When living things die, every so often their bodies are swallowed by the earth. Under all that heat and pressure, they decompose... differently. So we're bringing back the whole tripartite deal where soul and spirit are different things. Your soul is where you memories and identity hang out. When you die, it leaves. Your spirit, on the other hand, is your elan vital, the energy that powers you. That stays in your body and get siphoned off by microbes and scavengers.
Unless your body is buried by an earthquake or a flood. Unable to escape, your spirit transforms slowly over milennia into a thick blue slurry. This liquid, called "anima", then seeps into the rocks, producing "animate ore." Today, humanoid miners smelt and bottle the amina and use it for magic.
Anima and You
Before a body can be ensouled, it has to be inspired. It turns out that a function of spirit, generally, is that it attracts souls. This gives anima a number of magical applications.
First of all, if you *drink* it, your body now has room for more souls in it. You have to start small, because anima is poison, but you can build up resistance over time. Drinking enough anima allows you to take levels in Incarnate, Totemist, or Soulborn, and if you are in that class you can eventually level up just by drinking enough anima.
Also, Vampires can fill their blood pool by drinking it.
Anima and Industry
Apart from human consumption, the cultures that know anima have found other uses for a soul-attracting substance.
The Dwarves, besides training Soulborn, mix it with a secret blend of silver and steel to produce weapons and armor which function as Ghost Touch Adamantine. It is also the main ingredient in Golem enchantment.
The Elves train Totemists, and use it as the material component for Reincarnate. It is rumored to be a trace ingredient in elf (drow) knockout poison. Elven enchanters also use it for
The Aasimar train Numerous Incarnates, but also use it for summoning circles and other conjuration items.
Anima Dangers
When liquid anima is heated or the ore is pulverized, it may give off fumes or vapors that are poisonous, dealing 2 WIS/2 WIS at DC 13. Furthermore, for 1 hour after a failed save victims hallucinate (treat as sickened), and they will afterwards have no memory of that hour.
If you are rendered unconscious by anima poisoning and left untreated, bad things can happen. If underground, you may become possessed by an incorporeal undead, which gains your physical stats and becomes corporeal until you die. (This happens even if there were originally no undead in the area). If above ground, you are berserk for one day after awakening, and will attack things attempting to eat them. If you successfully kill and eat a person, you become a ghoul. If you manage to kill an animal, you have a 20% chance of becoming a lycanthrope.
Item Spotlight: Anima (OCS)
Moderator: Moderators
Item Spotlight: Anima (OCS)
Last edited by Orion on Sat Feb 26, 2011 1:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
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RiotGearEpsilon
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So, based on this, I wrote up a little ditty for dwarves. Feel free to use/ignore or whatever.
Dwarves are typically presented as ale swilling, boisterious unintelligent midgets that love axes and speak in a scottish accent in DnD. This is unfortunate, as there is much cooler source material in the original skaldic verses of norse mythology, wherein the dwarves are short people that live underground or possibly in the underworld, occasionally abducting people but mostly minding their own business and crafting powerful artifacts. I feel this project should harken back to that sort of myth, rather than the more modern DnD tradtion. So, without further adeu:
Dwarves: Born to Mine
Long ago, during the early days of the world, a race was created for the purpose of extracting precious anima from the stony heart of the earth. A race naturally able to see in darkness; short enough not to require tall, wide tunnels; born with a natural cunning with stoneworking and with the clerical magics that could be used to subdue the undead that reside within the earth.
These were the first dwarves.
The dwarven society is one dependant on anima for its survival. Their crops, grown in infertile caverns of stone, do not survive on sunlight but rather on diluted doses of distilled anima. These crops are harvested by automata which are, in turn, created using the precious material. All dwarven society revolves around extracting anima, and in creating it.
All clans of dwarves bury their dead in special tombs specifically designed to press the spirits of the deceased into raw anima for future generations. To fail to be buried in the halls in which one was born is to have robbed your clan and your children of their livelihood and future sustainence and is a terrible, terrible shame. Most dwarves consider it eccentric and wasteful to consume anima personally, and most do not.
A Race Divided: Dark and Light
Dwarves are natural clerics, and seem to have a innate talent for understanding the planar cores. Without this skill, the dwarves would have never survived underground for as long as they have, as it is divine magic that allows them to keep the wild undead of the underworld from overrunning the dwarven halls and slaying them all.
This is as much of a curse on their people as a blessing, however, as the clans are divided on whether the undead should be destroyed, using positiver energy, or rebuked using negative energy. Thus, there are Light Dwarves, and Dark Dwarves, who are bitter enemies, each claiming to have absolute right to the anima created by their ancestors ages ago.
The Dark Dwarves have allied with the Dark Gnomes who fled into the underworld to escape the dragons, and taught them the arts of necromancy. In dark dwarven settlements, ghosts, skeletons and a smattering of more exotic undead species can be found, guarding the settlement, tending the fields under the watchful eye of a necromancer, or hualing minerals and raw anima from the mines.
The Light Dwarves, however, have steadfastly refused to accept Gnomes of any sort, neither wishing to traffic with necromancers, nor offend the dragons of the under world. Instead, they have struck a pact with the elves, who demand a great deal of anima for their totemist training, reincarnation spells and a thousand other uses. In exchange, the dwarves recive plentiful fruits and vegatables from above ground, elfen enchanters to aide them in the creation of tireless golem servants.
Towers as Different as Day and Night
All dwarves, Light and Dark alike, have constructed mighty fortresses on the shattered surface of the underworld. The greatest of these fortresses have been said to grow to tall as to rival, or even include, the lower strata of the floating islands in their construction. Thick walls of engraved stone tell the history of the dwarven clans that live within, and ghost-touch enchantments are woven into the stone itself, to make these halls as impregnable to the dead as they are to the living.
And, yet, these fortresses serve another purpose, beyond being citadels of the dwarven race. Each includes an observatory, carefully constructed to allow the dwarven clerics to gaze into the heavens, and plot the motion of the planar cores that are the stars.
The Light Dwarves, long ago, adopted the Sun worshipping religion of the Hobgoblins, after seeing their clerics drive off an army of the undead from the gates of a dwarven citadel. Other spheres, such as Celestia, Ysgard, Fire and dozens of others are also observed by the Light Dwarves, but none are as prominent as the life-giving Sun.
The Dark Dwarves, on the other hand, are not as united. Each clan has its own patron star, some favouring the Abyss, some Water, or Air, Limbo or even more distant realms. All, however, pay close, if secondary, attention to the dark and deadly planar core at the heart of the world, the ultimate source of the seemingly endless waves of undead that have plagued the dwarven people for all of time.
Dwarves are typically presented as ale swilling, boisterious unintelligent midgets that love axes and speak in a scottish accent in DnD. This is unfortunate, as there is much cooler source material in the original skaldic verses of norse mythology, wherein the dwarves are short people that live underground or possibly in the underworld, occasionally abducting people but mostly minding their own business and crafting powerful artifacts. I feel this project should harken back to that sort of myth, rather than the more modern DnD tradtion. So, without further adeu:
Dwarves: Born to Mine
Long ago, during the early days of the world, a race was created for the purpose of extracting precious anima from the stony heart of the earth. A race naturally able to see in darkness; short enough not to require tall, wide tunnels; born with a natural cunning with stoneworking and with the clerical magics that could be used to subdue the undead that reside within the earth.
These were the first dwarves.
The dwarven society is one dependant on anima for its survival. Their crops, grown in infertile caverns of stone, do not survive on sunlight but rather on diluted doses of distilled anima. These crops are harvested by automata which are, in turn, created using the precious material. All dwarven society revolves around extracting anima, and in creating it.
All clans of dwarves bury their dead in special tombs specifically designed to press the spirits of the deceased into raw anima for future generations. To fail to be buried in the halls in which one was born is to have robbed your clan and your children of their livelihood and future sustainence and is a terrible, terrible shame. Most dwarves consider it eccentric and wasteful to consume anima personally, and most do not.
A Race Divided: Dark and Light
Dwarves are natural clerics, and seem to have a innate talent for understanding the planar cores. Without this skill, the dwarves would have never survived underground for as long as they have, as it is divine magic that allows them to keep the wild undead of the underworld from overrunning the dwarven halls and slaying them all.
This is as much of a curse on their people as a blessing, however, as the clans are divided on whether the undead should be destroyed, using positiver energy, or rebuked using negative energy. Thus, there are Light Dwarves, and Dark Dwarves, who are bitter enemies, each claiming to have absolute right to the anima created by their ancestors ages ago.
The Dark Dwarves have allied with the Dark Gnomes who fled into the underworld to escape the dragons, and taught them the arts of necromancy. In dark dwarven settlements, ghosts, skeletons and a smattering of more exotic undead species can be found, guarding the settlement, tending the fields under the watchful eye of a necromancer, or hualing minerals and raw anima from the mines.
The Light Dwarves, however, have steadfastly refused to accept Gnomes of any sort, neither wishing to traffic with necromancers, nor offend the dragons of the under world. Instead, they have struck a pact with the elves, who demand a great deal of anima for their totemist training, reincarnation spells and a thousand other uses. In exchange, the dwarves recive plentiful fruits and vegatables from above ground, elfen enchanters to aide them in the creation of tireless golem servants.
Towers as Different as Day and Night
All dwarves, Light and Dark alike, have constructed mighty fortresses on the shattered surface of the underworld. The greatest of these fortresses have been said to grow to tall as to rival, or even include, the lower strata of the floating islands in their construction. Thick walls of engraved stone tell the history of the dwarven clans that live within, and ghost-touch enchantments are woven into the stone itself, to make these halls as impregnable to the dead as they are to the living.
And, yet, these fortresses serve another purpose, beyond being citadels of the dwarven race. Each includes an observatory, carefully constructed to allow the dwarven clerics to gaze into the heavens, and plot the motion of the planar cores that are the stars.
The Light Dwarves, long ago, adopted the Sun worshipping religion of the Hobgoblins, after seeing their clerics drive off an army of the undead from the gates of a dwarven citadel. Other spheres, such as Celestia, Ysgard, Fire and dozens of others are also observed by the Light Dwarves, but none are as prominent as the life-giving Sun.
The Dark Dwarves, on the other hand, are not as united. Each clan has its own patron star, some favouring the Abyss, some Water, or Air, Limbo or even more distant realms. All, however, pay close, if secondary, attention to the dark and deadly planar core at the heart of the world, the ultimate source of the seemingly endless waves of undead that have plagued the dwarven people for all of time.
Last edited by Grek on Sat Feb 26, 2011 3:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.
Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.
Wow, Grek, that's amazing. Somehow that's not just brilliant but also compatible with more or less everything I had planned. There was already going to be an elf/dwarf alliance, because the whole "eves hate dwarves" trope is old. The backstory on that was going to go something like:
Almost all of the floating islands you see today are fragments of an enormous floating continent that existed when the world was young. Back then, wise druids of the Elves, Dwarves, and Merfolk divided the land of air, earth, and water among the races for stewardship. They were all ascetic druidic theocracies, and sworn allies. Well, eventually anima mining got started--both on the surface, AND on the floating continent, which also had substantial reserves. Eventually, elven miners accidentally tapped an enormous well of anima which exploded so forcefully the entire continent was shattered. The elves were scattered across the sky, where they evolved in seclusion into an absurd variety of subraces.
Some fell to the earth, and became drow. At the same time, the flaming anima rained down on the surface of the earth and started a zombie apocalypse. Everyone who lived on the surface died or took the skies, except the Dwarves, who built forts on top of mountains and rolled rocks down on the zombies. Also, they adopted the Hobgoblin sun-worshipping religion for protection.
And yeah, there are totally dark dwarves who remained devoted to "nature" even after said nature became "zombie wasteland."
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Apart from the backstory behind dwarf-elf relations, the only thing you writeup needs to be fully compliant with the rest of the setting is some mountain forts and sunworship. And even the mountain forts aren't really important. If you want to write in some stuff in that vein, that would be awesome. If not, do I have your permission to use portions of your text in the version that goes in the wiki?
Almost all of the floating islands you see today are fragments of an enormous floating continent that existed when the world was young. Back then, wise druids of the Elves, Dwarves, and Merfolk divided the land of air, earth, and water among the races for stewardship. They were all ascetic druidic theocracies, and sworn allies. Well, eventually anima mining got started--both on the surface, AND on the floating continent, which also had substantial reserves. Eventually, elven miners accidentally tapped an enormous well of anima which exploded so forcefully the entire continent was shattered. The elves were scattered across the sky, where they evolved in seclusion into an absurd variety of subraces.
Some fell to the earth, and became drow. At the same time, the flaming anima rained down on the surface of the earth and started a zombie apocalypse. Everyone who lived on the surface died or took the skies, except the Dwarves, who built forts on top of mountains and rolled rocks down on the zombies. Also, they adopted the Hobgoblin sun-worshipping religion for protection.
And yeah, there are totally dark dwarves who remained devoted to "nature" even after said nature became "zombie wasteland."
---
Apart from the backstory behind dwarf-elf relations, the only thing you writeup needs to be fully compliant with the rest of the setting is some mountain forts and sunworship. And even the mountain forts aren't really important. If you want to write in some stuff in that vein, that would be awesome. If not, do I have your permission to use portions of your text in the version that goes in the wiki?
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RiotGearEpsilon
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- Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
You've got my permission to use anything I write for the project. That's kinda the point of writing it.
Put up a dealy on dwarven religion. If it turns out there's not a huge negative energy core at the center of the earth spewing out undead, feel free to change that.
Put up a dealy on dwarven religion. If it turns out there's not a huge negative energy core at the center of the earth spewing out undead, feel free to change that.
FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.
Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.
It occurs to me that the surface races probably make a point of deliberately getting themselves anima poisoned so they can cease being wussy random peasants and become Big Badass Werewolves. Might be a human plains culture that has getting Anima poisoned and turning lycanthrope as a rite of passage.
Last edited by name_here on Sat Feb 26, 2011 6:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I assume he's saying that it's really intentional and obvious.
DSMatticus wrote:It's not just that everything you say is stupid, but that they are Gordian knots of stupid that leave me completely bewildered as to where to even begin. After hearing you speak Alexander the Great would stab you and triumphantly declare the puzzle solved.
This needs to happen. Not sure if humans are the way to go, but it definitely needs to happen.name_here wrote:It occurs to me that the surface races probably make a point of deliberately getting themselves anima poisoned so they can cease being wussy random peasants and become Big Badass Werewolves. Might be a human plains culture that has getting Anima poisoned and turning lycanthrope as a rite of passage.
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RiotGearEpsilon
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