(A) Traces of primal gods in the ruins
This is archival material from previous blog
Content Warnings: human sacrifice, pregnancy
For my setting of Biteara I planned the first part of campaigning to be within borders of the known lands, messing with local politics in order to be able to venture into the valleys of Titans – large mountain chain separating kingdom of Biteara from the world in the southern direction. Once PCs establish themselves they should be able to organise expeditions into said mountains, looking for abandoned wizard towers (and dungeons) and old dwarven ruins possibly connecting to the other parts of the world, either not conquered yet or maybe leading deep into enemy’s borders, allowing for assault. But a lot of historical bits can be found within the ruins and paths leading to them.
Since most of the known world was conquered by Wrain the God-Sorcerer a lot of the knowledge of history and past is lost to current scholars. What is known is avatars of the Crown of Gods – the most influential five – were defeated and corrupted. These were Scale – god of law and leadership, Sail – god of travels and language and communication, Anvil – god of crafting and creation, Feather – god of hunt and monster-slayers, and Orb – god of magic and sky. Their worship dominated in known lands, casting away minor gods and lesser spiritual beings in times before. Yet once they were corrupted and all other gods became silent and passive people started looking for some active divinity. And some still can be found.
During searching through ruins of human settlements pick a card from the deck. During search of dwarven ruins 2s, 5s, 9s and Queens are the same as in human settlements, which suggests humans lived with dwarves when they were still alive. Example of treasures marked by elder divinity:
Card: Two of Spades. Item: flute carved with geometric shapes similar to bird head. Description: it looks like a rather worn out and primitive instrument made out of bone. Once it is played by someone familiar with such instruments it shows the exceptional quality – it sounds excellent, like a masterpiece instrument, yet somewhat primal, animalistic, sinister. Bird symbol checked by someone familiar with religion can easily found similarities between it and symbol of god Scale, after better research it looks like all it’s shapes are used in symbol of Scale. The older version of that symbol was slightly unsymmetrical, which corresponds exactly with marking on the flute. Effect: any melody played with it makes wounds hurt more and scars start hurting again.
Card: Two of Clubs. Item: small drum with clear sign of Sail god. Description: some part of it is broken and it doesn’t make sounds anymore. The leather is thin and wood is worn out. Thorough investigation quickly shows the interior of the drum was marked with blood, as its inside is full or dark red powder smelling like iron. Insight: the same drum can be seen on cave paintings in hidden parts of natural caves around. It seems the drum served as a vessel for gathering various bodily fluids.
Card: Five of Diamonds. Item: candle lantern with egg and chick ornaments. Description: looks and works like any other lantern. The ornaments are vague enough to be overlooked by most scholars – only someone well versed in ancient history or religion (or involved in some cult of life) will be able to recognize symbols of god Fertile One. Effect: anyone who spends an hour or more in the light of this lantern will have increased chance for conceiving a child next time they get such chance. Spending more than seven consecutive days within this light greatly increases the chance of conceiving a child marked by The Fertile One, which rarely ends well.
Card: Nine of Hearts. Item: small iron knife with very thin, used blade Description: the blade looks like it was. sharpened thousand times, the iron it is made of looks primitive and brittle. One can discern small engraving of a human near the handle. When it is in the shadow the darkness seems to be thicker around it. Any shadowy spirits and creatures seem to flee on sight of it. Effect: it darkens ones silhouette when moving in the dark. It also scares weak crueatures of the night and is recognised by stronger ones.
Card: Queen of Spades. Item: three icosahedral dice made of rough yellowish stone with geometric markings on all sides. Description: all three dice have the same sets of symbols but located differently. The material is coarse but durable, markings are dark red. A lot of priests still use similar dice for divination, though there are usually two in one set and the markings are all different. Person knowledgeable or someone who encountered artifacts of the ancients will recognise these symbols as signs of elder gods from primitive times, mixed with more Insight: as is known by the custom one set should be used only on one altar in order to get divination as well as favour of the god. Using it on the other will cause one to be cursed.
Card: Five of Clubs. Item: small whistle made of weirdly pink bone. Description: it looks like a very primitive whistle, capable of making only few squeaky sounds. It doesn’t have any engravings or decorations, it’s just a drilled bone of unknown creature. Effect: person who blows the whistle becomes invisible for creatures and spirits of the wilds. It works as a protection against animals, uncorrupted great beasts and all nature gods. Using it alone far away from any signs of civilization has a chance of summoning The Wild, assumed to be either one of first gods or the first god that ever existed. No one knows what might happen when faced with pure original wilderness.
I hope this small glimpse is enough. This post is a part of RPG Blog Carnival https://ofdiceanddragons.com/rpg-blog-carnival/
September hosted by https://foreignplanets.blogspot.com/2023/08/anthropology-and-archaeology-blog.html