Click, Bang, Boom!

To Quote one of my favorite Sci Fi Ladies, Commander Susan Ivanova: “There is always a Boom!”  well that’s not all of the quote, but it will do.  So for years I’ve known that the Races of Saivryth, had their own names.  They didn’t always go by Human, Elf, Dwarf, Drow, Dragon, Halfling, Gnome, or Skin Changer.  But I never got around to figuring them out.  Well due to recent fun and games in the Table Top Game for Saivryth, I have had to draw new maps.  I am finally mapping out my Celestial Plain to locate where all the God Realms are.  And in the process I went for broke and created the Map of the Ancestral Court.  Which means I finally put in writing the actual names for the Races of Saivryth.  It was a lot of fun.   I also updated the Race page for Saivryth with those names.  Yay Me!  Now I am going to sit down and create actual Racial Pages instead of mooching links from the Core Rules for D&D.  I decided that if I was going to make my Races distinctive, I might as well go all the way and lay out my own little quirks for each Race.  It should be interesting.

RGM

Advertisement

Rhoryn Prynni

This wasn’t the original post I was going to write about my favorite Hordeling.  This is the new post that I am writing about my favorite Hordeling.  Back when I first started Saivryth, the Horde didn’t exist.  Most of the characters revolved around Merdressa and Shallan, the couple that would pretty much be a Legend/Myth in Saivryth.  Then I expanded things to include the many numerous gods and goddesses that make up Saivryth’s Pantheon.  I made Gods into player characters and non player characters.  Then I expanded things to children of said Gods, and Rhoryn Prynni was born.  Now, you have to understand that at the core of the character Rhoryn is his love and devotion to his Mother, Kaina Rose Prynni.  Yes, my favorite Hordeling is a Mama’s boy.  You also can’t have Rhoryn without his twin brother Khoral.  That twin sibling bond is a corner stone in regards to Rhoryn’s personality.  Another corner stone is his slave girl/lover/wife Rhysalla.  They have been together since he was eight and she was six.  They are literally inseparable.  They have been together through several children, lots of complications and many high and low points in life.

I have tried several times over the years to write short stories or even full length stories about the various characters in the World of Saivryth.  Rhoryn has come the closest to actually having his life written down and immortalized in print.  I think it is time to go back and revisit his life and put pen to paper and finally tell the tale of Rhoryn Prynni.

I’ll keep you posted on if I am successful.

RGM

Character Generation

So I’ve talked a little bit about some of the aspects on Saivryth.  And I do intend to do future posts about more aspects, but I decided to go over some of the character generation dynamics for Saivryth this time.

As I have stated before, Saivryth was originally created as an RPG World, loosely based on the 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons system created by Wizards of the Coast. When I say loosely based, I mean that I used the 3.5 D&D system to generate character classes and basic world building. But everything else from the Gods to the Kingdoms and some of the Races are pretty much original in concept. Even the classic D&D Races that are on Saivryth have their own original twists to them to make them unique to Saivryth itself. My version of the Drow race comes to mind for this, as they are not an underground race or a matriarchal society. That is only one example of the differences between the 3.5 rules and the homebrew rules as gamers like to distinguish between them.

I have other differences too that I’ve created for Character Generation itself. Your standard D&D Character Sheet has six basic statistics that create a character, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. I added in two new statistics, or rather, one old statistic and one new one to balance things out. I never liked the idea of Charisma being the be all and end all of how a person looks or acts statistic wise. I much rather preferred the first edition rule of Comeliness for what a character looks like and leaving Charisma for their actions. So I included Comeliness as one of the basic statistics for character generation.

Over the years as a Game Master/Dungeon Master running a table top RPG game, I’ve learned that while players do pick up on the hints and plot lines you generate for them, sometimes a player or players don’t always follow those hints or plot lines.  So I was faced with three options.  The first option was to abandon all the work on a specific plot line.  This can be very stressful for either the player or the GM.  The second option was to force the player or players in the direction I, as the GM, wanted them to go in.  This tended to make cranky unhappy players.  The last option was to punt, and see if I could steer the game play back to the original plot line.   After many frustrating games where things just did not get done, I eventually came up with another option that made things a bit more balanced for game play.  I created an eighth statistic called Curiosity.  This way when players were presented with something that I as the GM wanted them to act on I would ask for a Curiosity check and let them decide what to do after they either pass or fail the check.  It has worked very well over the years.

So now we have our basic character generation statistics, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, Comeliness and Curiosity.  The numbers that are generated to represent these particular statistics are created  in the standard D&D format.  A person rolls the standard 6 sided dice 4 times and takes the highest  3 numbers out of the 4 rolls to create their scores.  I usually give the player the option to re roll 1’s and 2’s to make the numbers a bit more reasonable for a character.

After that it’s just deciding what the player wants to make their character be class and race wise.  And of course what skills or feats the character  has to flesh out their abilities and potential background.  And that’s it, all that is needed to create a basic Saivryth Character.  There are plenty of pages on the Saivryth site with information about the various classes and races available to a player for game.  And I am slowly providing information on the various Kingdoms to give players a decent understanding to add to the background of their characters.

And there you have it, a simple breakdown of how to create a character for game in the World of Saivryth.

RGM

 

Half Gods….

I love Greek Myths and Legends.  I love how the legends and myths talk about Gods walking among men and the offspring that do heroic deeds.  So when I was creating Saivryth, I was inspired to create a similar epic grandness, and thus I incorporated Half Gods into the history of my world.  Like in the Greek Myths, the Saivryth Half Gods do run the gambit between their heritage and their service to the various Gods.

With the concept of Half Gods, I had to decide what made a Half God and how were they different from Demi Gods or even Gods.  I decided that their deeds, or in some cases misdeeds, and power were going to be a factor in how a Half God lived on Saivryth.  To the best of my knowledge, there is still only one Half God, truly trained and educated on how to use her power and abilities.  And that is due to the fact that her parents doted on her and saw to it that she was fully taught how to use her powers as a Half God.  This would be Kiasa Kislaran, the adoptive daughter of Saidryn Ornalithan, Gate Keeper of Saivryth and his Outlander Goddess wife, Elanya.

While Kiasa is well known as a Half Goddess, there have been other Half Gods, that are just as notable in the History of Saivryth.  Another such pair are the two eldest Half Gods, Daric Askeric and his twin brother, Phedrin Askeric.  They were born to a young Drow Queen and their father, Ninrath Dorain, God of Chaos and Lord of the Evil Gods.  While their mother did have their best interests at heart, she also saw Daric, as the elder of the two twins, as a means to keep her throne, and did manage his life and his brother Phedrin’s life, to her liking as they grew up.  When they came of age and into their inheritance, they both decided to stand against their mother, and Ninrath, their father, as he too tried to order their lives to his benefit.  Even though he was a King in his own right, Daric offered himself up in service to Solarin Dolshalla, Goddess of Justice as her champion.  Phedrin, also took service with a God, Adamus, God of War.  The two eventually passed their respective kingdoms to their heirs and continued in service to their chosen Gods.  It was many years before both either Daric or Phedrin, accepted or acknowledged their heritage from their father, Ninrath.  But they are still a force to be reckoned with almost 500,000 years after their birth.  Now, Daric is in service to Serin, Goddess of Despair, and Phedrin continues his service to Adamus, God of War.

Another notable Half God, is Nairyck Shalnar, son of Merdressa Maltrees, Queen of Cerdrinal, Leader of the Arch Mages, and Shallan Shalnar, Demi God of the Shadow Moon.  Nairyck has managed to establish his own kingdom, called Safe Haven, which is a refuge for other Half Gods, and Slaves, as well as being home base for the Mercenary Guild and their Merc Companies.  He has taken a stand against all those that would use or abuse those with Gods Blood in them.  His kingdom of Safe Haven is known far and wide as a shining example of law and service to the Gods of Light and Neutrality.

Not all Half Gods serve the Gods of Good or Neutrality, there are also those that stand out in their service to the Gods of Evil.  One such Half God is Jennis Prynni.  He is one of the many sons of Ghrannys Lithar, Demi God of Greed and Trisella Prynni, one of his many mortal concubines.  Ghrannys offered Jennis to Serin Dorrara, Goddess of Despair to serve her as she saw fit.  Jennis started out as a member of her personal guard, but eventually because her Champion and is often referred to as Serin’s Archer.  It is his job to chastise those that fail or offend her.  It is rumored that as an Archer, he has never missed his target.  He has been known to brag that what he aims at, he hits.  There are few willing to risk his wrath as he is very ruthless in his service to his Goddess.  He is married to one of the daughters of Ninrath Dorain, Veia Chaleen, High Priestess of Serin Dorrara.

RGM

 

Hordelings

Crysda Prynni

Perys Venator, Champion of Stahren Toskari, Demi Omega Balance

One of the more fun things about a Fantasy world setting is making believable races for that world.  Saivryth has the standard fantasy races, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Human, Dragon,  Gnome, each with their own heritage and social norms.  But Saivryth has other races too, I have Skinchangers, which are variations of Werebeasts, Satyrs, Snow Leopards, yes snow leopards are actually a race on Saivryth, Half Gods, and my absolute favorite, Hordelings.

I had a lot of fun creating Hordelings, or as they are sometimes called The Horde.  When I was first toying with the idea in a game I was running, I had no idea at the time just what fun this group of individuals was going to be, or that they would actually expand into a Race on the World of Saivryth.  They literally started out as a running joke about the numerous Half God offspring of Ninrath Dorain, God of Chaos and Lord of the Evil Gods and his various wives or lovers over the years.  But eventually I was getting into generations of characters that could trace their lineage back to Ninrath Dorain in some fashion or another, thus The Horde as a Race was born.

Your typical Hordeling could be described as a blend of Human and Elven or Human and Drow features, with large fluffy wings on their back, colored either dove grey or black.  They usually have some sort of minor Healing talent, with a major Magic ability attached as well.  They have a natural porting or gating ability.  The wings on a Hordeling are mostly ornamental.  They are not functional flying wings.  They do have to be groomed fairly regularly or they molt all over the place.  The wings also can be camouflaged with an invisibility shield to hide them.  And as an added bonus they are very sensitive to the touch in an erogenous manner.  Thankfully,  a typical Hordeling also tends to bond with their significant other, so that the erogenous manner of the wings is tied to the touch of their chosen partner.  Of course a Hordeling has to bond with said chosen partner first for that ability to kick in.  Another typical aspect of a Hordeling is the reproduction of twins as offspring, which is why the Race was called The Horde in the first place, they are truly prolific.

RGM

Saivryth and the Two God System

The first thing any one says when they look at the list of Gods for Saivryth, is “Good Lord, that’s a lot of Gods….”  Yes, it is.   When you think about it we have religions that have a huge variety of gods in their pantheons.  The ancient Egyptian, the Norse, and the Greek pantheons are just a few examples of some of those religions.   When I created the pantheon for Saivryth, I wanted to emulate some of the aspects of what life would be like in a world with so many gods in them.   The fact that there is practically a god for everything on Saivryth, well that was just fun trying to create them and have them make sense in a daily life.

The next step was to break them down so that they could be separated into Good, Evil and Neutral aspects.  It was actually fun trying to create a list that basically not only gave a comprehensive set of gods, but that would span all three spheres.  I mean where do you put a god or goddess of healing?  Is it a God of Good or a God of Neutrality?  Or even better a God of War?  I mean, War is not pleasant, or even acceptable sometimes to solve a situation.  But it is needed, so I created six of them.  That’s right six, because in most societies, Battle is glorified and considered to be an honorable death.  Where as War is a solution to a problem, or a means to an end.  But Slaughter, well that is just wrong and should be avoided at all cost, because that is just wanton killing of innocents.  So I created six different Gods of War, I have two gods of Battle for the Gods of Good, two Gods of War for the Gods of Neutrality, and two Gods of Slaughter for the Gods of Evil.  It worked.  I then tried to do similar break downs across the board.

Then came the next thought, why two of each?  Mostly because I wanted to have fun with it.  But over the years, I have expressed the thought that what one god or goddess may miss another can catch, in the way of prayers or worship.  And of course the original system for Saivryth was broken down where the ‘Lesser’ God or in this case the Demi God, would represent or be the intermediary between the Mortals and the Greater God.   Of course this wasn’t always perfect, which was why the Gods of Saivryth have a slight Greek feel to them, in that some times they like to play on the Mortal Plain and go adventuring.  So sometimes the Greater God would go wandering the Mortal Plain and declare themselves the Demi God, mostly because they can.  Which then created a whole new set of dynamics, as now you have a world populace that thinks the Demi God is the Greater God.  And the Greater God is the Demi God.  Which from a gaming stand point is just brilliant.  Especially, when some of the Gods get killed off due to Celestial Wars or the random high powered God Slayer. Because now you have new God like beings who are born to replace the Gods that have perished.  So now you have a whole populace on a world that has to learn how to integrate the new aspects of their God and still channel the prayers correctly, without busting the spheres of influence that are Good, Evil, and Neutrality.

Then there is the other fun part, which is your independent hard headed Celestial Being, that stands out as a character in the world, who loves to create havoc, by representing herself or himself as a God and refuses to let another God or Goddess stand in for them.  Or even better, the world is so ancient, that the Celestial Beings after all this time are very uniquely distinctive on their own and stand out as representatives of their chosen aspect or sphere.

Now, that you have all of these Celestial Beings created and listed out, the next step is to decide are any of them Racial Gods for your various races or are you going to wing it and create Racial Gods too?  And what about Elemental Beings?  Do you create those too?  I decided to go for broke.  I created all of the above.  And then to make things even more entertaining, there are Gods from the Spheres of Influence that are also Racial Gods.  Went to all that trouble why not have some of them do double duty?

Trying to keep up with it all and make it into sense for some one to follow is always fun.  To get a good look at all the various Celestial Beings on Saivryth, take a wander over to the website and see them listed here,  http://saivryth.org/deities.htm

RGM

Saidryn here,

I’m taking a few moments to myself, playing with Dani’s terminal, while the wife is spending time with the baby.

Things are so not quiet right now over on the home front.  I have new gods, excuse me, Old Gods running around doing who knows what.  I found one of them, but I’m not exactly sure where the other one is.  I have to go looking for him.   I would send the son in law to go snooping, but he’s dealing with a Death Knight and a curse on priests and paladins of Justice of all things.  I am contemplating letting the Old Fool know what is going on, but I’m not exactly talking to him right now.  Something about changing time lines and knowing that these two particular old gods were out and about, and not telling me about it.

Honestly, I got a good look at the female Beta Balance and almost freaked.  She’s so old, I have no idea how I am going to handle her.  And she happens to be completely insane on top of it all.  Right now she has latched on to Prince Jessyl’s little band of misfits sorting out his throne on Tolnia.  Which is just fine with me, gives me a chance to plan out what I am going to do about her.  I’m not too worried about her at the moment, okay I am a lot worried about her at the moment, but my granddaughter Serrya and that Witch, Lylliah Ahliioryn seem to have things in hand.

As for that Death Knight situation, I know the Justice Brats, along with my son in law and his brothers have things in hand, but I really hate Fallen Arch Mages.  They tend to muck things up pretty good.  I’ll do my best to keep an eye on things, as they progress.

Oh well, guess I have to scoot, before Dani finds out i hijacked her terminal for this….

Saidryn Ornalithian,

Saivryth Gate Keeper, Lord of the Gods (I know I got conned into that one, still haven’t figured out how to get out of it.)

Saivryth.org

I guess the best place to start is to post a link on here to the Website so that people can follow along.  I will figure out how to get a link set up for people to just jump to the site.  You can find most of the background stuff for Saivryth at http://www.saivryth.org.  This is the home site, which has lots of neat nifty links to various pages with Art Work by my wonderful husband, Brian.

have fun and go explore.

RGM

World Building

Source: World Building

Welcome to the World of Saivryth, watch out for the BPFS

Welcome to the first post in the Saivryth Blog.

Here are some things you can look forward too in upcoming posts:

Running dialogues with some of the Saivryth Characters.

Snippets of world information that is not on the website.

Snatches of stories from various points in the History of the World of Saivryth.

Basically, RGM needs to clear out her head of all the fun things she has created over the many years for this world.  And she needed a place to put it all so that it’s not forgotten.

So let’s start with the BPFS..AKA the Big Pink Fluffy Sign:  Welcome to the world of Saivryth, things get crazy around here.  This can be a very dark messed up world, so enter at your own risk.

RGM