Classy World-Building Phase 2-2

 So, here is round 1 of building a world to go with the classes in the Drowned World. I started with The Braid, and I will work through the list at a pretty random pace. Once I can get Campaign Cartographer onto my new system I will start putting these places on a map.

It's tight, it is simple, and it is full of hooks to work with.

The Clouded Spires of Palatine

Tower in the Clouds By Surgull01 From Pixabay

The city of Palatine was once the Jewel of Breghon: a city that survived two cataclysms. Built high on hills surrounding the lip of a volcanic caldera, the city got its fresh water from geysers and hot springs. It's unique architecture included high, fan-shaped spires of Bronze mounted in rings around geysers to capture and funnel spray. Mills built to capture the hot updraft of geothermal vents, and obsidian canals to channel lava into workshops made it a wonder.

The city was built upward rather than out, as the peak of Mt. Palatine was too small to accommodate a spawl. In its heyday, hanging gardens, bamboo and kuzu groves, and melon patches curtained the towers in green. Harbors, fish farms, and floating garden rafts provided much of its food. The rest was traded for the corundum mined in the volcanic fissures.

It was a city with a strange, sometimes dark history: in its early days it was ruled by the Atmani: Gnostic demonologists who used a planar fissure at the heart of the volcano as a means to call forth fiery Djinn and force them to reveal the secrets of engineering and natural philosophy.  The Atmani often sealed demons in tools of Bronze, obsidian, and corundum, using rebellious fiends as power sources for their sorcery.

In the millennia since the binding of the Atmani artifacts,  their bindings have become frayed. Those who use them carelessly  become possessed by the demon within.

Today

When the World was Drowned, the mountain was covered by the sea. Only it rafts and highest spires remained above water. The heat of the volcano creates pillars of steam and a perpetual cloud of fog around the towers. Today it is a collection of stone and metal towers protruding from the sea, with a flotilla of rafts, bridges, and stone platforms strung between the towers.

The initial survivors of  Palatine were fortunate: the steam and fog allowed them to collect condensation,  while the farm rafts had been cut loose to stay above the rising waters, and could be brought within reach.

Rats, house-cats, and mice were the only animals that survived the flooding here and the cats have become nearly sacred to the locals. As are the migratory flamingos who saved them from starvation in early years.

Aside from salvage, which remains profitable to this day, Palatine is a thriving trade port, being on a number of convenient trade routes. It boasts opulent gaming halls and a thriving market.

The Braid

The Braid as an order predate the flood. Originally, they were the remaining Atmani mystics who had bound and commanded the Atmani artifacts in their possession to help their fellow survivors. (Braid is a contraction of Breghish Demon-binder).

Failing Atmani artifacts caused many horrors in the early days of the flood, and the Braid chose to confiscate and seal away their tools by any means necessary to prevent any more atrocities by possessed Palatinos. They keep their vaults in an underwater Vault: a temple made watertight and drained.

Other Classes

Palatine is home to a respected clan of Stonespeakers, who have raised several ruined buildings, reinforced old towns, and conjured stone platforms to help the city grow.

Tricksters are numerous in Palatine,  mostly owing to several tragic events caused by failing Atmani artifacts.
 

Braid in Drakken 

Here is what The Braid Look like on a class card for Drakken.

The Braid is a secret society dedicated to stealing and disposing of the possessed Atmani artifacts. They conduct other capers to hide the purpose of their order. ESP A Braid can sense magical objects, the presence of demons, and mystical protections within 100' of themselves. Skullduggery The Braid have the Skullduggery ability. Mogform A Braid can transform themselves into a talking housecat; all their possessions disappear, then reappear when they return to their humanoid form. Weird Walk A Braid can bend gravity to let them walk on walls and the ceiling (without losing arrows and loose change.)

Hit Die: D5 Combat Die: D5 Resistance: Traps, Mind Control Focus: Burglary, Fighting demonic forces The Atmani weapons are possessed by fiends from the world between worlds - the Warp, turned into weapons. They are incredibly dangerous and corrupting things. The Braid are free to commit heists as they will - even take work; but their true purpose is to steal Atmani weapons, and take them back to their hidden temples to be exorcised. Their creation was a terrible mistake that destroyed the civilization of Breaghon, from which the Braid’s founders were survivors.