LADROA: The LEGEND of LA LADRA

The Saint of Ladroa

The Santa La Ladra has always been a controversial figure for the Church of the Holy Wheel.  Braicosi fundamentalists ignore her, theologians question the latter-day proliferation of dubious Saints, and the conservative Iagosi royal court have threatened to have her decanonized. 

Nonetheless, the people of Ladroa today all celebrate the image of La Ladra, and mosaics, paintings, and statues of her can be found in many locations around the city. The largest of these is the great statue of the Saint that now stands upon a plinth in the Plaza de La Ladra at the center of the Puerto - her marble body arched and wanton, her arms outstretched towards the sea, welcoming, beckoning... 

The CULT OF DARMAEUS

The Immortal Path

The Cult of Darmaeus is a widespread but highly secretive religious order dating back to antiquity, and with roots in the east across the Helicosian Sea. The cult is devoted to the worship of an ancient hero figure named Darmaeus, a mortal man who through his great deeds and forging a covenant with the heavens, ascended to immortality. It is principally warrior cult, with most of its members drawn from soldiering professions.

SAINT INGAHILD

The Martyr of Hustadt

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Saint Ingahild was a Braicosi child saint who lived in Torvaria around 500 years ago, during the period when heathen Ymiri barbarians raided extensively along the northern coasts, ransacking churches and laying waste to all. 

The city of Hustadt was isolated and had old weak walls, and so the populace lived in fear of the Ymiri reavers. When word reached them of a large horde of invaders advancing toward the city, the cowardly Lord of Hustadt sought to appease the Ymiri chieftain by offering his own daughter as a wedding bond. 

KHORS*

The Starving God

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Ht: 8'4  /  Wt: ? /  Hair: silver /  Eyes: glinting

Age: unknown  /  Creed: Titan  /  Status: *DECEASED

Khors is a giant humanlike figure who stands over 8 feet tall. His body is emaciated and stooped, a virtual skeleton, with ashen desiccated skin clinging to his sinews and bones. Upon his body are the long faded marks and whorls of tattoos or scarification, now indecipherable against the marbled creases of his flesh. 

In spite of his seemingly withered condition, his frame remains robust, his joints thick and gnarled. His hair is like fine strands of silver, sparse and retreating from a largely bald head, with a scalp dry and cracked like volcanic stone. 

Upon his face hangs the drooping remains of a long mustache that seems for all the world like hammered gold, a faint reminder of a grandeur long departed from his cadaverous face. The black hollows of his eyes glint with reflected starlight, and his long, chipped teeth and nails are grey like tarnished iron.

He stands naked, but for a white-gold ring around his neck, which might once have been a torque, but now hangs loose about his scrawny collarbone. Dangling from the ring is a white-gold disk that flashes in the light. 

The DUSK PRINCE

Archfae, Elemental, Lord of the Dying Light, Martyr of the Bleeding Lands

According to legend, his sire was the Wind of the Winter Solstice, and his mother was the Deathless Queen, godmother to the Alukah blood princes. Legend says he was born from a great egg of cinnabar crystal that hatched in the caldera of a sleeping volcano. 

Owing to this lineage, the Prince possessed vast supernatural power. Part greater elemental spirit and part ethereal Archfae, it was said that he walked with one foot in the world of the living and the other in the realm of the dead, and for this reason he was known as the Dusk Prince...

LANGUAGES of DUATHA

Characters may begin with one common language, and additional languages equal to their Intelligence modifier. Characters may also learn languages from their Class, Race, or Background.

Most languages can be treated as 'language families'. A speaker of one language may sometimes be able to communicate with speakers of other languages in other scenarios where the dialects have similar roots (though not without some risk of misunderstanding). 

Likewise, speakers of common languages may find that regional variants can often have their own particular idioms and idiosyncrasies that can be occasionally confounding. 

Human Languages:

BRIN

KAELISH

IMPERIAL

YMIRI

KOSHKA

TALUMAR

HUANZU
SANKARI

STREET' CANT

Duathan

Lundish

Athari

Non-Human Languages:

ELVISH

FAERIE COMMON

CHTHONIC

    Dwarvish

    Jotun

DRUIDIC

DRACONIC

CHAOS SPEECH

CELESTIAL  /  ABYSSAL

(*Note that some languages do not conform to D&D convention) 

THE CULT OF BALAM

 

One hundred years ago, the seafarer Count Jacopo Malachino Bramante returned from a long journey across the great Lyrian Sea. He bore tales and bounty from strange lands beyond the western horizon. Among the many prizes he brought home from his famous expedition was the new agricultural crop of corn. 

However, aboard those same Bramante ships, another lesser-known import from those faraway shores found its way to Duatha - the cult of Balam, the Protector of the Corn...

The MARGRAVE von SCHIMMEL

 The Lord of Fungus

M A R G R A V E   von   S C H I M M E L  

Faerie Lord, Folk Legend

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Ht: 7' *   /   Wt: 160 lbs   /   Age: unknown
Hair: brown /  Eyes: yellow  /  Race: Fae Spirit

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The being known as the Margrave von Schimmel ( the "Count of Mold") is a very old, very strange creature -- equal parts faerie lord and primeval earth elemental. He is spiritually tethered to the realm of fungus and decay, granting him an array of magical abilities that are manifest through mushrooms, molds, and spores of all kinds. The full scope of his powers is unknown, but they are seemingly versatile and far-reaching.

SAINT ORAN of the BURNING SUN

Saint of the Trine

Saint Oran of the Burning Sun (sometimes known as San Orando) is a Braicosi Saint with a controversial history.  In the days of the First Empire of Cyrona, Oran of Iagos was a famed soldier who pursued a quest into the burning deserts of Talumia. Several heroic deeds are attributed to him, and he gained a reputation for performing various miracles. 

FAERIE GLASS

mythical substance

Faerie Glass is a material that appears in many legends and under different names. Objects made of this substance are strongly associated with the various Elder Races who ruled the world before the Era of Common Men. Most accounts agree that the Sidhe were the first race to craft wondrous crystalline items from this Faerie Glass (hence its name), but similar objects also appear in the legends of the Dwarves and the Duathan.

TAATH NAHCT

The City of Eternal Gloom

Nestled amid the jagged peaks of Mount Chiros lie the ruins of Taath Nahct. The maw of the long-dead volcano forms a crown of immense jutting spikes that protect the city behind walls of sheer rock, and also shield it from direct daylight, filtering even the noonday sun into to meager shafts of muted haze.

Despite its mountainous elevation, Taath Nahct is mostly sheltered from the winds, and remains curiously temperate. Here, no frost forms, and no snow gathers - a reminder that in primordial times, this peak was a font of brimstone, fire, and lava. Perhaps, far, far below, that fury still slumbers.

THE BLACK SUN

A Record of Black Sun Incidents

The origins of the legend of the Black Sun are obscure. The term itself is generic enough that narrowing it down to a single item is difficult. Many societes also refer to an eclipse as a "black sun" while other legends describe "times of darkness" when gods have punished men by denying them fire or the sun. Sometimes these are simply metaphors for times of strife and plague.

Variations of this story persist in the mythologies of many Old Races, especially those aligned with darkness and chaos. The most compelling mentions are found in forbidden diabolical or necromantic texts that speak in a more prophetic vein. They claim that heralds of a new "dark age" will bring word of a great turn, when the order of the world is inverted. Some say that "five princes" will be chosen to preside over this event. The sun will go dark, and those beings who fear the light of day and dwell in the underworld will rise up and have free reign, and the Age of Men will end.

THE GODS OF AESOS

These old, powerful God-Titans of Aesos were once widely worshipped through the Helicosian region. During the height of the ancient great Cyron Empire, temples to these gods spread across the Southlands and even into the North. Many of them remain active to this day, but only in Aesos does their influence remain as strong as in old times.

After taming the primordial world and creating the First Men in their image, the Titans of Aesos established the celestial realm of Olympus, a mystical mountain in the clouds that serves as the heavenly threshhold. Here the gods still gather to watch over the world of men.

Across Aesos, in high mountains and holy places, one can still find the ruins of ancient Empyrean Steps. These monumental architectural staircases taper off into the sky, symbolizing the path to Olympus taken by the First Men known as the Apotheoi when they followed in the footsteps of their creators.