Jun 27, 2017
(Ignore my amateur photoshop skills) A rough representation of the different regions of Verdula.
seen from China
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seen from United States
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seen from United States
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seen from Malaysia
seen from China
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seen from United Kingdom
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
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seen from Spain
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
(Ignore my amateur photoshop skills) A rough representation of the different regions of Verdula.
The Calender of Seaheim.
340 Days.
16 Months.
21 days a month on average.
Months.
Airi (The Stag) 22 Days
Nefer (The Hound) 21 Days
Taibus (The Cat) 21 Days
Biska (The Fawn) 21 Days
Navan (The Salmon) 22 Days
Mero (The Sapling) 21 Days
Clave (The Hornet) 21 Days
Tyrol (The Rain) 21 Days
Myse (The Flame) 22 Days
Horu (The Moon) 21 Days
Jin (The Phoenix) 21 Days
Famaj (The Panther) 21 Days
Sidir (The Plague) 22 Days
Yris (The Smoke) 21 Days
Urul (The Swarm) 21 Days
Vanik ( The Void) 21 Days
The Elves were the first to mark their days, and qucikly became the standard. Each month that starts a season has an extra day for the solstice or equinox. It’s also a lunar calender, with each first day being the full moon.
Seven days in a week, using the old Norse days. Each Solstice is it's own day, named after the faerie lord/lady who rules that season.
Senhan, Lord of Winter and Sleep
Gyr, Lord of Spring and Delirium
Danva, Lady of Summer and Night
Hasin, Lady of Autumn and Decay.
The Dark Masses
TENETS
Honor the dead, lest their sacrifice be in vain.
Avoid frivolous crime, it is beneath you.
Let the shadows surround you, and you will always be at home.
Honor your family above all else
The Speaker is the voice of Thazarix, a vessel of the Chill.
The Dark Masses are a church of necromancers that worship Thazarix, an ancient god of cold and death. An outcasted god of the Verdulan pantheon, he followed his people when they were sold into slavery by King Ferondan to the Kraken Lord. Thazarix is believed to be able to inhabit the world of Seaheim, but only as the strange aurora over Dustlight known as “the Chill.” The leader of the church, known as The Speaker is Siri Bleakhall, a female half-elf of Valask ancestry. Although the Valask allow anyone to live is Dustlight and worship Thazarix, only those of Valask descent are allowed to become true priests. Non-Valask, referred to a “ninchka”, or “foreigner.” They may achieve the rank of Toller, or someone who is allowed to ring the sacred bells during one of the five times they are rung during the day. Five is a sacred number to the Masses, as it took five betrayals of their people for them to thrive.
The church is very strict in how it handles things. Every member of the church, whether unarmed or military has to handle recording of their day to day activities. This keeps order in church for the most part, as the church members are usually skilled in magic and thus can often get the truth themselves if they need to. The other reason for this is for when a church member dies, their logs are used to allow the Soulscribes as to which undead caste they will belong to.
UNDEAD CASTES
Patron: The very top of the caste system, these are honored dead who have done great deeds for their house or order and for the Valask in general. The exorcists of the Dark Masses remove the soul of the dead person, and transform it into a ghost that is allowed to inherit a Death Mask, the case of a house patron, or an Heirloom Weapon for a military order patron. These objects allow for the patron to give advice to champions of their house or order. Patrons are at the top mostly because they operate outside of the caste system, putting their cause above all else.
Soulscribe: The next caste are the Soulscribes, given only to the most powerful of magic users that die among the Masses. These are the undead who govern the caste system for the most part, and do the bureaucratic work for the church. They decide who goes to what caste when they die. The process of becoming a Soulscribe is similar to becoming a lich, but done in a way that doesn’t require the souls of the living. This process also turns their log book into a powerful phylactery.
Arbiter: The upper middle caste are the Arbiters. The ranks of the Arbiters include many former adventurers, and these undead are the backbone of Dustlight’s militia and army. They resemble what they looked like in life, as the corpse is kept in decent condition, but can told apart from the living by the lack of pupils in their eyes. Arbiters gain supernatural endurance in the process of becoming undead. Adventurers who become arbiters often keep abilities they had in life, which helps to keep the peace.
Runner: Runners are small, agile undead used a couriers and emmisarys. This role is given to those in the Masses who die young. Blessed with supernatural intelligence (relative to their age) Runners have to go through an intense period of training before being allowed to handle documents. The most elite runners are employed by the Senate. These undead handle seriously classified information, and are rewarded handsomely for work, or for bribes from rival senators.
Huncher: Called so because the large hunch they often get in their back from all of the manual labor they are used for, hunchers are the dumb muscle of the undead. This is reserved for heinous criminals and others who die disgraced by the Masses. They are the famous cart pulling, boat rowing zombies the Valask employ.
The Sunrise Company
The Sunrise Company is an order of adventurers that seek to map the world. They are led by the veteran explorer, [REDACTED]. The Sunrise Company were the first mortals to use the “Swell Seal” spell, allowing for more permanent homes to be made in the ocean, thus allowing for adventurers to explore further into the world. The main base of the Company is located on a massive Swell that was sealed by the Archmage of the company, and island referred to as The Reprieve.
The symbol of the company is a golden, grinning sun on an indigo field. They are also known for being guardians of sponsored inns, allowing for certain inns to be “Sanctuary” for adventurers of all...backgrounds.
The Boiling River
A river runs through the heart of Seaheim. Once known as The River Nosca, it has been more commonly known as “The Boiling River” for years now. It’s history is bloody, because underneath the river sits a leyline, a leyline is a remnant of Vemor’s blood when he sacrificed his power to save the mortals of Seaheim. Leylines are pure arcane magic, and radiate power that attracts ambitious humanoids and greedy monsters, who almost always clash with each other in order to sieze the leyline. The most famous of these was a battle between the Fire Giant Emperor named Rosheen Cinderbellow and the Ancient Red Wyrm Vekonolox.
The two met each other with mighty blows and powerful magic, but found that they couldn’t damage each other through each of their various defensive wards and such, which were amplified by the leylines. Days later, they each succumbed to exhaustion, where a nearby Snakefolk regiment had been lying in wait for the perfect oppurtunity to strike. Weakening them with debilitating poisons, the Pitmaster leading them sliced each other the gargantuan combtants throats, then threw the blade he used to the bottom of the river. The now dead creatures bled for years, the magmatic blood in their veins causing an endless boiling effect.
Years later, several powerful wizards founded the Eye of Vemor, a group of magic users dedicated to preserving and making sure nobody abuses the leylines. They can be found undercover near known or unknown leylines, as such they have many outposts in fishing villages along the Boiling River.
The Cosmology of Seaheim is released!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wnTUKBw0ntNMlWqlNoD1IKL7bAoIKjjSSIIruCT8yqQ/edit?usp=sharing
Stay tuned for a post on the demons of Seaheim coming later on, as well as smaller lore posts between now and then!
Map updated! Named the continents, and the the northern sea, as well as adding the 4 city states of Northwestern Verdula.
The Children of the Cold
An Exhaustive Report by Lt. Braet Wither of the Third Corps of Scouts
The Children of the Cold (hereinafter referred to as “The Children”) are a loosely-knit group of death cults that infest the southern fringes of our fair world in the arctic wastes of the south pole. In my time spent infiltrating them, I learned many things about their belief system, as well as the strange splinter groups among them. I should warn that their beliefs are not for faint of heart, and the following may seem graphic.
Belief Structure
The Children believe in a many armed patron deity known as “The Cold Mother.” The leader of the cult, and enigmatic man calling himself The Seventh Son, preaches that by embracing the cold, and the hardships of the world head on, he was able to find an artifact he called the “Permafrost Idol” a totem that supposedly allows him to communicate with The Cold Mother. Based on his ravings we have supposed information about this mysterious deity.
1. She has cold, black and blue skin, as if she was frostbitten. She carved ancient runes of eldritch arcane secrets into her skin with her long, jagged nails.
2. She has a blindfold covering her eyes, but also has an unblinknig, black eye in the middle of her forehead, as well as eyes on her arms, legs, and body. Each is said to see a different vision of the future.
3. The Seventh Son died in an avalanche, but was brought back by her to spread her message and make the world embrace the cold.
4. One day, the world will sink into Eternal Night, and the Cold Mother will be able to tear through reality and into the Material Plane to embrace her children.
5. The Cold Mother leaves her children messages in ice floes, auroras, and snowfall. Certain cult members are able to supposedly divine answers from these things.
6. The Cold Mother demands sacrifice. This can be done by either drowning or by ritual sacrifice in her temples, hidden deep under the ice.
7. The Permafrost Idol is not the only item The Cold Mother has put out into the world. Wicked weapons made of true ice, a material that never melts or chips, call out to the worthy to wield them.
The Children see snowfall as a purifying element. Members will often let a body be completely covered in snow before they harvest the parts for food or other materials. Blessed members of the cult, often called “Shivers” are known for their complete immunity to the cold. These are often blessed by the Seventh Son or another high ranking member for killing a creature of great strength, such as remorhazz or Frost Giant.
Members
The monsters in service to the Cold Mother are very diverse. Frost Giants that shun their clans are often coerced into joining, and Bheur Hags have a strong tendency to worship her if they worship anything at all. White Dragons are often bribed into serving guard posts in the region, though they don’t openly revere the Cold Mother, or even respect the Seventh Son.
In the season of sunlight at the pole, Children of the Cold often flee underground, as that is when it seems Storm Giants tend to leave their great halls under the sea. The temples devoted to the Mother are quite the spectacle. Huge slabs of ice and iron, molded together by foul magics twist into sharp ends meant t o give no comforts. In these sparse temples one can always find tough jerkies and other salted meats to eat, as well as fresher food if you like it very rare. Often times these temples have rooms dedicated to housing enormous bone bits submerged in chilling ice water. This is where most of the sacrifice happens, and each bone is gnawed clean by various ghouls that are attracted to, and trapped in these rooms.
The most frightening thing I ever saw in a camp was a bizarre, twisted frost giant. Touched by the Cold Mother itself, the shambling monstrosity had multiple heads and appendages, and a regenerative property that rivaled a trolls. It was given a wide berth even by those maddened cultists, and one could only imagine how terrifying it would be on the battlefield.
Another terrifying addition to the cult were lycanthropes. In particular, it seemed wereshark and wererats were open to receive the call.
The Cult seeks to expand it’s power past the frozen wastes. For now, they are held at bay by roaming bands of crusaders named The Order of Ined, who seem to keep any effort to attack the mainland fruitless.