Earthling Houses (Artifice Saga)

Robotech is a multi-generational story involving the members of two major families:  the Sterlings (Max, Miriya, Dana, Maia) and the Grants (Claudia, Bowie, Vince, Jean).  Along with these, the name of Hunter is spoken of with a reverence akin to that given royalty--a place of reverence earned in part by deeds done and in part by marriage.  To translate these tropes for the Artifice Saga, I present the Great Houses of "Earth" (with apologies to Game of Thrones).

Relevant great houses are listed below, with their coats of arms.  Any member of any Great House in service to the Artifice Expeditionary Company may select the noble background; and most others may also select either the soldier or sailor backgrounds--representing the officers, combat personnel, and support personnel of the Company respectively.  In addition to these, one or two other backgrounds will also be available to each house, representing its history or current role in the company.  If applicable, the religious affiliation of each house is also listed--though it is not uncommon to go against family tradition.

Humans and Language.  Since the human language is not the default common tongue in this campaign, all humans begin play knowing two languages:  Earthing ("human") and the Zentraedi ("orc") dialect of Common.

Orcs and elves speak their own dialects of Common--Zentraedi or Tirolean, respectively.  In addition, Orcs speak Earthling and Elves may speak one other language of their choice (typically Invid ["goblin"]).  Half-Orcs and Half-Elves speak Zentraedi/Tirolean and Earthing.

Otherworldly Humans of Monvesia

RETCON NOTE: This post is a revision of "Half-Elves of Monvesia," and replaces part of "Goblinoids of Prace."  "Other Races in Monvesia?" and "Languages of Monvesia" have also been revised as a result of this post.

Otherworldly Humans

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Language Analog:  By human region (see "Humans of Raviq and Prace")
Inspiration:  Accident; "But I wanna play a haaalf-eeelf!"; Eberron races

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Tainted Counterparts:  None.  All Otherworldly human races are immune to the Taint
Temperamental Association:  By human region (see "Humans of Monvesia, Part One"); no one otherworldly human is particular to any specific human culture.

For starting Alignment Points, follow the standard rules for humans; and add 1 AP im each temperament associated with the race's transitive plane.

Names:  By human region (see "Humans of Raviq and Prace"

Humans are a versatile and adaptable race. In addition to a rise in genasi births among human parents, humans are also capable of transforming into a number of races connected with the various transitive planes (also called otherworlds).  In each case, a human must become the new race in a process described below.  Once transformed, the being can no longer transform back into a human state, nor into another otherworldly state.

Among the positive side-effect of these transformations is that the human becomes immune to the Taint, like elves.  Similarly, their process to obtaining immortality is more commonly called transcendence (not ascension).

Monvesian Culture: Calendars

Dozens of peoples call the lands of Monvesia home.  Each has its own customs and taditions, and many diverge from a common history.  Among these cultures, three calendars have become dominant:  one perpetuated by human advancement; one consolidated from divergent, native customs; and one that tracks only the simplest recurring events.

Senarian Calendar

The common calendar of Monvesia is divided into six seasons of 60 days each, each of which is preceded by an extracalery festival related to one of the philosophical temperaments—for a total of 366 days. While each philosophical priesthood counts its own high holy day as the beginning of the liturgucal year, it is the Feast of Spiritual Thought that is most commonly used as the secular new year.

For followers of the philosophical temperaments, regardless of denomination, the seasons hold spiritual significance, as each is associated with a particular element and temperament.  The seasons, including the feast day which precedes them, are treated as a Zodiac of sorts:  The season one is born in has an influence on your personal and interpersonal development.

HMDJVNW, Monvesian Great Old Ones

The warlock entry in "Mages of Monvesia" offered the briefest look at the Great Old Ones of Monvesia--a class of beings called the HMDJVNW (pronounced "am-DIV-new"), which had once been worshiped by ancient humans and goliaths in their homeland of Desolation.  Seven HMDJVNW were named in that early post, but little else was offered beyond these names and an epithet each.

In this post, I will take some time to explore each of the HMDJVNW, including their individual roles in the world of Monvesia.  Though these beings came to overthrow the giants and take over Desolation, they are daemon lords of Limbo--and as such have dominion over aberrations.

Behind the Scenes:  The name HMDJVNW is an adaptation of the initialism AMDIVNU--the the seven Temperaments, including Universalism.  Originally, AMDIVNU (whose name is always capitalized, and never replaced with a pronoun) was only one Great Old One; and AMDIVNU was once considered was the "god" of mages (or at least the originator of magic, see ENSHZRYD).  As the history of goliaths and humans has evolved with the setting, so has AMDIVNU also evolved--into the HMDJVNW.

Humans of Raviq and Prace

Tainted Counterparts:  Orcs

Temperamental Association:  By ethnicity (see below).

All humans use the "Variant Human Traits" on p. 31 of the Player's Handbook.

NOTE:  Humans should select two (2!) Common languages at first level, while other races only select one.  (see "Languages of Monvesia")

Humans, like goliaths, emigrated to Prace from Raviq.

Though the last race to come to Prace, humans have quickly becomes the dominant culture of the regions--much like a bacteria, some would say.  Humans came to settle Monvesia after crossing the Sea of Sand.  They settled first in the fertile lines just east of the desert (Veldistan), and later spread into the mouth of the great river (Notopoli).  With access to the river, they soon traveled northward, into elven (Cuorria), rakasta (Honderreich), and gnomish (Galtain) territory.  Finally, a few intrepid expeditions crossed the Granitsan Mountains to settle he eastern coast (Voztok).

I have not yet had cause to fully explore the particulars of Veldistan or Notopoli.  They are included here for completeness sake.  I will likely edit this post further when those details emerge.  I will not force them, though--I believe that a campaign word should grow organically.  When I have a character interested in originating in one of these territories--or else a party has cause to adventure there, I will leave the specifics un-delineated.