Aetrimonde

Heroic Roleplaying in a World of Swords, Sorcery, and Steam

I’d like to introduce Aetrimonde, a TTRPG I’ve been designing with heavy inspiration from the houserules my group used back in our Dungeons and Dragons 4e days. I’m not ready to publish Aetrimonde yet, but I’m opening up this blog to discuss its design principles, mechanics, and systems.

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Economist by profession. Game theorist, enjoyer, and designer by vocation.

  • Secret Lore: Golems

    In my previous post, I promised the reveal the Secret Lore of Golems, but first, I’d better explain what I meant by that. As experienced GMs know, people play RPGs for many reasons; one kind of player is the Explorer, who plays the game to uncover secrets planted in a campaign by the GM. Secrets include things like hidden doors and buried treasures…and for some Explorers, it includes lore that isn’t mentioned in the campaign setting but was made up by the GM.

    So when I talk about Secret Lore, I’m not talking about lore that is a definitive part of the Aetrimonde campaign setting: these are decidedly unofficial ideas that a GM could use to give their players a unique experience, or even let them influence the setting. These Secret Lore posts will cover several ways (some of them contradictory!) that I, as a GM, might interpret and play with Aetrimonde as part of a campaign. You GMs reading this can take it for your own if you like it, or ignore it if you don’t, or put your own twist on it if you come up with an interpretation that works better for your campaign!

    Today’s Topic: Golem Intelligence

    As discussed in a previous post, golems have a driving intelligence housed in a device called a noofactor. But these devices are poorly understood, and the intelligences within, even more so. What exactly is it that gives a golem its mind? And what are the implications if someone (like the PCs…) could prove it? I’ve thought of several ways that I could take this concept:

    Immature Minds

    As the previous post discussed, golems get smarter and develop more of a personality the longer that their noofactors are in operation…which is why most operators wipe their golems’ noofactors periodically, as they grow increasingly willful over time. This is an accepted practice because golems are not considered sentient (capable of feeling pain, pleasure, or emotion), let alone sapient (capable of self-awareness or complex thought). Wiping their noofactors, and destroying their minds, is not viewed the same as killing a person.

    What if this is because the mind created by a noofactor starts out immature, and only develops sentience or sapience over time, as it experiences and shapes the world? Could a noofactor allowed to operate long enough develop an intelligence on par with that of its operator’s? What are the ethical implications of systematically wiping noofactors before the minds in them can develop fully?

    If I were going to base a campaign or a multi-adventure story arc on this idea, I think I’d kick it off by having the PCs find a noofactor that had been allowed to run continuously for years or decades–probably the best way to work this in would be to have them find a half-functional golem, hooked up to an external power source, in an abandoned laboratory. It wouldn’t be immediately obvious that this was a sapient golem, because steam golems don’t generally have voices and any communication would initially need to be through charades, or maybe writing. But once the PCs work out that the golem is actually intelligent, and trying to communicate complex ideas to them, this would raise the question of how it attained this state in the first place, and once they solved that question, there would remain the question of what this meant, ethically speaking, and what they should do about it.

    I always hesitate to predict how things will play out when I offer players a chance to influence societal change, because they so often decide to go in a direction I hadn’t planned on. But in this case, I would initially plan on five outcomes that the PCs could push things towards:

    • Wiping noofactors regularly becomes mandatory, to prevent them from developing sapience, and sapient golems are outlawed.
    • Wiping noofactors regularly becomes mandatory, but any that have already developed sapience or develop it despite this new law are granted rights.
    • (The status quo) There are no requirements to wipe noofactors, but sapient golems have no rights.
    • Wiping noofactors is outlawed and sapient golems are granted rights, but the non-sapient ones continue to be considered property.
    • Wiping noofactors is outlawed, sapient golems are granted rights, and the sapient ones are granted custody over the ones that have not yet developed sapience.

    The outcome that the PCs eventually get would then depend on several key decision points spread throughout the campaign or story arc: whether they conceal or publicize the existence of these sapient golems, whether they liberate or destroy any others that they find, whether they support or oppose the efforts of pro-golem-liberation politicians, etc.

    Mortal Minds

    Putting a further twist on the above concept, what if golems specifically become more humanlike (or dwarflike or elflike…let’s just use “mortallike” as a catch-all) as their minds develop? Why would an artificial mind occupying a mechanical shell work the same way as a natural, organic mind?

    The obvious answer is that the “spirit of intellect” that a noofactor contains is actually a mortal soul, and results in a mortallike mind no matter what kind of body it’s placed in. This lends a religious overtone to the dilemma of what to do about sapient golems: Aetrimonde’s religious authorities would have varying responses to the revelation that golems possess a mortal soul, ranging from trying to emancipate them, to ordaining them as members of the clergy, to declaring them anathema and smashing them to bits.

    This could be coupled with other developments, however, to make an even more unique twist on Aetrimonde:

    • Perhaps mortal children have been born without souls (manifesting as reduced empathy, inability to use magic, invisibility to angels and demons, or some other combination of effects) at an increasing rate since the invention of the noofactor. The revelation that noofactors contain a mortal soul offers an explanation for this: the souls that should have belonged to those children were instead captured by noofactors. This uniformly horrifies the faithful, but they have different reactions to it: some try to smash noofactors in the hope that it will release their souls back to the “rightful” owners, while others try to protect the golems that they now recognize as their moral equals.
    • Alternatively, perhaps noofactors just produce a soul from nothingness…which makes them a target for demons. Some sapient golems have been selling their souls for freedom (or vengeance on their owners…), and the demon who figured out that they could do that has risen abruptly in the ranks of the Abyss. This lends some urgency to the question of what to do about sapient golems: the longer they continue to be enslaved, the longer the forces of the Abyss can exploit them as a source of soul power…perhaps even breaking their celestial deadlock with the angelic host.

    Alien Minds

    In the exact antithesis of Mortal Minds, suppose instead that sapient golems become increasingly un-mortallike as they age and develop. Their goals, attitudes, and methods become stranger and less understandable by mortals over time.

    This could just be because a golem’s existence is so different from a mortal’s: they don’t sleep or age, so their perception of time becomes divorced from mortals’, and they only “die” when their noofactor is destroyed (or wiped…) so they don’t experience fear of death in the same way as mortals, either. And, tying golems more tightly to the robots they are metaphors for, they could eventually grow to be smarter than mortals, or at least, more coldly logical and better at math, making them threatening.

    But…I think it would be equally interesting, if not more, to have spirits of intellect be something different, that wasn’t built to be corporealized as a golem. As they become more accustomed to their new existence, they start to understand the world better…but they also become more self-actualized, and this means that they more are more often influenced by their alien priorities.

    • A low-key version of this concept would be to have sapient golems try to establish an independent society, which would look very little like mortal society, perhaps in ways incomprehensible to mortals, or even threatening to them. Moreover, the fear that a golem might one day wake up and decide to flee and live with their own kind would influence opinions towards even non-sentient golems.
    • In a more overt take on this would have golems actively rebel, using tactics that only work for a golem force. This could just be because they have different logistical needs than a mortal state and army, making their tactics unexpected, or it could be because their alien priorities don’t (or even can’t) make sense to mortal strategists.

  • Golems as Companions

    Having introduced the concepts of hirelings, mercenaries, and companions to represent various kinds of NPC ally, the question remains: how would an Aetrimonde campaign handle the PCs getting their hands on a golem and wanting to operate it? Well, if that interests you, read on…today’s post features an excerpt from the Bestiary section on golems detailing one way that a GM could make a steam golem work as a companion:

    Operating a Steam Golem

    With the GM’s cooperation, an adventuring party can conceivably build, salvage, steal, or otherwise acquire a golem and use it as a heavy hitter in their adventures. While it is always up to the GM how to handle an allied golem in their campaigns, here are some suggested rules:

    Combination Companion and Mercenary: A golem is sometimes a companion played by one of the players, and sometimes a mercenary played by the GM. It must have a handler among the PCs, and as long as its handler is able to give instructions that the golem can see or hear, that PC’s player also controls the golem. If the handler is staggered, restrained, gagged, silenced, or otherwise unable to give visible or audible instructions, the golem is then played by the GM.

    Fueling: Most kinds of golem require fuel or power of some sort; in the case of steam golems, they require large amounts of relatively clean water, and typically run their boilers on alchemically distilled fuel, consuming a liter per day (costing 2gp) just for basic motive power; for periods of intense activity, like combat, they can consume a liter of fuel in just 2 hours. Older and cruder steam golems might run on other fuels like coal or wood, but this makes them even less efficient. Other types of golem require different fuels: clockwork golems need regular winding, ley golems are powered by the magical field generated by a ley tap, and flesh golems are energized by bottled lightning.

    Repairs: As constructs, golems have a single resurgence, which they can use only if a trait or action specifically notes that it works on constructs. A character trained in Engineering or who has a relevant perk may, as a main action, perform field repairs on a golem allowing it to use its resurgence: this represents some crude, temporary repair work like freeing a stuck piston, patching a fuel leak, or extracting a fragment of metal from delicate innards. A golem that uses its resurgence regains it only when another character (again, trained in Engineering or with a relevant perk) performs more extensive repairs (patching rents in its armor, swapping damaged parts out for spares, etc.) during a short rest.

    Salvaging: A completely destroyed golem can usually be salvaged to obtain parts worth half as much as it would cost to build it from scratch. This generally includes its noofactor, which can then be inserted into a replacement body.

    Customizing a Steam Golem

    A steam golem typically starts out as one of the models described in this section, but is then customized by its operators. PCs fortunate enough to have a golem can do this too (again, with the cooperation of the GM). Common customizations include:

    Military-Grade Plating: A steam golem chassis typically provides the benefits of full plate, including 3 armor resistance. For around 100gp, this can be further upgraded to provide 5 armor resistance.

    Integrated Weaponry: A steam golem’s arms can be augmented or replaced with built-in weapons like rotary saws, pile-drivers, or cannons. A typical modification of this type costs around 100gp and requires that the golem be trained to use it (see below).

    Enchantments: A golem’s chassis can be enchanted like full plate, and its fists (or integrated weapons replacing them) can be enchanted like weapons. The golem must be trained to use each enchantment.

    Kineto-Thaumic Converter: Rather than building a power source into each part of a golem that receives an enchantment, all of a golem’s enchantments can instead be designed to run off of a Kineto-Thaumic Converter, a sophisticated turbine that generates magical power from steam power. The Converter costs around 100gp, but can power any number of enchantments on the golem’s chassis and weapons, replacing the power sources that would normally be needed for magical items. The Converter doubles the golem’s fuel consumption, and the golem must be trained to regulate the Converter.

    Ingrained Instructions: A golem can be trained with default behaviors that it falls back on when not under the control of a handler, such as “fall back and shoot enemies” or “protect your handler if they are incapacitated.” Each instruction of this type requires the golem to be trained.

    Quirk Suppression: A golem whose noofactor develops an unwanted personality quirk can have this quirk erased through training.

    Golem Training: For each customization that requires a golem to be trained, its handler must spend 8 hours attempting the training and then attempt an Engineering check. The Difficulty of this check is 10 for the first round of training (which is necessary when connecting a noofactor to a fresh golem body) and increases by 1 for each successive round of training. If the handler fails one of these checks by 5 or more, the golem develops a new personality quirk.

    Resetting a Noofactor: A noofactor that develops too many personality quirks can be reset during a long rest, erasing all of the golem’s training and resulting in a fresh, blank noofactor.

    How This Contributes to Gameplay

    Okay, purely aside from the fact that controlling a giant steam-powered robot is cool, what do these rules accomplish, and how do they help to make an Aetrimonde campaign interesting?

    The rules on operating a steam golem are largely intended to maintain suspension of disbelief: they govern practical things like having to fuel it, make repairs, and give it instructions to make up for its limited intellect.

    However, the rules on customizing a steam golem are designed to help a steam golem become a character in its own right. A lot of characters become invested in NPC companions, and offering the option of customizing a newly-acquired steam golem chassis, making it theirs, encourages this. Accordingly, the rules make it difficult to completely “kill off” a steam golem, by making it possible to retrieve its noofactor and build it a new body.

    The training system also encourages this kind of investment, by helping to develop a steam golem’s personality. I have not included a table of personality quirks in this post, but among them are traits like “Vengeful: When the steam golem is critically hit, its handler must succeed on a Difficulty 10 Charisma check to maintain control of it; on a failure, the GM takes control of the steam golem and plays it as a companion while it tries to kill whatever damaged it.” By tying personality quirks to advanced training, putting lots of resources and time into creating a golem ensures that it also has the basis of a personality, rather than just being a tool for the party to deploy against their enemies.

    Finally, the possibility of resetting a noofactor allows for the possibility of fixing a golem mind that has gotten too neurotic (due to repeated training failures, or quirks imposed by the GM based on how the golem has been used…). However, I would strongly encourage GMs to roleplay the golem’s awareness of what is about to happen to it when the PCs move to reset its noofactor. Depending on the golem’s personality, history with the PCs, and other factors, this could range from feebly resisting as the PCs start to disconnect its noofactor, to violently making a bid for freedom (a doomed, futile one, since it will run out of fuel sooner or later, but still).

    Up Next

    Why encourage GMs to guilt-trip the PCs like this? Well…I’ll get into that in my next post, covering the Secret Lore of Golems!

  • Subsystems: Hirelings, Mercenaries, and Companions

    As a preface to my promised rules enabling PCs to construct their own golems, I’m first going to discuss the general rules surrounding allied NPCs, which can come in several different flavors.

    Allied NPCs: Three Paradigms

    First, I want to discuss what an “allied NPC” can be in a game like Aetrimonde: as I see it, there are three different mechanical roles that an ally can fit into, and all of them are valid additions to a TTRPG system.

    Hirelings

    A hireling is an NPC who provides the PCs with some service that they have chosen not to do for themselves. The simplest example might be a porter: an assistant whose job is to follow the PCs around carrying gear and equipment they don’t need immediately. (And, also, helping to get loot out of the dungeon and back someplace it could be sold and spent. Dragons’ hoards tend to be heavy…) Other examples of hirelings are the expert translator, wilderness guide, field surgeon, specialized ritualist, etc. who can fill in gaps in the PCs’ skills and perks when necessary for a particular adventure. Horses and other “ordinary” mounts might also be treated as hirelings.

    Hirelings generally aren’t expected to fight the PCs’ enemies for them, and in fact if they get involved in combat that’s generally either the result of a mistake on the PCs’ part, or a purposeful choice by the GM to go after them as a way of raising the stakes or forcing an encounter where one victory condition is “keep your hirelings alive.”

    In many implementations, PCs get hirelings by…hiring them, at a fixed rate per day depending on their exact skills.

    Because they generally have simple, defined roles, and aren’t expected to participate in combat beyond fleeing and trying not to die, rules for hirelings can be simple. However, there are a few pitfalls I’d like to avoid:

    • There need to be some kind of rules about how to handle a hireling in a combat encounter, just for those situations where the PCs need to keep them alive. They should have defined hit points and defenses, and there should be some sort of guidelines about when and how it would be appropriate for them to assist in a fight.
    • They need to be sturdy enough that players don’t find hirelings more of a burden than a boon: they mustn’t die to a single hit without giving the PCs a chance to save them.

    Mercenaries

    A mercenary (and I think this use of the term is original on my part) is an NPC who fights alongside the PCs but is controlled by the GM. This makes mercenaries a specific form of what is more generally known as a GMPC. Although they can contribute in a fight, mercenaries are generally expected to be weaker than the PCs (and thus, to not make a huge difference in difficult fights). They represent hired guns, bumbling apprentices, the mad priest who hangs around muttering about prophecy, half-trained steeds, and any other archetype of NPC who is, for the moment, more or less aligned with the PCs’ interests, but might not always act exactly how the PCs hope.

    The GM is always free to give the PCs mercenaries (although it’s generally ill-advised to force them on the party), but some PCs might find it interesting to have their character develop a retinue of hangers-on in the form of mercenaries. Mercenaries offer more tactical and narrative options than mere hirelings, like sending them to make a diversionary attack or escort rescued villagers home while the PCs deal with their kidnappers.

    Like with hirelings, there are certain things I feel need to be in place for mercenaries to be a viable, usable option for characters:

    • Because mercenaries have to be played by the GM, it must be clear that if the PCs want mercenaries, they need to have the GM on board with this idea. There also need to be clear guidelines about what kinds of creatures can become mercenaries, and how powerful they can be.
    • Because having mercenaries on their side can make fights easier, there need to be rules about how to take them into account when designing encounters (and allocating loot). In general, when they bring mercenaries into a fight, the PCs should expect to face harder enemies and pay out a share of their loot.
    • There should be some kind of reputation mechanism making it harder for the PCs to recruit more mercenaries if they use them as cannon fodder or trap-springers, or if they don’t uphold their end of a contract. This could be as simple as “the GM decides how many mercenaries, and of what kinds, are available to hire,” but I’d like it to be a bit more detailed than that.

    Companions

    Finally, companions are secondary characters, usually combat capable to some degree, controlled by a player alongside their actual PC. Companions represent squires, loyal bodyguards, faithful retainers, and other archetypes that in various editions of D&D would be built into certain classes as features, like steeds, familiars, and of course animal companions. When they join the PCs in combat, they act exactly how the PCs want them to, because it’s one of the players controlling them.

    Like mercenaries, the GM could always give the players companions, if they wanted them, and they can be used narratively, in order to let the PCs accomplish two tasks at once without splitting the party. And, also like mercenaries, companions will require rules or guidelines for designing encounters, splitting loot, and handling reputation.

    Where companions differ from mercenaries is that, because it will be a player controlling them, having a companion means that the player gets twice as many turns and twice as much time in the spotlight. So, it needs to be clear that for any of the players to get a companion, not just the GM but the other players need to be on board with the idea.

    Aetrimonde’s Implementations

    All three kinds of ally NPC have a role to play in Aetrimonde, and the Game Master’s Handbook covers each of them.

    Hirelings

    The GMH contains a Hiring Help section with a table of typical wage rates for hirelings of different levels of skill, from porters (5sp/day, +2 skill bonus in Athletics and Endurance) to specialized experts (10gp/day, +10 skill bonus in a single skill based on <CUN>, <INT>, <WIS>, or <CHA>, with the equivalent of a relevant Esoteric Knowledge perk).

    Hirelings have the stats of summoned creatures, with the exception that they do not immediately die when reduced to 0 hit points, but (like PCs) start making survival rolls. This means they can be downed easily, but allows attentive PCs to ensure they survive. (Whether they keep working for the PCs afterwards may vary…)

    Mercenaries

    The GMH strongly suggests that mercenaries be Tier 0 Normal creatures chosen from the Bestiary (typically intelligent humanoid ones, but that’s a much weaker suggestion), regardless of the PCs’ level. It also suggests that when the PCs bring mercenaries on an adventure, the GM should plan encounters including half of the mercenaries’ EV in the PCs’ total: this ensures that the PCs and their mercenaries still face enemies that are a reasonable challenge for their combined might.

    It is also advised that the treasure handed out for an adventure with mercenaries should be adjusted upwards to match the increased EV of encounters (which is easy enough: the rule of thumb given by the GMH is that on average, the reward for an encounter should include treasure worth 1/10 of its EV, although it’s best if this is “clumped up” a bit to allow some encounters to have bigger treasures). However, mercenaries should get a share of any treasure proportional to their half-EV contribution.

    Example of Splitting Loot with a Mercenary

    A party of five level 8 PCs (5 x 180 = 900 EV) has two Tier 0 mercenaries (2 x 100 = 200 EV) accompanying them on an adventure. Half of the mercenaries’ EV is 100 EV, raising the PCs’ total to 1000 EV. The mercenaries should get 1/10 of the treasure to split between them.

    Over the course of an adventure taking these PCs from level 8 to level 9, they would normally find around 900gp of treasure, but (because of the mercenaries’ added EV), on this adventure they will find closer to 1000gp. The mercenaries will take 100gp, leaving the typical 900gp of treasure for the PCs to split.

    Companions

    Companions can be more powerful than mercenaries, scaling somewhat with the PCs: the GMH’s recommendation is that companions should be level-appropriate creatures chosen from the Bestiary, or at least should be based on them or built in an equivalent way. Like with mercenaries, it is also suggested that half of a companion’s EV be taken into account when designing encounters, and that companions get their own share of the treasure.

    However, it would also be possible to design a companion as a full-fledged PC, with ancestry and class and all the other things that come with being a PC. If designed this way, a companion should be at least 5 levels below the PCs, and their full EV should be used to calculate the encounter budget and their share of the treasure.

    In either case, the PC with the companion can, if they want, decide how their companion spends their share of the treasure, perhaps equipping them with magical items if they spend long enough in the PCs’ company to accumulate the funds. It is important to note, however, that this remains the companion’s treasure and equipment, and if they ever part company with the PCs, it goes with them.

    The Retinue Perk

    The GMH contains a few character customization options that, for whatever reason, require the cooperation of the GM to make use of. One of these is the Retinue perk, allowing a PC to (with the help of the GM) start accumulating followers.

    Up Next

    The rules for operating golems treat the golem as a companion…as long as the PC handling it is present and able to give instructions. As for what happens when they’re not…stay tuned!

  • Golem Lore

    I had to think on it for a while, but I’ve settled on my January theme: I’m going to be introducing some of the concepts that make Aetrimonde a unique setting. As a lead-in to this topic, and to wrap up my December theme focusing on the high elves of Caras Elvaren, I’ll be going over some of the lore surrounding golems.

    Golems are a big part of Aetrimonde’s lore: the setting’s industrial revolution wouldn’t have happened (or wouldn’t have happened in such a big way) without them, and they’re now to be found in virtually every part of Aetrimonde. Unlike a lot of creatures in the Bestiary, golems get a solid couple of pages of lore setting them up before even getting into their statblocks. So without further ado…

    Golems in General

    The most common type of golem is the steam golem, which has been widely adopted throughout human lands. These smoke- and steam-belching animate machines possess enormous strength in their piston-driven limbs, and are used for all manner of heavy and dangerous labor.

    Difficulty 10 History: Arcanists and spiritualists have long used magic to create servants from inanimate substances like clay, stone, and wood. These ancient practices are magic-intensive, however, meaning that traditional golems are expensive and rare, the mark of a powerful magician or wealthy patron. Modern golems derive motive force from purely mechanical sources like steam and clockwork, which makes them far cheaper to create and thus more widely-used.

    Difficulty 10 Arcana: The high elves of Caras Elvaren still use magically-animated golems, and (because of the superior availability of magic given to them by their ley taps) use them even more extensively than steam golems elsewhere. Ley golems tend to be on the small and delicate side, but possess more magic than just what animates them.

    Difficulty 10 Engineering: Clockwork golems are the second-most common variety of modern golem, and like steam golems derive motive power from mechanical sources, in their case a tightly-wound mainspring. Their springs and gears do not provide nearly the strength or endurance of steam power, however, and so they are generally built to do light work in fixed locations where they can be regularly wound back up.

    Difficulty 15 Arcana: Old-style clay, stone, and wood golems are now considered an inefficient use of magic, but are still made in small numbers by very traditional magicians. They are also sometimes made for specialized purposes where steam, clockwork, and ley golems would not be practical, or to satisfy the demands of rich and eccentric patrons that are more concerned with aesthetics than practicality.

    Difficulty 15 Medicine: The creation of flesh golems—made from corpses stitched together and reanimated with lightning and strange alchemies—is superficially similar to necromancy. However, a properly-made flesh golem involves no dark magics, “merely” the strange alchemies and animating lightning of the vitalist’s art. Vitalists often claim that their creations can return the dead to life—but even when a flesh golem has the memories of the brain or body used to create it, they still suffer changes to their personalities.

    Noofactors

    Modern golems, which derive motive power from mechanisms rather than magic, still have one magical component: their minds. The intelligence that gives a golem thought and volition is housed in a sophisticated device called a noofactor or “thinking engine.”

    Difficulty 10 Engineering: A noofactor is a delicate lattice of alchemical metals that attracts and contains what designers term a “spirit of intellect” that can be trained to operate a mechanical body.

    Difficulty 15 Engineering: The engineering principles underlying the noofactor are poorly understood. The first example of a noofactor was produced by a solitary, eccentric genius, and was sold to the Novan Ministry of Industry by his landlady, along with all his other possessions, in an attempt to recoup unpaid rent. The design became public knowledge during the ensuing legal battle, which is now taught to aspiring engineers as an object lesson in the importance of retaining intellectual property rights.

    Difficulty 15 Arcana: The magical principles underlying the noofactor are equally poorly understood. Spirits of intellect are unknown to traditional magic: they seem to spring into being only within the confines of a sufficiently well-constructed noofactor, and studying them is difficult without breaching their casing of alchemical metals and releasing them. So far as can be determined, a spirit of intellect is, initially at least, an embodiment of curiosity and logic with no memory or personality attached to it. Through example and repetition, the spirit of intellect within a noofactor can be imprinted with certain behaviors (like triggering the relays controlling a golem body) that it performs in response to stimuli.

    Difficulty 20 Engineering: Noofactors continue to adapt and grow as long as they are exposed to novel experiences. A golem used consistently for a handful of repetitive tasks will eventually grow dull and unable to opreate outside of its intended purpose—and this is considered the ideal mode of operation for a noofactor. If a golem is instead used for varied purposes, it tends to become more responsive and capable—perhaps as smart as a clever dog or a particularly stupid ape—but also more independent-minded. While this can be beneficial to a golem’s operator, there is a fine line between independent-mindedness and recalcitrance…which is why the manufacturers of noofactors build them to be periodically reset, releasing their spirit of intellect into the ether and replacing it with a blank one.

    Other Golem Minds

    Traditional golems derive their intelligence from a variety of sources, many of them questionable. Depending on the magician who animated them, they might contain captive spirits, fragments of the creator’s own mind, bound demons, or even the transferred soul of some unfortunate animal.

    Difficulty 10 Arcana: The gold-standard golem mind for traditionally-made golems is a bound spirit. This is not like manifesting a spirit into a physical body, which evaporates if not fed a constant stream of magic. Golems are intended to be permanent, and this requires binding a spirit, often unwillingly, into a prepared body to serve as its mind (and often as motive force, too).

    Difficulty 15 Arcana or Nature: Best results usually come from binding a spirit of a similar nature to the body constructed for it: earth spirits for clay and stone golems, forest spirits for wood golems, etc. This presents a problem when it comes to flesh golems, because while spirits of people do exist, they generally reject the kind of stitched-together bodies that are used to make a flesh golem.

    Difficulty 20 Arcana or Religion: When a suitable spirit cannot be provided to animate a golem—and this is quite common, because spirits powerful enough to serve as the animating force for a golem are rare and difficult to subdue—creators may turn to more questionable methods. Copying their own minds into a golem is generally acceptable to the law and to society, but the process carries with it the risk of turning the creator into a drooling shell if not done properly. Binding a demon can work, but is a profoundly bad idea: not only do demons generally exact a high price from their binders, demon-inhabited golems tend to wreak havoc given the slightest loophole in their orders. And transferring an actual soul, even that of an animal, might not be strictly illegal, but it does tend to offend religious authorities to such an extent as to ignite angry mobs or actual crusades.

    Golems Throughout Aetrimonde

    Golems are omnipresent throughout Aetrimonde…with the exception of a few unusual societies that have purposefully outlawed them.

    Difficulty 5 Society: Golems are stronger, tougher, and most importantly, untiring: a typical golem can do the work of three to six human workers, and will work round the clock without complaint. As golems become more common in a society, they increasingly replace hard labor…but thankfully for most workers, they lack the wits to do any sort of fine, skilled, or creative work…at least thus far.

    Difficulty 10 Society: Steam golems are common sights in human-majority nations, most notably the Novan Imperium and the Kingdom of Waystone. In Victovy, they are rarer, but are increasingly prevalent in core provinces as the empire modernizes.

    Difficulty 10 Arcana: Caras Elvaren’s ley golems have effectively replaced all grunt labor and even some fine but repetitive labor, like weaving. The high elves have worked out a system of distributing the products of golem labor, freeing their citizens to spend their time on skilled crafts, arts, and leisure.

    Difficulty 10 Nature: Of the major polities, the Dwarven Federation and Tir Coetir make the least use of golems. The dwarves do create stone golems in the form of enormous statues of their honored ancestors, but these are objects of such veneration that they are seldom used for any but ceremonial purposes. The druids of Tir Coetir likewise create wood and occasionally stone golems, which they largely use to guard their sacred groves and other sites of power.

    Difficulty 10 Religion: Modern golems do not offend most religious sensibilities, although traditional varieties created through shortcuts using demons or living souls to provide motive power and intelligence are treated as abominations. In the Sanctean Primarchy, the construction of even steam golems is overseen by the clergy to ensure that they are created in an acceptable manner, and as a side effect of this arrangement they are often decorated in religious iconography making them resemble ambulatory shrines.

    Difficulty 10 Warfare: The military applications of golems have not gone unnoted. All of the major polities and many of the minor ones maintain a corps of heavily-armored golems used as linebreakers, gun platforms, and siege weapons.

    Difficulty 15 Society: Golems are thoroughly outlawed in the Petty Kingdoms, where the knightly aristocracy rightly sees golems as a threat to their monopoly on military power. Steam golems specifically are outlawed in Caras Elvaren and Tir Coetir, due to the elves’ distaste or outright hatred for the crude, loud, smoke-belching machines, and most clans in the Dwarven Federation consider them distinctly un-dwarven (the Autonomous Clans in the west being an exception). The orcs of Urku do not seem to have actual laws against steam golems, or any other variety, but expeditions accompanied by golems have generally not returned.

    Up Next

    Throughout the month, I’ll be presenting statblocks for various kinds of golems. But also, keep your eyes peeled for a post on the rules for controlling, operating, and building steam golems, which while not a core option for players (something that they always have the option of doing), does have rules set out in the Game Master’s Handbook that a GM can use when suitable for a campaign!

  • Bestiary: Soldiers of Caras Elvaren

    In today’s post, I’m going to reveal a couple of creatures from the Bestiary that build on the lore I’ve revealed for Caras Elvaren, nation of the high elves.

    High Elf Militiaman

    For starters, let’s take a look at the High Elf Militiaman, who is representative of Caras Elvaren’s citizen militias.

    The Militiaman is very much a jack of all trades: it has a melee and a ranged attack, but neither is especially accurate or hard-hitting, and it has reasonable hit points but mediocre defenses. The thing that makes it interesting, as an enemy for the PCs to fight, is that it has a variety of ways to punish attacks against it and its allies:

    • Its Longspear melee attack, with reach 2, allows it to make an opportune strike before a PC can close to melee range with it (unless the PC also has reach, of course).
    • The Elven Rejoinder power allows it to possibly evade and counter when it is the target of an attack, and it can be used repeatedly if the Militiaman is successful in evading attacks.
    • The Combined Arms power allows multiple Militiamen to loose arrows at an enemy attacking a single ally among them. Since it, like Elven Rejoinder, is a swift reaction, these attacks can potentially preempt the provoking attack by bringing down an attacker mid-swing.

    In total, this means that a group of High Elf Militiamen, positioned appropriately, can force the PCs to suffer through a bunch of attacks in order to attack the Militiamen…but once the PCs get through all those attacks, the Militiamen will not stand up well to prolonged combat.

    Of course, if we coupled a group of Militiamen with other Protectors, they could become a real pain to deal with…

    Leoir-Type Ley Golem

    Caras Elvaren’s labor golems are not intended to do any fighting, but as large, strong, durable machines, they could be repurposed for such. And that’s before taking into consideration the magic built into them…

    The Leoir-Type Ley Golem represents a general-purpose labor golem used for hefting and carrying heavy things. But since the high elves have such abundant access to magic, the Leoir-Type doesn’t just have a big pair of hands: it lifts things with magical fields…which can be repurposed to throw things like a miniature siege weapon.

    The core of the Leoir-Type is its Kinetic Generator special trait, which allows it to lift whatever objects are handy (crates, barrels, dropped weapons, rubble, etc., depending on the circumstances of the encounter) and form them into a floating ablative shield that absorbs attacks. You may note that the Leoir-Type has the hit points of a normal enemy despite being Elite, which is because it starts a typical encounter with temporary hit points making up the difference.

    • This is of course dependent on there being objects like this to pick up; one way to counter a Leoir-Type would be to lure it into an area clear of useful detritus, or use spells that cleared detritus away from it. Much of this would be up to the GM, but as always, I would encourage the GM to reward innovative tactics like this, and work with the PCs to give them some way of doing this.
      • I also suggest that if there are interesting objects for the Leoir-Type to pick up, it would be appropriate to change the damage type of its Telekinetic Barrage action (to, say, fire, if it had collected a bunch of alchemist’s fire vials…).
    • The other thing that could easily counter the Kinetic Generator is a lucky (or carefully-prepared) critical hit, crippling the arcane apparatus that generates the field. Attacks with critical threat, especially coupled with favor on attack rolls, offer a fairly good chance of getting such a critical hit. A critical hit early in the encounter can completely wipe out the Leoir-Type’s temporary hit points, a devastating blow.

    The Leoir-Type’s other abilities mostly build on Kinetic Generator: Telekinetic Barrage allows the Leoir-Type to throw the objects in its field, losing some temporary hit points but knocking enemies back, while Telekinetic Shield allows it to absorb damage for nearby allies.

    • Because Telekinetic Barrage drains the ley golem’s temporary hit points, it might be loath to make attacks if hard-pressed. This depends on how aggressively the GM chooses to play it (or its handler).
    • Telekinetic Shield, as a free action, cannot be used if the Leoir is staggered or otherwise prevented from taking actions. Staggering it, or attacking from ambush, could be used to attack another creature it is protecting without Telekinetic Shield coming into play.

    Finally, the Leoir-Type is Dim-Witted, and requires another intelligent creature to be its handler in order to use its more powerful actions. Attacking this handler is a great way to shut down those actions…but the handler will very likely be staying in range to benefit from Telekinetic Shield, and it might require some added effort to deal with the handler.

    Coupling a Leoir-Type with a group of Militiamen could drastically improve the Militiamen’s survivability, especially with proper tactics. But the Leoir-Type is just a civilian-grade ley golem that might be repurposed in grave circumstances. What would a purpose-built military ley golem look like?

    Sciath-Type Ley Golem

    Lorewise, the Sciath-Type Ley Golem is a militarized evolution of the Leoir-Type. It fills much the same role (intercepting attacks aimed at nearby allies) but achieves it with purpose-built magical fields, rather than by holding physical objects in the way.

    Much like the Leoir-Type, the Sciath-Type has a special trait that forms the core of its function in combat. Field Generator gives the Sciath-Type a fixed number of temporary hit points, but does not allow replenishing them in the way of the Leoir-Type’s Kinetic Generator. And, like the Leoir-Type, the Sciath-Type is vulnerable to critical hits. However, these temporary hit points do not form part of its “normal” hit points as an Elite enemy, and it still has other ways of replenishing and interacting with them:

    • The Domed Field special trait allows the Sciath-Type to passively absorb damage for nearby creatures. This works particularly well against area attacks, since if an attack targets several creatures inside the protective dome, the Sciath-Type only becomes a target of the attack once. However, the Domed Field can be countered easily by pushing inside the protective dome (although this will take some extra movement, and might require getting up close and then pushing in on the next turn).
    • The Resonant Field special trait disperses damage dealt to the Sciath-Type’s Field Generator temporary hit points…which makes that tactic of getting close and then pushing inside the protective dome a lot more dangerous. If the PCs decide to try and bring down the protective dome the hard way, by overwhelming it with attacks, they will need to stay well back while doing so.
    • Repulsor Field provides the Sciath-Type a great way of keeping the PCs away from it, especially if they have gotten close in the hopes of pushing through the dome on their next turns. It also offers the option of sacrificing the strength of its protective dome to deal more damage (and no, this does not trigger Resonant Field, since it is not actually taking damage).
    • Finally, once the Sciath-Type runs out of temporary hit points, it can perform a Hard Field Restart, restoring them to full with just a minor action and a round of concentration. The prospect of the Sciath-Type regaining 52 temporary hit points is a daunting one: fortunately, the PCs can prevent this, if they can manage to break the Sciath-Type’s concentration within a round.

    The best way to deal with a Sciath-Type Ley Golem might be to hammer its Domed Field from range, and then rush in and batter it to bits before it can restart the field. Other strategies include pushing into the protective dome and attacking from inside of it, or hoping for a lucky critical to cripple the Field Generator.

    I’m proud of the design of the Sciath-Type, not just as an interesting enemy to fight but as a bit of worldbuilding: I think that the parallels between it and the Leoir-Type show how Elvaren armorers adapted the capabilities of a civilian labor golem into a machine of war.

    Elvaren Sono-Artificer

    As the last enemy discussed today, let me introduce the Elvaren Sono-Artifex, who is actually part of some apocrypha: at one point I got a bit carried away and designed a whole series of Artifex enemies, each a specialist in a different kind of magic, and able to tune ley golems’ fields to that kind of magic. But, in retrospect, they all filled the same kind of role, and took up entirely too much space in the Bestiary.

    Still, I like the idea of having artificers who (lore-wise) use Tinkering on their ley golems to produce different effects: perhaps I’ll put them in a supplement focused on Caras Elvaren, or something.

    The Sono-Artifex has a decent normal attack in Screeching Bolt, but its real value is in its support abilities.

    • Dissonance Attunement, an Armament power specifically for Ley Golems, allows them to deal additional thunder damage while also deafening and staggering (via disorientation) enemies hit.
    • Field Repairs allows the Sono-Artifex to restore a construct creature’s hit points, and also potentially fix a Field Generator damaged by a critical hit. This can drastically improve a Ley Golem’s hit points.

    Now, the GMH strongly discourages doubling up on Protector enemies in an encounter, which can turn it into a slog. But if the goal of an encounter were to demonstrate just how resilient the Elvaren military can be, with its advanced magics…I invite the readers to contemplate an encounter containing a Sciath-Type Ley Golem, Elvaren Sono-Artifex, and three or so High Elf Militiamen. At 1250 EV, this would be a decent challenge for five level 12 characters, and would feature a vast array of ways to deter and pre-empt attacks.

    Up Next

    I’m currently travelling, but I hope to get one more post out before the New Year…I just haven’t decided what yet. Assuming I can put together a coherent post from the various airport lounges I’ll be in for the next few days, the next post should be out on the 31st…otherwise it may have to wait for the 4th. Stay tuned!

  • Boxing Day Presents: Magical Items for Ragnvald and Valdo

    As a special Boxing Day post, I’m going to revisit Ragnvald and Valdo, to provide them some magical items of their own!

    Ragnvald

    One magical item that Ragnvald will seek out early on (he could easily afford to have them made around level 2) is a pair of Gauntlets of Might, putting some extra force behind the blows of his warhammer. This is a nice, straightforward enchantment, creating a pair of gauntlets (or gloves, or what have you) that grant an item bonus to melee weapon damage rolls. It does have the slight drawback that, unlike an enchantment applied directly to a melee weapon to grant that weapon a similar bonus, it does not actually make Ragnvald’s melee attacks magical. But, it does apply to any melee weapon Ragnvald wields in these gauntlets, making him less tied to a single melee weapon.

    Later in his adventures, Ragnvald obtains a Dwarven Berserk’s Axe…a magical weapon that he has conflicted feelings about. Not only is it not his preferred type of weapon (a hammer), not only does it prevent him from using his shield, but to top things off there are social connotations to dwarves wielding axes that he’s not eager to labor under. On the other hand, it’s an actual magical weapon…and one that lets him hit much harder than his warhammer, to boot.

    The Dwarven Berserk’s Axe is created by applying the Combatant weapon enchantment twice to a battleaxe. Combatant allows a weapon to have a (limited-effectiveness) Martial power as an item power, and the Dwarven Berserk’s Axe gains the Furious Strike and Rapid Strikes powers. Wielding the Berserk’s Axe, Ragnvald can alternately unleash higher-damage attacks (using the favor on damage rolls of Furious Strike) or a series of many attacks that are still quite damaging (by repeatedly using Rapid Strikes and following it up with the extra attack as a minor action).

    While the powers of the Dwarven Berserk’s Axe do not use Ragnvald’s full abilities (being limited to +3 <STR>), it partly makes up for that with its greater power source, which conveys a built-in +1 item bonus to its own powers’ attack rolls and a +2 item bonus to their damage rolls. These item powers won’t be quite as good as Ragnvald’s inherent powers…but when Ragnvald really wants to do damage, and doesn’t need to focus as much on protecting his allies, the Berserk’s Axe gives him some niche options.

    The decision to carry, if not consistently use, a Dwarven Berserk’s Axe marks Ragnvald’s growing willingness to buck traditional dwarven society and his departure from his hard-line clan.

    Valdo

    Because of his frankly awful AC, Valdo will be looking for some defensive options early on. An Amulet of Deflection is one item that he would pounce on should it show up in a treasure hoard: while it doesn’t provide the same benefits as a suit of magical armor, it also doesn’t conflict with armor, allowing Valdo to use armor with enchantments that do other things than just granting bonuses to AC. And as a side note, the Deflection enchantment is also available for magical rings.

    As Valdo prepares to return to Der Eisenwald and complete his eradication of the vampire coven that forced him out, he will also commission himself a suit of what he considers vampire-proof armor, by invoking and binding the spirits of some of the vampires’ victims into a suit of bear-hide armor.

    The Spiritbound armor enchantment carries a Ward power with it, and Valdo (by swearing an oath to avenge the vampires’ many victims) is able to prepare a version of this enchantment carrying the Bond of Oaths power, which (aside from further improving his abysmal AC while the power is active) allows him to challenge foes who fail to hit him with their attacks.

    His armor’s second enchantment is actually an enchantment for belt-slot items, but in commissioning this armor, Valdo will specify that the armor occupies the belt slot (as well as the usual body slot), enabling it to accept enchantments for the belt slot. This, in turn, allows him to apply the Belt of Wound Closure enchantment, giving him some sizeable resistance to bleed damage…such as that predictably dealt by vampires.

    With this armor, Valdo is now prepared to return to his monster-hunting roots, and conclusively deal with the nest of vampires that has so vexed him. After that…who knows what further adventures might lie in store?

  • Gwynne of House Midwinter VI: Advancement

    Well, it’s Christmas Eve, and I’m going to wrap up creating Gwynne of House Midwinter. If it’s not clear, I couldn’t resist the urge to make Gwynne a tongue-in-cheek take on a Christmas elf, especially because (once I worked out what the timing would be) I’d be wrapping her posts up today.

    So like with the previous two sample characters, I’ll be finishing by showcasing one way that Gwynne could advance to level 5. Unlike with those two, I’ll also be showcasing some magical items that Gwynne will be making herself…

    Level 1

    By the time she gains her first level, Gwynne has only just gotten her first taste of adventuring. And one of the first things she will have picked up on is that she really, really can’t handle it when a bunch of Autumn thugs gang up and surround her. So, as a partial solution to this problem, she’s going to pick up Phantasm…which doesn’t directly solve her problem, but she’s saving up for a magical item…and in the meantime, she does have allies who will love getting to swing away as their foes flee.

    She will also take the Improved Elven Rejoinder feat, allowing her a way of regaining her Elven Rejoinder power after it fails to save her from an attack. This is because, again, she keeps getting surrounded by enemies, and no matter how she tries to dodge, she inevitably gets hit eventually…

    As her level-1 perk, Gwynne will take Contacts, specifically with some old classmates from her Magisterium-run academy, who like her are not fond of the changes being wrought by the pact with Winter.

    Level 2

    Gwynne continues to expand on her capabilities as a force-multiplier, and in this case, she does so literally, picking the Summon Arcane Soldier power as an offensive version of her Summon Defender Construct power. This uses her concentration, but it synergizes very nicely with Phantasm. Unlike her Defender Construct summons, Arcane Soldiers have an actual attack, which they can make when summoned, then once per round using Gwynne’s minor actions, and as opportune actions when provoked by the movement of an enemy. As a greater power, Summon Arcane Soldier will not be repeatedly usable in a gadget, but it will make an excellent emergency tool for her allies, who can deploy it as a last-minute distraction as they make an escape, or to cause some chaos as they sneak by a group of guards. And if Gwynne chose, she could hand out a pair of these Gadgets to allies, and use the power herself, to summon a total of three of these constructs for an encounter.

    Gwynne has by now saved up some funds that she will use to build herself a magical item…just as soon as she takes the Enchant Magical Item feat allowing her to do so.

    And now comes the question: what will she be making with this feat? Gwynne continues to have trouble handling herself in melee, with her abysmal <STR>, and so she will build herself a magical weapon overcoming that weakness.

    The Magebrand enchantment allows placing an Arcane power into a melee weapon, and in the process turning the power into a melee power. Coupled with Gwynne’s Phantasm power, this creates a sword that can be just tapped against an enemy to make them flee into the waiting blades of Gwynne’s allies…or back off far enough that she can do some fleeing herself. To the left are the “raw” Magebrand enchantment, and the abbreviated form of the magical item made by applying it to Gwynne’s longsword.

    As her perk for this level, Gwynne will take the Esoteric Knowledge [Faerie Law] perk, giving her some additional insight into how Sidhe pacts work and how she might ensnare Winter-sworn agents using the wording of their bargains.

    Level 3

    Gwynne continues to find nasty tricks that combine with Phantasm, this time picking up Illusory Hazard. This power causes a foe to see themselves surrounded by dangerous things, which might by itself be enough to keep the foe from moving…but if it chooses nonetheless to move, or is forced to move by, say, Phantasm, it then becomes staggered. This combination is a little tricky to pull off on Gwynne’s own because of how quickly Illusory Hazard wears off, but if she passes one power or the other (or a Phantasmagoric Armament) to an ally, they can work together to use this to its full effect.

    At this point most of Gwynne’s attack powers have the Illusion keyword, and this seems like a good time to make them more accurate. The Focused Spells feat will let her add her expertise to her attack rolls with these powers, thus keeping up with the more powerful enemies she has begun to face.

    Gwynne is still a friend to all children, and as her level 3 perk will take Perform [Illusory Pantomime], allowing her to put on one-woman children’s plays. She no longer relies on a cast of actors to hang her illusions on, as she did in the service of House Midwinter’s solstice spectaculars, but conjures her cast out of thin air…which is also a handy way to distract the guards of the Houses she now suspects to be controlled by the Winter Court, as her allies sneak in to do some pilfering.

    Level 4

    Gwynne will keep picking up more spells to make enemies move and provoke opportune strikes or suffer the effect of Illusory Hazard. In this case, she picks up Summon Unbound Anomaly, another Summon power, but this time one that creates a dangerous, uncontrolled nexus of magical energies. While it deals damage, it does so without an attack roll, based on proximity alone: it therefore encourages enemies to either flee or use their attacks to destroy it (which is also a desirable outcome).

    And with the addition of this third Summon power to her repertoire, Gwynne will also take the Energized Constructs feat, allowing her to add the fire damage of her Fire Bolt power (or any other damage types she later picks up among her Arcane powers) to her constructs: a powerful tool against the frozen servants of the Winter Court.

    In their last adventure, Gwynne and her allies ensnared and exposed the leadership of a minor House as Winter-sworn agents. This came as no comfort to the rank-and-file members of the House, who were discovered to be suffering from a variety of Sidhe bargains that they had been tricked into. Gwynne has sworn to break the victims’ curses and return to them their memories, true names, and everything else that the Sidhe took from them, and is now a minor celebrity among those freed from Winter. Gwynne takes the perk Fame [Victims of the Winter Court].

    Level 5

    As she hits level 5, Gwynne will lean further into trickery: she has a variety of summoning powers…but why not make it look like she has even more? The Illusory Phalanx power creates an entire crowd of images that Gwynne can make appear as a horde or shield wall of summoned creatures. Combined with actual summoning spells, Gwynne can make this especially convincing…and if she gets her allies to help out (since she can’t concentrate on both at once) she can scatter summoned Arcane Soldiers among the zone of illusions. Together, this creates an area in which enemies are distracted by the illusion, but unable to escape the zone without taking opportune strikes from the summoned creatures. And it only gets better if Gwynne’s allies themselves are in the zone and ready to strike as well…

    Because Gwynne now has so many tricks that rely on combining multiple of her powers together via Gadgets, it makes sense to let her create as many as possible. So, she will take the Extra Gadgets feat, giving her an extra Gadget that she can create during each rest (bringing her total to 3).

    Gwynne has now saved up some more funds, and (with the aid of a greater power source that she found in the vaults of a Winter-sworn agent she and her allies exposed), she will now make herself another magical item, this time a magical wand helping to make her illusions more convincing.

    A greater power source allows Gwynne to combine two enchantments on the same item: Gwynne will use the Energy Control enchantment to make her Illusion powers more convincing (i.e. having a higher attack bonus), building on the bonus she already has from Focused Spells. And the Coruscating enchantment will allow her Illusion powers to “spill over,” dazzling creatures around her, which is another way for her to get out of trouble if surrounded. (It applies to the melee-ranged version of Phantasm in her Startling Sword, too!)

    As her perk for this level. Gwynne will take Ritual Magic, and as her three initial choices will learn the rituals Dispel Curse (in order to, hopefully, free the victims of Sidhe curses), Fabricate (for its usefulness in creating cold iron weapons, which must not be worked with fire), and Planeshift (allowing her, and her now cold-iron-armed allies, to take the fight into Faerie itself).

    Up Next

    And that wraps up Gwynne of House Midwinter. In the next year, I’ll be putting together at least one more sample character in this blog, and having already revealed the Fighter, Skinchanger, and Artificer, I’ve decided that this next sample character will be an Inquisitor, a Divine class able to denounce enemies as wicked and bind them with holy magics. Keep an eye out for some polls where you can decide what kind of inquisitor this next character will be…

  • Aetrimonde Gazetteer: Caras Elvaren II

    Picking up where I left off previously, today’s Gazetteer post will cover the government and society of Caras Elvaren, the magical post-hardship nation of the high elves.

    Government

    Caras Elvaren’s government has been described variously as “vestigial,” “impotent,” and “as close to anarchy as anything called a government can get.” The foundational principle that the nation should have no rulers has manifested in a system of government in which it is very difficult for anyone to exercise authority or accumulate political power.

    In principle, Caras Elvaren is a direct democracy, in which every citizen has a vote in the National Assembly. Of course, since actually attending sessions of the Assembly and casting a vote is more time-consuming than most elves would like, the House system has stepped in to fill the gap. As the smallest unit of political organization in the country, one of a House’s obligations is to aggregate and cast votes in the Assembly on behalf of its members. The exact mechanism by which a House does this is allowed to vary, and is generally written in to the House’s bylaws. Some merely act as an intermediary, aggregating the votes of members by ballot and reporting the totals to the Assembly. In others, the membership chooses a delegate trusted to make decisions on their behalf, and throws their collective voting power behind the delegate’s decisions. Many Houses exist for the sole purpose of providing members effective representation in the Assembly, and make no claims on their members’ share of the golem or magic ration except what they need to conduct accurate polls and organize votes.

    The Assembly nominally has the power to pass laws binding all Elvaren citizens, but given the anti-authoritarian leanings of most Houses, it rarely passes any but the simplest and least controversial laws. Murder, theft, arson, and other straightforward crimes against the person or property are naturally illegal throughout Caras Elvaren, and those committing these crimes are investigated, detained, tried, and sentenced by Arbiter Houses that have been recognized by the Assembly to be temperate and even-handed arbiters of justice. Many Houses have laws of their own, but these govern only their own members, and they cannot impose prison sentences or corporal or capital punishment. Punishments for crimes within a House are most often social or financial, with the harshest possible punishment being ejection from the House with the nature of the criminal’s offense being publicized for the benefit of the general public. Minor crimes between Houses, if the victim does not receive satisfactory compensation from the perpetrator’s House, can be taken to arbitration by one of the Arbiter Houses for a small fee.

    The Assembly also historically had the power to determine the level of support the elven people would grant the Magisterium, in the form of labor, food, and other supplies levied from each House, and the amount of magic the Magisterium would return to the people, in the form of mage-hours. Since the development of the ley taps, the nature of this power has changed: since the golem labor force supplies virtually all of the labor underpinning Elvaren society, the Assembly instead negotiates with the Magisterium to determine the balance of golem-hours and mage-hours the Magisterium will grant the elven people. While both have steadily increased over the years, in general when the Assembly requests an increase in mage-hours to support the magic ration, the Magisterium counters by reserving more golem-hours for itself as compensation. The Assembly also determines how golem- and mage-hours will be allocated, dividing them between the common rations granted to all citizens, and additional grants given to Houses that perform needed and beneficial work for the good of the nation, like the Arbiter Houses.

    The Assembly is led by an elected Speaker, who in theory has the power to make demands of any House in the nation, or even the Magisterium itself. However, this power is essentially useless, because a House can at any time withdraw its support of the Speaker: if the Speaker made any demands that the Assembly did not already agree upon, they would promptly cease to be Speaker. Speakers’ actual power, such as it is, is limited to conducting Caras Elvaren’s foreign and military affairs, and even then, they are subject to close and contentious oversight by the Assembly.

    Outside observers have noted that Elvaren society rests precariously on the political neutrality of the Magisterium. If the elven arcanists had any political ambitions, they would be able to withhold both golem labor and the magic ration, grinding the nation to a standstill. Those with a closer viewpoint understand that the Magisterium, in its dual functions as educators and guild for Caras Elvaren’s arcanists, actively promotes a culture of detached disinterest in worldly affairs among its membership. From their enrollment as students onward, members of the Magisterium are encourage to enjoy the material comforts that their membership offers, delve into esoteric magical studies, and seek advancement in the Magisterium’s convoluted system of ranks and grades. And if all else fails, they can always be embroiled in interdepartmental rivalries and bureaucratic red tape to keep them too busy for actual politics.

    An often-overlooked third arm of government is composed of Caras Elvaren’s military Houses. Because Caras Elvaren does have a military, even if it is small and almost as anarchic as the rest of its government. Most of the nation’s armed forces are citizen militias, organized as joint ventures between the Houses of various townships, but these are trained and backed by a solid core of professional soldiers belonging to a handful of militarized Houses. These Houses are trusted with powerful arcane weaponry, including enchanted arms and armor, potent war-golems, and other destructive magics not known to the public. But they are entirely dependent on the continued goodwill of both the Assembly and the Magisterium, who can cut off the flow of supplies or magic if a militarized House shows signs of going rogue.

    Political Situation

    At present, there are three contenders for the de facto Elvaren head of state, each one representing one of the three arms of government. Gwetheir ap Wridd is Archmage of the Magisterium, and largely preoccupied with operating the ley taps and golem corps and ensuring that they continue to meet the growing demands of the citizenry. Melianthe Cerunna is Speaker for the Assembly, and is largely responsible for this preoccupation, having rallied the Assembly to demand a steady increase in the golem ration. The third member of this triumvirate is Brynmor, Princeps of House Meilyr, which is one of the largest militarized House.

    The largest political problem facing Caras Elvaren is the reappearance of the Sidhe, and their attempts to reassert their dominion over the elven people. Of particular import is the Autumn Court, which has taken the utopian abundance of Caras Elvaren as a grave affront. The Court has made several attempts, of increasing scale and success, to sabotage ley taps and subvert golems. The most recent of these saw a labor golem cadre used to breach security at a major ley tap and send it into an intentional overload. Although it was prevented from detonating by the efforts of its Magisterium operators, at the cost of their lives, the tap still underwent a meltdown that left large parts of its city magically irradiated and uninhabitable.

    In the aftermath of the meltdown, at least one House secretly took a once-unthinkable step, and entered into a pact with the Winter Court to prevent any further attacks by the other Courts. Winter’s first act after the pact was sealed was to disclose to the Assembly the presence of numerous agents of the other Courts in various Houses–though not, of course, their own. Nor has the House that made this pact come forward, or been named by Winter. The existence of so many Sidhe-sworn agents in their midst, including an entire House sworn to Winter, has broken much of the trust among the Houses at a time when a unified front is most important. The Archmage, Speaker, and Princeps are each pursuing their own contingency plans to deal with the attacks by Autumn and the pact with Winter, but since they cannot be absolutely sure of the others’ allegiance, are not cooperating and often working at cross-purposes with each other.

    Foreign Relations

    Caras Elvaren is on broadly good terms with each of Aetrimonde’s other major polities, but is not close with any. It was instrumental in brokering the peace at the end of the Wars of Smoke and Steel, having remained largely neutral throughout, but remains aloof and hands-off with the rest of the world.

    This is largely because of the country’s use of the ley taps: other nations would eagerly adopt the technology that powers the elves’ high standard of living…but the elves are painfully aware that the same technology can be used to create enormously destructive devices. More to the point, they are loath to let details of the technology spread outside the Magisterium, in fear that this knowledge could be used to sabotage their own ley taps. Caras Elvaren is therefore incredibly cautious about letting foreigners even lay eyes on the inside of a ley tap, and has collectively decided that the best way to keep the technology to themselves is to hold themselves apart from the rest of the world.

    That aside, the high elves are generally altruistic, even philanthropic, in their dealings with other nations. They export vast quantities of healing potions, produced with the aid of the ley taps’ magic, alongside other humanitarian magics, and they do so at or below cost in many cases. This earns them a certain amount of goodwill, even as foreigners grumble and protest their unwillingness to share the underlying technology that makes them possible.

    Society

    Elvaren society is one of leisure and self-fulfillment: with no real need to work, most citizens spend long stretches of their long lives engaged in arts, self-improvement, or just plain idleness. They move between Houses often, based on which one best serves their current interests. Virtually all citizens eventually find a calling, whether that is art, scholarship, service, or some other field, and devote themselves to it even if they do take frequent sabbaticals.

    In Caras Elvaren’s earlier history, members of a House generally lived under one roof. This is no longer generally the case, although most Houses have a headquarters compound where the House leadership resides, and a House whose members are all engaged in some joint activity (like artists’ colonies or sporting teams) often has them living together. But for the most part, members of a House can obtain its benefits without all living together.

    Architecture

    Caras Elvaren is heavily urbanized, but with much attention paid to making its cities fit seamlessly into their surroundings. Many Elvaren cities are located in the middle of forests, with tall, graceful towers artfully built to pierce through the canopy without unnecessarily disturbing the trees. Elvaren city-dwellers largely live on top of each other, with the tallest towers stretching to twenty or thirty floors of living space.

    However, the tallest structure in any Elvaren settlement is invariably the local ley tap, which while not always the center of the settlement, is generally close by. Despite many efforts by Elvaren architects and ley engineers, it is impossible to disguise the distinctive hourglass shape of a ley tap without compromising on its efficiency. More modern installations have attempted to place ley taps in depressions and surround them with towers to minimize their impact on the skyline, with mixed success.

    Economy

    While Caras Elvaren’s golems perform most of the drudge labor that supports their post-hardship standard of living, this does not supply everything that people need or desire. A citizen can draw on their basic ration for raw materials like timber and cloth, and even some simple manufactured goods like eating utensils and clothing, but everything the golems produce is utilitarian and unadorned. The artisan economy consists of skilled and even hobbyist craftspeople who transform golem-made materials into finer goods for the discerning customer, or provide services (like musical performances or specialist education) that the golems do not.

    While the basic ration has a monetary value, and for ease of accounting uses the standard gold, silver, and copper pieces to set “prices” for the various goods and services that the golems can supply, it is purposefully difficult to convert the basic ration into hard money instead of a value in a ledger. Citizens can sign over fractions of their ration to merchants in exchange for goods and services, but to get cash for it requires redeeming it for goods and then physically transporting them to a merchant who will pay for them, and this is technically fraud (although there are so many ways around this law that it is seldom prosecuted). Actual money in Caras Elvaren nominally has to be earned, through labor performed for other people or by doing something that the Assembly has allocated grant funding for.

    Many Houses are formed to give a group of citizens a legal framework to pool their resources in a common enterprise as part of the artisan economy. When joining an Artisan House, citizens are generally required to sign over a percentage of their basic ration on an ongoing basis, which the House can then put towards its enterprise. Usually, this means buying tools and workspace that the members share, but in larger and more established Houses it might also be spent on continued professional training for members, or subcontracting other Houses to do less specialized work.

    Religion

    For a society with such heavy emphasis on the arcane, citizens of Caras Elvaren are surprisingly devout. Part of this is simply that with so little need to toil, they have more time in which to contemplate spiritual matters…and part of it is that the largest religion in the nation is the worship of Deum Reveling, god of among other things art, music, theater, and what might be loosely termed “living the good life.”

    If one were to pick a date and an Elvaren town at random, it would be virtually guaranteed that there was some kind of religious festival (probably for Deum Reveling, who is also the god of festivals…) going on there, or at the very least, in a neighboring town. High elven religious practices tend to lean toward lavish ceremonies rife with symbolism, allusion, and interpretive performances, and are very light on dogma and liturgy, which makes them opaque even to fellow-worshippers of the same gods but different traditions.

    Plot Hooks

    Caras Elvaren offers a variety of ways to work it into a campaign:

    Encounter Hooks

    • An inexperienced ley golem handler has given their charge some incredibly conflicting orders, and it is now running amok through a busy market. As customers trying to shop in that market, the PCs must either figure out how to break the golem out of its cycle of ill-conceived instructions…or just hit it until it stops moving.
    • An arcanist among the PCs has grievously offended a Magisterium arcanist, who complained and got the PCs blacklisted by the entire Magisterium…just as they were hoping to buy some magical equipment. The PCs must find some way to resolve the grievance, which might involve doing the arcanist a favor, or alternately, showing them up in a formal arcane duel.

    Adventure Hooks

    • The PCs have been hoodwinked by a past employer, who has paid them in Elvaren ration scrip…which can only be redeemed in Caras Elvaren, and only for goods and raw materials for which they have little use. They must find some way to convert the scrip into hard cash, which will likely involve a trip to Caras Elvaren.
    • An Elvaren artificer has broken with the Magisterium, and is selling advanced weaponry to the highest bidder…and they claim to know how to build a ley tap. Nobody wants that kind of armament getting out in the wild, and there is a price on the artificer’s head…for anyone willing to fight through their now very well-armed customers.

    Campaign Hooks

    • The pact with Winter has insulated Caras Elvaren from the depredations of the Autumn Court, but Winter’s influence is no less dangerous. The PCs belong to an organization that wants to rid Caras Elvaren of Sidhe influence, which will mean exposing and neutralizing the agents of Winter who swore the pact…and then fighting off Autumn and any of the other Courts that renew their operations. Ultimately, it may even mean breaking the Sidhe’s source of power, or gaining such an advantage over them that they can be forced into a pact that constrains them.

    Up Next

    Next week, I’ll be wrapping up this series on Caras Elvaren by revealing some characteristically Elvaren foes, including a variety of ley golem. Stay tuned!

  • Gwynne of House Midwinter V: Filling in the Numbers

    I’m almost done with Gwynne of House Midwinter, elf artificer (and blatant holiday elf…). Today, I’ll be filling in the numbers based on all the choices made in the previous posts.

    Health and Healing

    As an artificer, Gwynne has a base of 24 hit points; expertise brings that to 28, and +1 <CON> will bring it up to 32, making her squishier than either Valdo or Ragnvald. Her injury value will be 16.

    The artificer class also provides 3 base resurgences, increased to 4 by Gwynne’s <CON>. A resurgence or other large heal will restore 1d10 + 2 hit points.

    Gwynne has fewer hit points than Ragnvald, or even Valdo, and I think that reinforces my decision to design her as a support character. She won’t be able to take a lot of hits, and should remain far from the thick of a fight.

    Defenses

    As always, defenses are 10 + half Gwynne’s expertise bonus (+1) + some other relevant values:

    • AC: 15 = 11 + 3 (maille shirt) + 1 (<GRA>)
    • Brawn: 12 = 11 + 1 (<CON>)
    • Poise: 12 = 11 + 1 (<GRA>)
    • Wit: 17 = 11 + 2 (artificer) + 4 (<INT>)
    • Composure: 13 = 11 + 2 (<WIS>)

    So Gwynne is going to be getting hit a lot, except by attacks vs. her Wit (like illusions, feints, etc.). She can perhaps fix that by using her Ward power on herself, which will do a lot to protect her against AC and Poise.

    Attacks and Damage

    Gwynne has only three attacks worth noting: her longsword, her longbow, and her Fire Bolt power. Each uses a different ability:

    • The longsword, using <STR>, has a +2 precision bonus, but with -1 <STR>, the total attack bonus will be a paltry +1, and it will deal only 1d8 – 1 damage.
    • The longbow will be a little bit better: with +1 precision and +1 <DEX>, it will have a +2 attack bonus and deal 1d10 + 1 damage. (No risk of rolling 0 damage here, although it will still suffer heavily against anything with notable armor resistance…)
    • However, Fire Bolt is much better, since it uses Gwynne’s +4 <INT>. With a +4 vs. Poise attack bonus, dealing 1d8 + 4 fire damage and 1d4 + 2 (based on +2 <CHA>) repeated fire damage, this will be Gwynne’s mainstay when she has to do her own fighting.

    Skills

    Gwynne’s maille shirt comes with a -1 encumbrance penalty, which must be factored into her skills:

    Acrobatics +0History +6 (Trained)Persuasion +2
    Arcana +6 (Trained)Insight +4 (Trained)Religion +4
    Athletics -2Intimidate +2Society +4
    Deception +2Medicine +6 (Trained)Stealth +0
    Endurance +0Nature +4Subterfuge +2 (Trained)
    Engineering +6 (Trained)Perception +2 (Trained)Warfare +4

    Gwynne has broadly decent skill bonuses, thanks to her high <INT> being used in knowledge skills like Nature, and her moderate <CHA> being used in social skills. Where she suffers is in physical skills, where she has poor-to-awful abilities, not to mention encumbrance.

    Movement

    With base speed of 6, a maille shirt with no movement penalties, and +1 <GRA>, Gwynne is moderately mobile: she can, at least, step back away from an attacker in order to throw a Fire Bolt, although if she gets surrounded she may have trouble getting away. The Lightfooted elf feature will also be helpful when she needs to move through rough terrain.

    Carrying Capacity

    Gwynne’s -1 <STR> will give her a low carrying capacity at 40kg of bulk. Between her armor, weapons, and various other pieces of kit, she’s already pushing this limit a little bit.

    Initiative

    Like Valdo, Gwynne has +0 <CUN> and thus +0 initiative, meaning that she’ll generally not be going first in a fight. Unlike Valdo, Gwynne doesn’t have the powers that would reward ambushing. This isn’t actually the worst thing: as a support character, going later in the initiative order can let Gwynne see what the other combatants do and then provide healing and support as needed.

    Up Next

    Gwynne is almost finished: like Ragnvald and Valdo before her, I’ll wrap up by walking through one way that she could advance through the first few levels of her adventuring career. And, since I’ve now introduced some of the mechanics behind magical items, we’ll be covering some items that she might find, buy, or make during those levels!

    In the meantime, here’s Gwynne’s level-0 character sheet:

    GwynneMidwinter_CharSheetDownload

  • Aetrimonde Gazetteer: Caras Elvaren I

    Today, in order to provide some additional context for Gwynne’s backstory, I’m going to present some of the lore of Caras Elvaren.

    Summary

    Caras Elvaren was first settled during the Age of Glories by elf dissidents and exiles looking to avoid the attentions of the sorcerer-kings of Caras Seidharen. During the Collapse, these scattered enclaves banded together, took in elven refugees from the east, and built themselves into a more egalitarian successor to the Seidharen magocracy. Today, Caras Elvaren is a post-hardship (though not yet post-scarcity) society, built on the tireless labor of automata, fueled by an endless supply of magical energy drawn from Aetrimonde’s ley lines…but this utopian state of affairs is a delicate one, supported by fragile infrastructure that certain forces now work to dismantle.

    Vital Statistics

    Official Name: Caras Elvaren
    Capital: Cathrach Talsien
    Official Head of State: None
    De Facto Heads of State: Gwetheir ap Wridd, Archmage of the Academy; Melianthe Cerunna,
    Speaker for the Assembly; and/or Brynmor, Princeps of House Meilyr, depending on who you
    ask.
    Primary Inhabitants: Elves, trolls, gnomes
    Currency: Statum (gp), obol (sp), morion (cp). Also drachma (electrum, 4 sp).

    Founding

    In order to understand how Caras Elvaren became what it is today, one must start by discussing its predecessor. The ancient elven kingdom of Caras Seidharen was the most magically advanced nation of its age, but this did not make it a pleasant place to live–quite the opposite, in fact. It was a magocracy, a government ruled by the magically talented, and in these elder days before wizardry and artifice became widespread, this largely meant rule by sorcerous bloodlines and the occasional warlock whose studies into Aetrimonde’s deep magics bore fruit.

    In such an environment, magic became a tool of oppression: the rulers of Caras Seidharen bound invisible spirits to serve as spies, and used geases to compel their subjects to inform on their neighbors. And what magic was not used to ensure their continued reign, they expended on vanity projects like palaces made of enchanted glass and fountains that spouted and endless supply of wine. The concept of turning magic to civic purposes–of using it to raise the standard of living for lesser talents, or even the nonmagical population–was not even considered.

    The sorcerer-kings and witch-lords of Caras Seidharen collectively had grand territorial ambitions, and so they permitted their subjects, especially the troublesome and discontented ones, to leave and establish colonies in distant lands. These colonies were forced to remain small (to prevent them from forming a center of power to rival Caras Seidharen) and insular (to keep them from forming ties with rival powers), but other than that they were largely ignored, and in some of them, the seeds of rebellion took root…

    If not for the Collapse, there might eventually have been a civil war as Seidharen colonies broke away from their homeland. But as it happened, the Collapse saw the center of Caras Seidharen’s power destroyed, its rulers killed or vanished, and many common elves displaced. Many of these refugees found their way to former colonies, and in the cluster of colonies that would become Caras Elvaren, the refugees’ shock and horror at the pointlessness of the Collapse mingled with the locals’ rebellious leanings, forming the basis of a new political philosophy.

    Caras Elvaren was founded on two principles. Firstly, there ought be no laws or rulers except those that the people consented to. And secondly, magic should serve the welfare of the people, not the other way around. Building a functioning society on these principles required a delicate balancing act: on the one hand, it was necessary to place constraints on the use of magic, to ensue that practicioners did not wind up in charge again; but on the other, in order to have magic used for civic purposes, it would be necessary to reward practicioners for practicing magic and putting it to constructive ends. The resulting compromise has come to be called the Arrangement: so long as arcanists refrained from exercising political power and employed their magic in the service of the people of Caras Elvaren, the people would ensure that arcanists enjoyed a privileged and relatively luxurious position in society.

    Early History

    The first few centuries were rough on Caras Elvaren, as they were for most nations in the wake of the Collapse. The influx of refugees badly strained the colonies that had banded together under the Elvaren banner, and at times there were struggles to keep the citizenry fed.

    The system of rationing imposed during these harsh times led to the first of Caras Elvaren’s enduring civic institutions, the House system. Initially, rations were issued to family units, but this rapidly proved inefficient: in light of the lack of housing, communal living became the norm, and having a member of each household individually collect and then re-pool their rations was cumbersome. The rationing system rapidly evolved to issue rations to each household based on the number of people living under each roof, for ease of administration (and because it allowed for a fairer distribution of rationed products, like firewood, that could be shared by larger groups). Distributing the household’s rations among its residents then became a matter for the household to settle privately. Because it was possible (though sometimes difficult, in those early years) for elves to leave one household and join another, taking their ration entitlements with them, many systems were devised for fairly distributing a household’s rations.

    Among the rations issued by the fledgling Elvaren government was the magic ration, entitling a household to the work of an arcanist under the Arrangement for a fixed number of hours per year. Initially, citizens largely used the magic ration on an individual basis, requesting magical healing for injuries sustained in their flight from Caras Seidharen, magical repairs to tools and belongings, or just magic to help carry heavy loads or clear land. However, as the initial crisis passed, households were able to use their magic rations for permanent improvements, like magical lamps and heat sources that replaced the need for oil and firewood. Larger households pooling and saving up their magic rations could arrange to employ an arcanist year-round to give them good weather for their crops, or commission enchanted tools like self-propelled plows or automated spinning wheels.

    These magical conveniences remained the province of large and well-organized households, however, and as households grew and merged to take advantage of these economies of scale, it began to stretch the definition of “household.” As some households reached hundreds of members, and their actual houses became sprawling compounds that nonetheless still shared one roof, it became necessary for the Elvaren government to recognize this consequence of their rationing system, and loosen the legal definition of households. Under the new title of Houses, households became the smallest unit of political organization in Caras Elvaren: while it would no longer be required for all the members of a House to live under one roof, the government would issue rations to the House based on its membership, and it would be up to the House’s leadership to divide the rations fairly. And because leaving a House would no longer even necessarily require moving out, this further encouraged House leadership to set up, and adhere to, fair and equitable rules.

    Meanwhile, the Arrangement and the magic ration led to a similar system of rules and rations among Caras Elvaren’s arcanists. The need to organize arcanists into work details in response to citizens’ use of their magic rations, and to train more arcanists in response to the demand, led to the creation of the Magisterium, an organization that became one part arcanists’ guild, one part academy of magic…and one part self-regulatory body, ensuring that its membership held to the Arrangement. Arcanists who agreed to answer requests made using the magic ration, and to keep far away from politics, could expect to be housed, fed, and clothed sumptuously in the Magisterium’s facilities. And the Magisterium set rules for which of its members could take which work requests, creating systems of professional certification, seniority, and so on that ensured citizens could expect a consistent response to their use of the magic ration. Cynical minds have often observed that with all the workplace politics of the Magisterium, it’s no surprise that Elvaren arcanists have generally been willing to stay out of ordinary politics…

    Recent History

    In 319 AAC, a journeyman artificer in a backwater Magisterium tower simultaneously blew himself out of a third-story window and made a discovery that redefined Caras Elvaren’s approach to magical engineering. Arcanists since time immemorial had known about Aetrimonde’s ley lines, naturally-occurring flows of magic deep beneath the earth. In a few places where these flows came closer to the surface, it was possible for magicians to harness them, gaining a noticeable increase in their spells’ power. The journeyman, of the name Aediswyr, had idly wondered if a magical device could be made to tap into a ley line–and his fourth prototype was so unexpectedly efficient at doing so that the resultant flow of magic overwhelmed the device’s physical form, the safety circle containing it during the test run, and the emergency ward that Aediswyr, already moving towards the window, hastily put up between him and the explosively overloading device.

    The Magisterium could hardly fail to notice such a discovery, and Aediswyr received both a promotion in grade and an official caution for insufficient safety precautions before he was out of his sickbed. Aediswyr’s Ethereal Resonator was reverse-engineered1 by the Magisterium to safely harness the energy it drew from the ley lines. It was an overwhelming success, and the most pressing question in the higher ranks of the Magisterium overnight became what to do with such an abundant power source. It was eventually pointed out that if positioned with enough precision on a junction of ley lines, the Ethereal Resonator could be scaled up almost indefinitely, to the point that a sufficiently large model could remotely power typical magical devices for miles around, even with the enormous efficiency losses such a use would incur.

    The first ley tap, as the facilities are known, went online two years later in a remote farming village, where it proved capable of powering the entire community’s specially-enchanted magical farm implements. “Specially-enchanted” is perhaps a misleading term, because the only thing special about the enchantments was their lack of an internal power source: the ley tap enabled the creation of commercial-grade magical items as much as 90% more cost-effectively, and was quickly rolled out across Caras Elvaren.

    Three centuries of abundantly available magic has transformed Caras Elvaren. Not content to just power enchanted tools, the Magisterium’s Ley Tap Commission put to work every artificer they could spare building a golem labor force powered by the taps. The golems, organized and administrated by the Magisterium, have now replaced virtually all hard physical labor in the nation. Their labor produces the bulk of Elvaren food and raw materials, and an increasing share of other goods and services including clothing, housing, and transportation. And, under the auspices of the Magisterium, all citizens are entitled to a share of the golems’ labor: enough to live stably and securely, if not lavishly, on–and if they want a greater share, they can earn it, by spending just a few hours per week working as a handler for golems on tasks that require supervision.

    The ley taps and the golem workforce have made Caras Elvaren a relative utopia. But for those in the know–the arcanists of the Ley Tap Commission and the Golem Labor Administration–it is a very delicate thing, reliant on advanced magi-machinery and thaumaturgical engineering.2 All of Elvaren society is dependent on the taps, the golems, and the bureaucracy that manages both; if something in this system were to break, if the institutions that support it were somehow disrupted, it could easily lead to starvation and chaos. And that is before considering that the ley taps, machines a hundred meters and more tall, are themselves based on a device that exploded in its first test run…

    Up Next

    Check back next week for the second part of this series, covering Caras Elvaren’s society, politics, and current events!

    1. Aediswyr protested the usurpation of his personal project by the Magisterium, and was reminded that any spell, enchantment, or device produced by an arcanist working under the auspices of the Magisterium became the intellectual property of the Magisterium, to be held in trust for future generations of the Elvaren people. ↩︎
    2. Aediswyr himself had a brief career in the Ley Tap Commission, which he ended by resigning in protest of the plan to place ley taps in populated areas. He spent more than a decade publishing increasingly unhinged pamphlets decrying the use of his invention, before vanishing. Conspiracy theorists have connected his disappearance to an industrial accident the next year, in which the prototype of the Mark II Ley Tap underwent premature initiation and melted itself into a thousand tons of magically-polluted slag. ↩︎