Warriors of Monvesia - Mystics

RETCON NOTE: This post replaces portions of "Savants of Monvesia," which previously incorporated elements from the earlier "Warrirors of Monvesia" post.  See also "Warriors of Monvesia - Men-at-Arms."

There are warriors whose power and ability exist beyond mere training as men-at-arms.  Though paladins draw power from their faith and rangers from their esoteric knowledge, these classes are not much different than the fighter class--even the point of demonstrating many of t
he same combat styles.  Barbarian and monks, however, are more ascetic in their approach to empowered combat.  These classes have a more mystic appreciation of the combat arts.

The designation "mystic" is borrowed from the Rules Cyclopedia, which uses the term for its version of a monk-like class.  It is not to be confused with the Mystic class which has been presented as an optional psionic class.

Enhancements to the class features of both these classes can be found in Unearthed Arcana.

Barbarian

Barbarians are spiritual warriors from various traditions.  While each path is bound to a particular culture, followers of those paths are not bound to those cultures.

Totem Warriors often emerge from Galtic druidism, which is a naturalistic faith that venerates alimal guides and guardians.  These sacred warriors typically accompany and protect druids of the Circle of the Shepherd--though many barbarians of this path exist beyond the religious community as well.

New options for the totem warrior can be found in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

The Beast (Unearthed Arcana) draws on the same Galtic tradition as the Totem Warrior; with sacred warriors of this path more commonly associated with the Circle of the Moon.  As with their counterparts above, barbarians of this path are not bound to "religious service" (though they are often considered the equivalent of Paladins).

The Shepherd/Totem and Moon/Beast dichotomy among Galtic druidism may represent an orthodox/heterodox schism in the original tradition.  Which as much as the tw denominations have in common, they are dissimilar in  in key doctrinal and practical areas.

Monvesian Culture: God-King Cults

In the west, there is a tradition of deifying the leaders of empires.  Clerics may serve these rulers and the cults of their glory as if they were gods or saints.  These traditions are formalized cults of personality.  These priesthoods are long-standing, but the "living saints" they venerate change over time.  Three god-kings have risen to prominence:  the Pharaoh of Raviq, the Mikado of Fuhon, and the Nagaraja of Henjal.

In Prace, a similar cult of personality has also developed around the Emperor of Dray--but the semi-theocratic nature of the Empire prevents the Emperor from arising to the status of god-king.  Given the nature of the Temperamental Orders, however, the Order favored by the Emperor tends to be favored by the nobility as well.

Clerics of the God-Kings

When in service to a god-king, a cleric must choose a domain from those spheres related to the ruler's dominant alignment.  Keep in mind, however, that inheriting the mantle of a god-king will affect one's alignment points:

• Pharaoh, gain 2 AP each in Dynamism and Vitalism
• Mikado, gain 2 AP each in Idealism and Materialism
• Nagaraja, gain 2 AP each in Vitalism and Nihilist

Should a god-king have no clear dominant alignment, then the spheres of the title's temperamental association should be used.

As alignment in Monvesia is fluid, a god-king's dominant alignment will change over time--and successors may be of vastly different alignments than their predecessors. Clerics of the god-kings, therefore, must adapt to the temperaments of their rulers.  Should a cleric's domain become unavailable during play, a new domain must be selected.  All abilities of the old domain are lost, and any abilities of the new domain appropriate to the cleric's level are gained.  The abilities of the old domain are lost immediately; however, the abilities of the new domain are not gained until either 1) the cleric gains a level, or 2) the character completes 40 days in meditative isolation.

Monvesian Culture: Cult of [Human] Perseverance

No discussion of human culture and history is complete without exploring the Cult of Human Perseverance (which would come to be adopted by non-humans as the Cult of Perseverance).

This religious tradition began as a reaction against the HMDJVNW, who once dominated and demanded the piety of the proto-human-goliath race.  Having found the "gods" to be terrifying beings from which emancipation was necessary for survival, both the humans and goliaths developed athiest religions during their respective exoduses.  For the goliaths, religion became the veneration of rudimentary (and highly superstitious) science and medicine.  For humans, it became an early codification of temperamental psychology and philosophy.  In its early stages, this temperamentalism was void of the canonization of sanctified beings.

Priests of Monvesia

In Monvesia, the two priestly classes cover all spiritual traditions.  While each tradition is rooted with a particular race, you do not need to be a member of that race to follow that tradition--you simply must train in that race's tradition.  There may be some restrictions on how far a character can progress in ecclesiastical hierarchy if your character follows another race's traditions, however.

Enhancements to the class features of both these classes can be found in Unearthed Arcana.

Cleric

Clerics gain their magical ability from their devotion to one of the Six Spheres.  Often, particularly among humans and dwarves, this takes the form of veneration for various saints who have ascended to immortality.  Though in some cases, such as among goliaths (and in early human history), religious traditions are centered on the ideals of a Sphere.

By Any Other Name.  While Pracians speak of saints and archsaints (including paragons and wise ones), other races use their own terms.  To the races of Raviq, these are akhu ("shining ones") and netjeru ("gods"); in Fuhon they are kami ("spirits") and ōkami ("great spirits"); while in Henjal, they are asuras ("powerful ones") and asurendras ("powerful lords").

Clerics should pick a religious tradition first, which will include one or more Spheres; a domain should be selected from the Spheres available to that tradition.  If a dungeon master is using only the Player's Handbook (and Dungeons Master's Guide), then only one or two domains are available to each Sphere; otherwise, two or three domains are available.  Alternately, a character may choose the domain they want, and then choose a religious tradition to match.

• Aerosphere (Idealism):  Arcana, Knowledge
• Hierosphere (Altruism):  Light, Protection, Unity
• Hydrosphere (Dynamism):  Life, Nature, Tempest
• Lithosphere (Materialism):  Forge, Order, War
• Necrosphere (Nihilism):  Death/Grave, Twilight
• Pyrosphere (Vitalism):  Revelry, Trickery, Wanderlust

Aeons, Things, & Horrors (SPORE)

Beyond the confines of Physical and Psychical Spaces of the SPORE TriCosm, there exist a host of ancient beings called aeons.  These are the eldest of a class of beings known for "meddling" in the affairs of psychical space.  Their Psychical and Psychical descendants include both the Elder and Younger Things.  While aeons and elder things are more clearly inspired by the Lovecraft Mythos, younger things are too.  Their ilk can be seen in the "Star-Spawn of Cthulhu."

These three classes of alien being are decribed below, with a handful of examples.

Aeons

Aeons are the most ancient beings, pre-dating the known universe—which, to them, is little more than the corpse of their beloved brother (see "The Beautiful Dead One," below). The Aeons are native to the proto-space of Ooloni, which predates the space-time of our Universe (and the SPORE TriCosm). Though there are hundreds of Aeons, though only a handful take part in the affairs of the SPORE setting.

The aeons are godlike in power and influence—but like the gods of Earth’s classical era are both fallible and vulnerable. They demonstrate very “human” emotions, motivations, and insecurities. They are often divided by their motivations into two classes: Sephiroth (or Empyreal/Heavenly Delights) and Qlippoth (or Infernal/Hellish Horrors).  The line between these two classes is quite blurry, howevever--and one aeon could be seen as both sephiroth and qlippoth, depending on the context used when discussing it.

Aeons and Elder Things (see below) use the pronoun It/Its, always capitalized. Younger Things may identify with a gender or not, and use whichever pronouns they choose.

Vampyres (an OtherSPORE Kith)

The Vampyre is a new Thallain/Cambion kith for OtherSPORE; it is compatible with other Changeling: the Dreaming chronicles--1st, 2nd, or 20th Anniversary editions.  They are a Thallain counterpart to Redcaps, based on the legend of the creation of the prodigal Vampires (and would, therefore replace Ghasts in any chronicle in which they are used).  Inspiration is taken from the Ghast, the Night Hag, the Sevartal, and the Weeping Wight.

Vampyres can trace their lineage to an unseelie redcap whose hunger for flesh mutated into a thirst for blood.  This drew the attention of a cacodaemonic prince, who gave that redcap a place in his court in the Underworld.  This redcap became the patriarch of a new lineage of cambion who shared his thirst for blood and compelling nature.

These cambions are responsible for the vampire legends that have spread among mundanes.  However, a lot of mundane mythology regarding vampires is a result of misunderstanding the vampyres kith--as well as Hollywood extrapolation on key stories.   While they are not undead themselves, they often use near death experiences (often through blood loss) to trigger chrysalis among fledglings.  Garlic allergy, fear of running water, and fetishes for sleeping in dirt and/or coffins have all been personality traits of individual vampyres, but are not universal.

Seemings

Childling vampyres (called waifs) would be described by mundanes as small for their apparent age--frail and sickly.  Their large, dark eyes simultaneously express innocence and sadness.  Waifs will use their appearance to inspire pity among those they manipulate.

Wilders are eternally youthful and beautiful.  They typically have lustrous black or red hair, full lips, bright eyes, and porcelain smooth skin.  They are commonly slim and graceful.  Wilder vampyres will manipulate others with their physical allure.

Grumps (called nosferatu) are lean and pale; hair is pale, stringy and thin--at least for those who still have it.  Fingers, nails, ears, and noses are all long and pointed and hooked; and fangs are prominent at all times.  Their complexion is blotchy and sickly, with bloodshot eyes and yellowing teeth.  Nosferatu will manipulate others with fear.

The Desecrated, Undead of OtherSPORE

World of Darkness: Mummy, Second Edition was an early take on alternate undead for the World of Darkness universe.  Written as a supplement to the early editions of Vampire: The Masquerade, this book allows players to create mummies--living dead whose bodies and souls have been ritually preserved, and are capable of rising from the dead no matter how often they are slain.  These rules in this book are more compatible with Changeling: the Dreaming and Freak Legion than those of Mummy: the Resurrection, so are used here to create The Desecrated, a class of Younger Things in the OtherSPORE setting.

For centuries after the Otherwords were separated from the Mundane World, humans still tried to achieve immortality.  One theory was that if a body was preserved, so was the soul--and so spells and rituals were developed to accomplish that goal.  However, while the fetch was able to be preserved with he body, the wraith was not (see below concerning fetch/ka and wraith/ba).  These spells shouldhave worked, though--it is only the separation of the Worlds by the daemons that prevents these methods from working properly.  Without a wraith/ba, these preserved dead are open to desecration by the awakening Elder Things: taking the form of a false wraith (a "bane spirit"), a Younger Thing (a descendant of the Elder Things) can possess a mummy, merging with its body and fetch/ka--forming a new life form.

An unintended side effect of this desecration process is that the Desecrated Younger Thing is bound to the customs surrounding the specific rite used to create the mummy.  Though references are made to mummies of other cultures, Mummy 2E primarily deals with Egyptian mummies--and the book is aware of that fact, identifying these "Shemsu-Heru" as ethnocentric in their use of the term "Others" to collectively refer to all other mummies.  Shemsu-Heru only represent one of the main Rites.  Here, I make an attempt to flesh out the other rites referenced in the original book, together with a few of my own.  These Rites are:

• Cabiri, the Greco-Roman Rite
• Incorrupt, the Abrahamic Rite
• Mallki, the Andean Rite
• Shemsu-Heru, the Egyptian Rite
• Sokushinbutsu, the Dharmic Rite