful furs or exquisite copper brooches. These are the Rowing People. There are no sailors like them. They live in turf roofed cottages and in long halls. Sheep love them and they love sheep. Their dogs have shaggy grey hair but bright, smart eyes. They are loyal to family, to tradition, to poetry but are brave and vicious and stubborn as well. The men love long stories and rhyme schemes. Women roll dice and enjoy seeing a job done well. Their voices are sing-song and clear. They have strong emotions and are moved to tears, to laughter, and to anger easily. They eat mutton and fish and milk and cheese. These are the Rowing People.

Speed: 30ft

-Advantage on Animal Handling checks involving domesticated animals

-Wide Eyes, 3 enemies, instead of 2, must be flanking you for them to gain flanking bonuses, or to gain advantage from Pack Tactics

-Can drink salt water safely for two days at most

-Can use a use a shield, as a reaction, to bear the brunt of a melee or ranged attack to completely negate damage, but not other effects, the attack would cause. This destroys the shield.

Antiques from the Old Country

The Droven:

 They hail from far up-river, far past the lakes of the north west and across the sea from a country called Hislant-Tera. It is divided into four kingdoms. A quarter of the whole land is owned by a woman named Thegin Daughter of Regin who outlived five husbands and twelve children. All the people who come here are men, hearty and foul-mouthed. They all think they are heroes or know they are merchants. Many are exiles. Their ships are wide and heavy with fur and amber and ivory. They drink a horrible liquor they call barley wine. They tell stories of tremendous feuds and countless heroes who keep every promise they make and die for it. They will never break an oath. They form mighty shield walls and bellow the great War-Song, the voice of the Ancestral Chorus speaks through them.

Guardian Spirits: One Eyed Chief, Beloved Mother, Donar the Strong

Languages: High Droven Diction, Trade Tongue

-Gain +3 AC, rather than +2 from shields while singing the War-Song

The Hisveks: 

They have always been here, in the up-river country and along the networks of tributaries and reservoirs which flow from the west of the river Sargal. Their people were founded by two great heroes, Aivan and his cousin Truvor when they promised Sporoi, jealous king of the sky spirits, that their children would only offer tribute to him. This covenant was made at the secret Scorched Grove, where a huge burnt tree connects the sky realm, mortal realm, and underworld to each other. Hisvek men all wear white caps bestowed upon them by their tribe’s shaman when they reach manhood. It is disgraceful to take off one’s cap while the sun is up and Sporoi can see his people. Hisvek shamans are all men and can control wind, lightning, and rain. They cannot touch metal without calling down a lightning strike.

Caps are removed before Aivan's Successor

The Hisveks’ clothing is decorated with complex embroidery depicting stars, winds, water, and fire. They bind their communities together around an idea of shared identity, history, and destiny but are more divided than they would like to believe. Clan bonds are loose, families stick together but charismatic shamans and chiefs often draw large numbers of followers away from their traditional groups. Some tribes have stepped away from Hisvek society, returning to the worship of old spirits. These groups are led by shaman women, who have traditionally been shunned by their male counterparts. Currently, the Hisvek are dominated by the Orusk. They are often enslaved during raids or pay tribute to Orusk chiefs. They are not allowed to participate in the Orusk legal system or even know its laws and regulations. The Orusk have adopted some Hisvek traditions, both carve polls with the faces of gods and ancestors upon them now. Most of the Hisvek hate that the cultures of both groups are converging, that the bond they forged with Sporoi is becoming deluded.

Guardian Sprits: Sporoi the Thunder King, Aivan the Wise, Truvor the Flame Touched, The Lady of the Whistling Wind

Languages: Hisvek, East Droven Diction

-Have resistance to lightning and fire damage, so long as they keep their caps on

The Orusk: 

They came from far away, a place whose name is forgotten, and settled along the shores of the great lakes and the north western banks of the river Sargal. The men are covered in blue-green tattoos of animals and war-deeds and strange symbols from foreign places. They are middle-men, their existence secured only by tenuous connections between Droven merchants and a web of warring factions. They suck up traditions, beliefs, stories from all peoples and are always worried.

Review of Service Class People by Sergei Ivanov, 1913

Their society is based upon gifts. The dowry a woman receives from her husband. The food friends bring to each other’s tables. The silver torque a chief gives his chosen warrior. The sacrifice the seeress gives to the sprits to reweave the flow of destiny. They never buy and sell among themselves, they give and form bonds of debt. If one can’t repay in kind, she is enslaved and all her property forfeit. Every clan has a chief, a seeress, and a lawspeaker. The chief is married to the seeress, one who marries for love is scorned and will quickly die. When individuals seek the spirits’ aid, they come to the seeress. When the fate of the community is at stake, the chief steps up to entreat the ancestors and the land sprits.  His life is the best sacrifice he can provide to One-Eyed Chief, so long as he has been a brave leader. He will be hung and slit open and his people will find victory in all things. The lawspeaker remembers tradition and the great code handed down to his fathers by First Adjudicator. Every season, the lawspeaker calls the Assembly to order and all the members of his tribe bring suits against each other and prosecute criminals, they decide everything by vote. Every summer, the Great Assembly is called and all the Orusk gather to settle disputes between clans, amend the great code, and renew their people’s relationship to Mother Huldra to ensure a successful season of trade to come. The Great Assembly is lead by the Chief of All People, Od-Ovar.

Guardian Spirits: One Eyed Chief, Steward of the North Star, First Adjudicator, The Lady of Strings, Seeress in Black Robes, Mother Huldra

Languages: East Droven Diction, Trade Tongue

-Gain +1 to all saving throws while wearing a lock of woman’s hair tied round the forearm with a specific secret knot (Girls are taught the knot by their mothers before their wedding night)

(A note on language, Trade Tongue is a pidgin of many of the languages spoken in the Meager Country. It is terrible for communicating complex ideas. It also has enough Bronze Speak in it to be grasped by speakers of that language.) 

War flows down the river

Notable Rowing People:

Ingwar, the Terrible One, Orusk Druid/Warlock

He was exiled for perversion temporarily but remains shunned by all. He wears a woman's dress of dark blue, which he inherited from his mentor, and a shawl of raven feathers. His hair is dirty blonde but is starting go grey. He keeps his beard short and his long ponytail usually hangs over one shoulder. He has few tattoos for one of the Orusk, only three interlocking triangles on his breast.  He is generally cheerful and easy going but easily offended.

Ingwar is in the service of One-Eyed Chief and practices the same type of magic as a seeress, thus the dress and the exile. He can adopt the form of a wolf and an owl as he pleases and spends days in the depths of the spirit world, searching for hidden wisdom. There is no curse he cannot break and no spirit he cannot track down. All he asks for in return is the life of a pack animal and a favor. 

Favorite Poetic Verse: Bite off the head of your shame

Arnol Hrathsgotha, Droven Fighter

For five years he adventured in the Meager Country, for three he served the Slave Army in Kerzerk. His hair is a deep red and his eyes shine blue. His beard is huge and matches his stature. He owns a long ivory pipe and smokes purple Kerzerkian flowers when he can. His War-Song is like no other and he seems to know warriors and heroes everywhere. He is boisterous beyond belief and loves to tell stories. 

Arnol is making his way back to Hislant-Tera and assembling an army of the mightiest warriors to take back his kingdom from his scheming cousin. He will gladly take anybody along who proves themselves a true hero.

Favorite Poetic Verse: Once with maidens you did lie, Once all men must die 

Aura Daughter of Alfar, Orusk Druid

The life of a seeress is a simple one, really. There are bones to roll, sacrifices to make, children to take care of, ect, ect, ect. Aura keeps her light brown hair medium length and loose, she doesn't mind that it gets in her eyes. Her job is not about seeing things in front of her, it's about seeing things beyond sight. She dresses simply for a woman of her status, only a simple white dress and thin leather smock for her.

Aura is the wife of Dreng son of Holza, who governs the trading town at the fork of the river Sargal  and the river Altai. She is somewhat discontent in her marriage. Currently, she is trying to create support for clearing out the deep forest of evil spirits whose incursions inch ever closer to her home.

Favorite Poetic Verse: A sleeping wolf, seldom wins a sheep

Kreweld the Hier of Thunder, Hisvek Fighter
Since he was a child, Kreweld has been raised as the last hope of the Hisvek to throw off the Orusk once and for all. He speaks East Droven Diction like a native and knows all the Orusk poems by heart. He wears his white cap with great pride but dresses in fine furs from far up river. So far, he has engaged several Orusk chieftains in contests of wit and gathered a devoted following of warriors and shamans. He is ready to start shedding blood, he only needs the right opportunity.

Krewald cares deeply about duty and following procedure. He makes friends quickly and enemies only slightly slower. Grim sense of humor. He probably has a great destiny. 

Favorite Poetic Verse: Then come snowstorms and sharp winds, then the time approaches when the gods will fall

Irma, Hisvek? Rogue?
The life of a slave rarely ends well. Irma is a young woman, barely of age, but she is chief of a whole village. She was once the property of old chief Holza and was slated to be strangled and burnt on the dead man's pyre, as is traditional. However, she whispered in the dying chief's ear day after day before his candle was snuffed out. Just before he died, Holza named her as his third inheritor, after his two sons, and Irma walked away free and rich. She collected a number of followers and settled on one of the lower tributaries of the river Altai.

Irma has light red hair which she wears in a short braid. She wears dresses in the Hisvek style with complex embroidery. Before attending each Great Assembly, she cuts her hair as to be almost bald and dresses like an Orusk Warrior, lock of woman's hair round her arm and all. On her shoulder is a tattoo of a funeral pyre and a woman fleeing it. She is married to the seeress Astrid. Irma is cunning and proud, but knows when to be humble. She cares for her people deeply and is the only thing stopping the Kazan from filling them with arrows.

Favorite Poetic Verse: Remember thy oaths, but utter them not

These are the Rowing People

So a lot of this information is a little useless. It's not necessary to know exactly how everyone dresses and what they eat, but I like having a strong image of both the more fantastic and less fantastic elements of the setting to ground my descriptions in. I often repeat lines, such as 'skin the color of shale' during play. Knowing the habits of all the peoples also gives the players some information they can use to navigate the world better. For example, the players know that the Orusk are covered in tattoos and Hisveks wear white caps. Then they meet somebody with the identifiers of both groups and they can quickly figure out how this character fits into Orusk/Hisvek society.

This post is dedicated to Evan Dahm, thank you for widening my view of what a person can look like

Who goes there? Adventure Hooks/Character Motivations for the Meager Country

The basic assumption of 5e is that the player characters are somebodies rather than nobodies. This works for me, it's hard to find replacement Besharans out here in the Meager Country after all. However, I'd rather have a party of confused foreigners forced upon the shores of a strange land with a vague sense of direction than the usual band of eager scoundrels we are familiar with. 

A very rough map of the Meager Country

Nobody should want to come to the Meager Country. You least of all. You are a Besharan, the most civilized, most advanced sort of person ever to to walk this earth by God's grace. The people the Meager Country houses are many and barbarous. They live either along the banks of the great river Sargal or upon the empty steppe. They are valuable only so long as they respect the empire and as suppliers of fine furs, strong slaves, and ivory. Besides that, you know very little about this cold and poor land, roll a d20 twice to discover what 2 things you have heard about the Meager Country. If you get the same result twice, you are absolutely sure of what you now, it is confirmed by several reputable sources.

1. All the peoples of the Meager Country are cannibals
2. The peoples of the Meager Country worship the sky in a crude imitation of Besharan relgion
3. The Bronze folk originally hail from the Meager Country
4. Ivory is the only currency of the Meager Country.
5. There is a small monastery of Besharan monks in the Meager Country who speak with God's Voice
6. There is a tribe of people with eyes like a goat's who dress in strange furs
7. The Meager Country is overrun with huge serpents who eat men whole
8. Everybody in the Meager Country lives in a tent
9. When the moon is full, all the rivers of the Meager Country turn to blood
10. A miraculous icon of Faridun was discovered in a well in the Meager Country
11. All the peoples of the Meager Country swear fealty to a race of giants from the east
12. The Meager Country is ruled by horsemen with white hair who can decapitate a man with a single arrow
13. When the moon is full, all the rivers of the Meager Country turn blue
14. The Meager Country is a hotbed of activity for Fire Cultists. Every Besharan you find there is working for them.
15. Nobody in the Meager Country knows how to bathe or make clothing more simple than furs
16. The Meager Country is overrun with pagan ghosts who can't find the afterlife
17. The Sultan and the Merchant caravan both send diplomatic missions to the Meager Country regularly
18. Rule of the Meager Country is split between two great alliances, one bears a blue banner, the other a green one
19. There are tribes of people in the Meager Country who swim like fish and have fur like a cat's
20. People who drink the waters of the Meager Country's rivers are turned into horrible serpent monsters

What has made you undertake this journey to the mouth of the Sargal? What do you expect to find up the river? Roll a d10, either for yourself or for the whole party, and see.

1. The Sultan has called you, seemingly at random, to retrieve a debt owed to her by one of barbarous peoples of the Meager Country. In return, she offers you a single favor.

2. A cell of Fire Cultists has contacted you. They want you to help them carry a special package (roll 1d4. 1. Heart of a Fire God 2. Head of a Fire God 3. Hand of a Fire God 4. Decoy Fire God Organ) through the Meager Country. They have got some bad dirt on you.

3. An Angel of God appeared to you in a dream and instructed you to spread his/her/their word in the Meager Country. You will become a great Saint if you do so.

4. You have been ‘chosen’ to do a geographic survey of the Meager Country by your department at the University of Kard-An. You are most certainly not in the geography department.

5. The caravan wants to extend its reach into the Meager Country to get a better hold of the ivory trade. A relative of yours  has already volunteered you for the job, and it will pay handsomely.

6. You have been exiled from every prefecture of the Besharan Empire, you have only one more place to turn to: The Meager Country.

7. You are hunting a fugitive (roll 1d4 1. Wronged You 2. A Former Colleague 3. Your Rival 4. A Relative) who has been exiled from every prefecture of the Behsaran Empire. They have fled to this lawless land with you in hot pursuit.

8. You have undertaken a pilgrimage to the scant holy places of the Meager Country to atone for a great sin (roll 1d4 1. Murder 2. Blasphemy 3. Betrayed a Sacred Vow 4. Profaned a Relic).

9. During your time in the Slave Army, a foreign soldier with eyes like a goat’s gave you a map to a great treasure in the Meager Country. You’ve spent the last of your money on equipment and a ride across the sea of Pearls.

10. Your master has retreated to the Meager Country to indulge in the humble wisdom of this land's savage peoples. He/She/They expect you to follow in order to complete your training in ____  (roll 1d4 1. The Craft of Magic 2. A Monastic Order 3. A Semi-blasphemous Cult 4. An Ancient Musical Instrument)

Trade in the East Slavic Camp by Sergei Ivanov, 1913

I have had great success with the Sultan's debt hook thus far and I'll share more of the things I've written for it soon. But generally, it provides a good framework for play in a similar way to an gold = XP system but it allows for side quests and diversions as well. I've also set up the scenario so that the party has 3 Besharan months to return to the Bronze city with their mission complete in order to collect their favor, which turns time into a resource and makes the decision about when to rest in order to recover from wounds more interesting.

This post is dedicated to Ahmad Ibn Fadlan, the original put upon foreigner

Meager Country Character Sheet

Here is the sheet I use to record all the things I've added to 5e, it is basic but effective

There are little boxes to check in! 

Download it here

For those not in the know, this post is part of my series about character generation for adventures in the Meager Country. Here are my wound and encumbrance rules, an introduction to the Besharan empire, the peoples of the Bronze city, my rules for practicing Besharan religion , new backgrounds, and rule adjustments for wizards and sorcerers. 

This post is dedicated to nobody, because I can't be bothered 

Rules for Wizards and a Sorcerer Mutation Table

This post is part of my series about character generation for adventures in the Meager Country. Here are my wound and encumbrance rules, an introduction to the Besharan empire, the peoples of the Bronze city, my rules for practicing Besharan religion , new backgrounds, and finally some small rule adjustments for wizards and sorcerers. This should be my final word about the Bronze City. I'm excited to move on to greener, colder pastures.

So after screwing with how all the other classes cast spells, I thought it would be rude to let wizards and sorcerers off free. But I didn't want to go with the traditional way of portraying magic users for Beshara. Instead of modeling Besharan wizards off of academics, complete with different schools and academies, I've decided to see being a wizard or a sorcerer as a kind of trade. The different Wizard schools are just different specialties. Sure there are plenty of bakeries but if you want those almond pastries you go to Hassan in the Great Market and if you need to know if you'll be killed in battle, you go to Iza in the Foreseer's tent next time you're near the Arcade of the Scribes.

Nubian Prayer Book

The Craft of Magic:
Magic is considered more an art than a science. The skill of casting spells, and more importantly making scrolls, is passed down through families of wizards, just as the craft of blacksmithing is passed down through the generations. Powerful spells are copied down for centuries without ever being cast. Wizards are also responsible for creating magical items though most wizards try to avoid making them. All the most skilled wizard-artificers are in the employ of the Sultan, as slaves or as freemen. Magic is a taxing trade. Master wizards can be identified by their gnarled, arthritic hands and their poor eyesight. They suffer from frequent headaches and chronic back pain from hunching over the desks of the scriptorium. Sorcerers work freelance, they cannot make scrolls and their magic items are famously unstable. They too pass down their skills from generation to generation, trying to keep their bloodlines pure and magically potent. Understandably, they are often inbred. Wizards: -Spellbook takes up 1 inventory slot. It contains all the spells a wizard can know, including ones they cannot cast, painstakingly written in the hand of a parent or guardian. (Arcane Tricksters and Eldritch Knights must carry spell books as well). When you level up and gain spells, you achieve mastery over spells which you once couldn't cast. -Wizards cannot cast the same spell multiple times a day -By using a sheet of fine vellum (4 GP) and a selection of special inks (10 GP/ per 3 scrolls), a wizard can copy a spell they can cast from their book to a scroll. Doing so takes 4 hours of work. As long as this scroll is usable, the wizard cannot cast the copied spell and loses a spell slot of equal level. -Anybody holding a spellbook or scroll who is hit with an attack which deals fire or acid damage must make a concentration save, if they fail a random scroll or spell is destroyed. If soaked with water, they must also save to avoid losing a spell/scroll. Rewriting a spell in the spellbook takes 4 hours.

This is probably what knock looks like 

Sorcerer Mutation Table: Magic runs in the blood. Unfortunately, gills, tails, and scales run too. In sorcerer families, both tend not to just run but sprint. Whenever you reach a sorcerer level which is odd (1,3,5,ect), roll a d20 to determine which mutation you gain. 1. Vestigial tail 2. Webbed hands 3. Glowing blood 4. No pupils 5. Body is covered in downy feathers 6. Fingernails tougen into claws if not trimmed 7. Use long blue snake tongue to smell 8. Pot belly which contains a second stomach 9. Fangs 10. Glowing eyes 11. Your flesh is cold to the touch 12. One vestigial wing 13. Afflicted by splitting headaches 5 hours before it rains 14. Vestigial gills 15. Vestigial 3rd eye 16. Voice always echos 17. Gain an itching rash which grows and shrinks with the cycles of the moon 18. You smell like oranges at all times 19. You can hear trees and plants breathing 20. Touching precious metal makes your skin break out in hives

This post is dedicated to Agathon, whose works are no longer recorded

Backgrounds from the Bronze City

This post is part of my series about character generation for adventures in the Meager Country. Here are my wound and encumbrance rules, an introduction to the Besharan empire, the peoples of the Bronze city, and my rules for practicing Besharan religion 

Here are some new backgrounds for Besharans of all stripes.

I honestly can't find where this image is from, I'm so sorry

Imperial Bureaucrat: These people make the empire run. They keep the accounts, schedule the meetings, enforce the law, stamp the acquisitions requests, and make the tea. The imperial bureaucracy is a large and complicated organ in which people rise based a mercurial combination of nepotism and merit.
Proficiencies: Deception, Insight. Forgery Kit
Language: Besharan
Equipment: Ink and quill, notebook, Book of Laws, 15 GP, Courtly Robes
Master of Regulations: You are always able to ‘remember’ an obscure law or regulation relevant to a decision to gain advantage on a deception or persuasion check

Sacred Ascetic: The humble life of the ascetic has been a part of the Besharan faith since its earliest days. Every sect, except Mehrebism, has some kind of ascetic tradition.
Proficiencies: Religion, Survival, Herbalism Kit (you are forbidden from owning a herbalist’s kit)
Language: Besharan
Equipment: Begging Bowl, itchy linen robes, The Empty and Invisible Crown of Holiness, A bag of -30 GP
Valued Wisdom: You are respected for your wretchedness, people will be happy to give you money and food in exchange for your musings about the secrets of the universe. Even the highest of the high would be happy to meet you to entertain you in their home.
Vow of Poverty: You cannot own anything more than your starting equipment, a single simple weapon, and your rations. You must borrow everything else as you need it. If you can perform miracles, you may ignore one of the two practices you maintain.

Missionary: Though miracles are impressive, there are other ways of spreading the faith. Compassion, generosity, and a whole lot of sermons often work. Missionaries usually refer to themselves as “Lovers of the Word.” The Sultan funds the efforts missionary of numerous organizations, as a way of spreading Besharan culture.
Proficiencies: Religion, Performance, A Musical Instrument
Language: Besharan
Equipment: Book of Holy Scripture, 20 GP, Holy Symbol, well worn travelers clothes
Righteous Sermon: You can give an inspiring speech which can hold a friendly audience’s attention for about 10 minutes. It will probably leave listeners invigorated but confused. “How is Master Faridun a liar and an honest man at the same time? It makes no sense!”

Fire Cultist: Though banned everywhere, the followers of the Fire Gods persist. They can barely muster miracles of their own but hope to one day reignite their extinguished patrons. Fire Cults are often involved with criminal activity, besides fire worship.
Proficiencies: Religion, Deception, Disguise Kit
Language: Kerzerkian
Equipment: A dead coal, 15 GP, holy symbol, leather robes
Confounding Defense: If accused of fire worship, you know how to deliver a confusing defense of yourself which is full of logical fallacies and shameless attacks on the Besharan faith barely concealed by rhetoric. This won't trick the same person twice.
Know the Signs: You can recognize other fire cults and cultists by their secret codes and symbols.

Slave Officer: The officers of the slave army are taken from families all over the empire as children and trained in tactics, writing, courtly manner, and leadership. It is a great honour to be chosen to become an officer, some even buy their children into the order. Slave officers are expected to be completely loyal to the Sultan and never marry.
Proficiency: Athletics, History, 1 martial weapon of your choice, a gaming set
Language: Besharan
Equipment: Ceremonial dagger, 30 GP, Feathered Ceremonial Helmet, a chess set

Chains of Command: You have a superior officer who you report to and who can provide information and support if need be. Those serving under you have more respect for you.

Source

I think these are pretty ok backgrounds, most of them could use a second draft.

This post is dedicated to Peter von Bagh, because I was thinking about him today