Slay The Ascended: Full Premise

This is a rework, rewording and expansion of my Slay The Ascended! post which, hopefully, better outline the ideas and concepts since that original post was an old draft I one day decided to just overhaul a bit and finish just because it was the mood for the day, not knowing it would become one of my most viewed posts. The original ideas, outlined less formally, can be found in that post and its recommended to read it first.

The Time of Ending

On some fundamental level, Mankind always understood there would come a time where our species would end. It could be a species-wide fear of the inevitability of Death as every civilization out there, every culture, speak of the end of time: be it a permanent end or a great cataclysmic era which will usher in a new era. From the Mayan Calendar to the Book of Revelation to the cycles of the Kalpa to Ragnarok. On some level we always knew it was coming. Or maybe its just species-wide neurosis and fear of death and change or, perhaps, we knew that whatever great unknown would follow would cause is great distress and reveal to use new fears beyond our imagination.

Art by Mario Alberti.

The Ages turned. Around 2030, it just seemed humanity was falling apart: pandemics were in increase even after the somewhat hysterical (at times) response to the 2020 pandemic. The first superbugs arose in the following years and made a Chinese flu look like a complete joke. Entire species of animals and plants died in a mere year or two. Those were the easier times. As the world seemed on the verge of collapse, political and social tensions of all stripes just seemed to unravel at an ever escalating pace, with every continent erupting in either war and/or civil disorder and millions died. More died from the superbugs. The rest? It was merely the start of a new nightmare in a depleted world. The voices started. There were spikes in mental cases which many attributed to the decade of chaos but as time progress, it seemed as if some deeper madness was gripping humanity as mental breakdowns escalated and turned people into monsters: cannibalism, cults and the likes arose in this period which only fueled the chaos.

By 2040, the brief Age of Monsters had begun. Unexplained freak mutations had dramatically increased in the past decade but by the 2040 it had reached a boiling point as nature itself seemed to unravel in ways which past science could not explain. Cancerous growths of unexplained fleshy matter, parasitical worms with mind control and farm animals reverting to an almost primal state, such as chicken growing teeth and a taste for flesh. As mad dreams and visions kept increasing, the humans changed as well, only further driving humanity in a frenzy. Entire new religious branches were born then, only to fuel the fires of war, as entire population began accusing each others of devil worship or similar concepts. Others blamed the government mandate vaccines of the 2030 which had prove ineffective at best or dangerous at worst. It seemed humanity would never catch a break. The wheel of the Ages was turning. There was a new reality boiling on the surface of the world which seemed ever stretched. Night kept growing darker. Madness kept running deeper. Stars burnt out in the sky. Freak or still births peaked to three quarter of all births in a single year. It rained blood. Entire populations shuffled into the wilderness, naked and screaming the names of what could be alien gods. The end of days had come.

The Ascended

No one knows for sure when exactly the first of the Ascended arrived. Perhaps they had always been among us, even if this seems unlikely or, more likely, they are the byproduct of those times of ending when the ages of the world turned. When they appeared it didn't take long for people to take notice and, within days of their appearance, small towns and outpost had fully surrendered to their new master without a single weapon being fired. There was something so fundamentally perfect about the Ascended which, combined with their innate gifts, just made them natural leaders. Some were gurus and philosophers while others presented themselves more akin to warrior-gods who would help their faithful reclaim their lands from raving bands of lunatics or particularly dangerous bandits and traffickers. One by one, the various remaining pockets of human civilization bent the knee to their new masters, the new rulers of mankind and our species direct successors: the Ascended. Their reign had come.

Ascended Culture and their Thralls

Art by Anthony Jones

The Ascended are called that way because they are above and beyond the mere humanity they emerged from. They do not hide that they were once human, because much of their perfection is an improvement upon humanity. Ascended have a language of their own and their own word to describe themselves but this language cannot be spoken by human or even understood by our puny, primitive minds. They communicate in a language with concepts utterly beyond our understanding but beyond that little is truly understood of their emergent culture. Ascended see themselves as above and beyond human failings and the natural leaders of our species from here on out. They have emerged across all human cultures and all creeds and claim to be beyond and above petty distinctions of mankind, even if many speculate they must have their own cliques, philosophies and beliefs but we would not be able to understand them.

An Ascended is the master of any settlement, with the largest settlements on Earth hosting a population of Ascended in a certain hierarchy which vary depending on the local culture. Different Ascended groups, called either pantheons or cabals have different societal organization depending on the ruling Ascended's specific plans for humanity, as they organize mankind and tend to them much like in a way we would tend a garden. Some Ascended have created military-like places, ruled with an iron (but just?) fist, with a meritocratic system rewarding skill and loyalty for the human soldiers as to encourage them to see themselves as mankind's defenders. In other places, they create almost anarchist commune of pot-smoking pseudo hippies which encourage free love while in others they could create religious cults or even hyper traditionalist places with the goal of ensuring a steady breeding of new humans for generations to come. War between different pantheons and their thralls should be seen as non-existent, even if in reality it is more complex.

Those who serve the Ascended are wholly devoted to their new masters. After all, are they not perfect? All Ascended have an innate charisma and magnetism which borders on mind control and they are able to draw strong emotions from entire human populations. This is not pure mind domination, however: very few Ascended (if any) can truly order a human like a full puppet. Rather, they built their devotion through the years by engineering a culture where the Ascended are not only seen as infallible gods but also by ensuring people have a reason to believe it. Ascended-ran settlement are the most prosperous, stable and safe of all the world's remaining human cities. Any mutated monster in the area is slain in glorious combat by the local Ascended, their heads display on pike or their skins turned into coats and capes. The Ascended cultivate an image of heroism and godhood which help reinforce the belief system they have created. Slowly but surely, humanity has slowly changed and simply accepted that they must defer to the superior Ascended, much like how a child defer to their parent because their parent knows more. To be a second class citizen and chattel to the Ascended is a gift and a privilege, for who would not want to be loved by living Gods? Some are driven by love, by faith or even by lust as many Ascended have such a perfected physique and raw animal magnetism that entire crop of humans willingly surrender to become their sexual slaves and perhaps one day hope to help them birth Ascended children.

Ascended Biology

Art by Nyctoinc Illustrations

Each Ascended began its life as a mortal human and was transformed into another Ascended through infusion of genetic material. The process is dangerous and unstable as well as excruciatingly painful as well as utterly destructive to a human sense of self and identity. After days of agonizing with a body riddled with ever creeping cancerous, alien growth the flesh will slowly dissolve and the body will seemingly melt and then harden into a crystalline cocoon, at which point transformation into an Ascended can begin. Nothing of the original body remain unchanged and the individual is changed at a cellular or even molecular level. The trauma and confusion of Ascension leaves the individual original humanity behind no matter what. There are no 'friendly neighborhood Ascended' who secretly retain their old personalities. While they can retain their memory of past lives, most willingly discard them as their newly born body continues to mature.

Ascended appear, at least initially, as physically perfected humans even if this can somewhat vary. They are tall (most start at six feet and a half and can grow to eight feet tall), clean limbed and perfectly symmetrical. Some appear eternally youthful while others have a completely cosmetic age, appearing as well formed and well preserved older individuals: these tend to radiate more a sense of wisdom, kindness, paternal love or intellect. Yet even the 'old' looking Ascended have a supernatural, nay, unnatural beauty and perfect to them. Their skin tone and hair color can vary and can include all human permutations and even colors or traits which do not exist in humans, such as green hair, pure white skin or even blue skin. Their eyes tend to almost shine in the darkness, with some even having flat out glowing eyes. Some are elfin, with a thin and tall wispy beauties while others are brawny, with a perfectly sculpted physique no human could ever hope to match. Different strains of Ascended have different styles or even fashion to their biology, such as those who prefer a more divine or even almost 'demonic' appearance, with horns and fangs or even growing an extra pair of arms. One must keep in mind that the subtle mind warping of Ascended ensure that human thralls are not bothered: indeed, should a particularly popular Ascended decide to reorganize their biology on a whim, expect sycophants to self mutilate to emulate their master or mistress. To some extent, Ascended biology is just as much sculpted and engineered as it is part of their biology, as each represent an idealized form of perfection to their old human selves. Several Ascended are also hermaphrodites or, in some odd cases, utterly lacking in sexual organs if such was the perfect the individual desired.

This, however, is a lie.

Art by Marcus Siergiejew

The idealized human form of an Ascended is not their true form. Their 'godly' form is a coping mechanism of the newly reborn Ascended, as their real form is utterly alien and disgusting. While there is an eldritch, unnatural and alien mindset inside every Ascended they retain enough of their humanity for vanity. Indeed, such vanity is generally enhanced to an absurd degree. The true form of an Ascended is always unique and always alien and disgusting to look upon, with some even lacking a human form at all are nothing but a head and snapping, razor-tipped tentacles or stretched multi limbed bug-forms with ephemeral wings or floating piles of organs held aloft by gaseous excretion. The Ascended never show these forms to their followers and most, if not all, are unaware of them.

Ascended are eldritch monstrosities, with an unnatural physiology. They are by default stronger, faster and smarter than the average human and able to heal extremely quickly without any lasting consequences, even if healing larger wounds require consumption of human biomass. As one would expect given the thematic, the Ascended are vampiric creatures and they sustain themselves off of humans. Actual consumption of flesh and blood is rare, usually every few months and rather they live off the mental energies and devotion of their human thralls. Through a mixture of pheromones and psychic abilities, the Ascended inspire the blind devotion in humans they crave so much and in turn slowly feed the mental energy this generate as human minds are slowly warped and sucked of their sanity. The full abilities of the Ascended are unclear and it is likely even they are not aware of their full potential and limitations.

Despite their clear advantages, however, Ascended are not immortal (even if its likely they do not age). They are still flesh and blood, even if said flesh and blood can sometimes appear to bend the rules of reality a bit. When not surrounded by their entourage of thralls and servants, an Ascended can be cornered and killed with human weapons. Blowing their brains out and then setting the twitching remains on fire usually works, as does hacking or blowing them apart. According to their own propaganda they are true immortals but this is false: around the world, some have already been killed in gruesome manners. They are not Gods. They are creatures of flesh. They can be killed.

The 'Slay the Ascended!' Sandbox

Art by Lina Porras

A 'Slay the Ascended!' campaign is very well suited to a sandbox and a lot of it can overlap with typical fantasy setting sandbox, even if it is set in the near, post apocalyptic future. There are ruins to explore (the lost cities, full of mutations, madness or cults) and there are monsters roaming around, namely the remaining mutations from the Age of Monsters. The key difference, however, is that player characters plays the part of the 'Rogue Humans', which are these human populations which have either not submitted to the Ascended or composed of people who have slowly broken away from the brainwashing and fled their fellow thralls. The key locations in a Slay the Ascended campaign are the various settlements under Ascended control, which own the most resources be it food, water and/or guns. Functionally, this mean players are either going to be functionally bandits and raiders or they will be saboteur, spies and 'fifth columnist' inside the Ascended-ruled settlements.  The more characters attack Ascended stronghold the more they will be hunted. This can be a good chance to take down an Ascended for good, should they be goaded to attack themselves.

One issue they will need to deal with is that most of their enemies are humans too. A life freed from the Ascended is not an easy life nor is it a good life. It requires, more often than not, to kill and steal from fellow humans and to uproot their way of life and ruin their day. The world of 'Slay the Ascended' is a bleak place and doesn't shy away from the realities that a resistance group can be a particularly violent and dangerous group that often cause more harm than good. To oppose the Ascended may be morally right in terms of human freedom but it requires one to actively harm other humans which is a difficult moral choice to make. Rogue humans are seen, by the thralls, much in the same way we see dangerous fringe groups and/or insane preppers who amass guns in their bunkers for the 'coming race war' or similar concept. From the POV of a Thrall civilian, a 'Rogue Human' is a dangerous, narrow minded, bigoted and irrational unbeliever at the best of times and an absolute monster at worst. Even those few in the Thralls who know the Ascended brainwash (and sometimes eat them), the life of a Rogue Human seems dangerous or even destructive: after all, modern society of the 21st century generally required us to accept that sometimes, things are rather imperfect and that we sometimes work for bad people doing morally dubious things. To those folks, serving a flesh-eating alien man-god isn't really much different from their parents who worked for a soulless global mega corporation which exploited uncertain child labor laws in foreign countries while pretending to be virtuous. At the end of the day, its meet the new boss same as the old boss, right?

Who is really in the right here, anyway?

One difference, of course, is that the Ascended are not human. Not anymore. They are creatures of an alien origin, even if they were derived from human stock initially. Many 'Rogue Humans' are individuals afflicted by some odd form of 'madness' which fills them with a revulsion for the Ascended. Perhaps this is akin to a species-wide immune response to a parasite having entered the body of collective humanity. The same alien dreams which drove people mad in 2030 and onward are still there. There is an unspoken fear that the Ascended are but the first step toward...something? Slowly the Ascended are changing humanity society, creating these assemblages of human civilization toward a certain goal they themselves perhaps don't understand. They have only ruled for a few decades, after all. Whose to say their existence is not the mere first step toward a horrific transformation for humanity, as we are turned into food, cattle or who knows what else for alien powers. After all, where did the First Ascended come from? Who created them? And why?

You can feel it gnawing at your brain. The wheel of the ages hasn't finished turning. You know it in your gut: this is just the start. The parasites must be removed from humanity before its too late, before they consume us and make us into something else.

Lands of Mihrne: A History?

A Possible History?

Art by Calvin Chua

As with everything mentioned about Mirhne, all information must be taken with a grain of salt. The people of Mirhne are well known to tell stories among themselves, with travelling artist and priests alike telling many tales. Some are nothing but children fairy tales while others are morality plays whose true meaning have been lost to time and the change in culture, leaving only lurid tales of monsters and gruesome ends. Not only that but each region of Mirhne has its own gods, its own monsters and its own creation myths. Anyone trying to glean truth from these matters is bound to go insane even without a hint of some eldritch abomination in sight.

The Lands of Mirhne has many Gods, but few truly can be said to have name and faces worth remembering. One out of universe reason for this vagueness is not every player has an identical level of desire to invest in fictional beliefs and mythologies: indeed, some players actively avoid it due to being staunch atheists (even if that's a debate for another day one I'd rather have people leave at the fucking door). Trying to understand deeply rooted theme and ideas of culture is ultimately more work than its ever worth. As such, Mirhne's deities are fairly simple to grasp and understand, with the very important caveat that unlike other settings there is little to not proof of their existence and these myths tend to hide a more bloody or alien reality. Any detail in a myth which is true is likely to lead down a path of awful revelations. That said, the Gods of Mirhne are indeed 'real' in so much as belief in them can have real, tangible benefits to human society. Of course, faith offer diminishing return the more one digs into the awful truth. Praying at altars and participating in rituals (of the non eldritch kind) can help restore sanity and offer a buffer against madness and corruption. It still has its limits, of course.

Mirhne's current era is one of rebuilding after decay, war and pestilence. The last centuries have been relatively quiet, beyond the usual wars between petty kingdoms and tribes. While the Lands of Mirhne never had a massively urbanized or advanced civilization (to anyone's knowledge, anyway) there are many large ruin sites (by the standards of the land) which show that stone and wood cities did exist in lands which have been retaken by the wilderness. These are the usual and typical dungeons one expect to find in a sandbox environment but in Mirhne each is also a mystery. Some travelling storytellers speak of a great curse and creeping hubris of the ancient kings and warlords of Mirhne who sought to extend their power, prestige and understanding of the world far beyond the limitations of what is allowed for mere mortal men and were punished for it. Others speak simply of diseases from many generations ago which reduced the population drastically while others tell that these cities are haunted and cursed by the attempts of Priest-Kings to awaken dark powers and claim them for themselves. There are those who believe that some of the subhuman haunting the further lands are descendants of those cursed and broken people.

Ultimately, Mirhne's history is somewhat irrelevant to starting characters. The key elements of a OSR-derived sandbox and implied setting are there, minus demi-human and overt magic of classes like the Cleric and Magic-User. It is a somewhat more down to Earth take on these simple, tried and true concepts and expectations with the only difference being a stronger bent toward Swords & Sorcery and pulp elements

• The various creation myths and folklore of different regions of Mirhne form a backdrop to the game and make for easy, if mysterious, plot hooks in their own right. Trying to find out the truth about a legend can lead to some true insight (or madness and death).
• Playing a 'priest' is possible, but one need to understand these aren't D&D Clerics and don't come with spells. Rather, Priests are generally Experts who are gifted in esoteric matters as taught by their mentors, such as herbology, medicine or writing.
• Praying at a temple can help restore a character's sanity and/or even remove minor corruption (that aren't mutations) as the calm and centered mind can regain a small measure of control. This is less efficient the more corrupt an individual is.

Mirhne as a Kelipah

One very likely explanation for the nature of Mirhne is that it is some form of Kelipot as described in Silent Legion, a Sine Nomine game about eldritch horror and investigation from which Lands of Mirhne take its Sanity and magic system. Under this logic, Mirhne is an inherently unnatural place albeit one whose eldritch nature is quite subtle and not readily apparent. As a particularly stable and static Kelipah, Mirhne operates mostly under what we would recognize as natural laws and its people are biologically human or close enough. Even as a Static Kelipot there would be dark forces at work on Mirhne which fundamentally changes reality on a subtle level which may not be readily apparent. If Mirhne is indeed a Kelipah then it is one which may not have been visited by the 'real world' for eons.

More Monsters(?) of Mihrne

The Lands of Mihrne have many creatures lurking in it: some mere beasts, some perhaps anomalies of nature but wholly of this material world. And some, maybe, which might be in fact unnatural creatures existing beyond the natural laws of the world. This time I've added more concise bullet points on possible setting explanation and how it could be used.

Giants

Art by Christoper Bernades.

There are many stories told across the land about giants. Some say they are an ancient race predating mankind while others state they are the offspring of Men and Gods, towering demigods who bodies are the pillar which link earthly matter and heavenly, divine essence. Giants are known to have existed for an absolute fact since, in ancient times up until the current age people have found the skeletons of giants. These skeletons vary widely in size and shape but are generally humanoid, ranging from the size of a tall man to gigantic skulls the size of two grown men standing on each others. In the older days these were crushed and used in magical reagents or incorporated into weapons and armors. Some learned individuals have speculate that, perhaps, these were not all the skeleton of giant demi-gods as some displayed traits associated with the men-like monsters known as 'apes'. Alas, these days there are few skeleton left and none are intact and giants have mostly faded to myths.

Until fairly recently.

The past few decades have seen a slow mounting of evidence of the re-emergence of giantkind in the wilderness. Hunters frequently find giant paths carved in the woodlands as something immense crash through the wounds. There are remains of dead elks and bears, in pieces, showing massive bite marks not unlike the teeth shape of humans. There are and always have been rumours and stories of men of great stature, some large and powerful while others are crippled: a disease of the flesh called, of course, 'gigantism' which even in the men of Mihrne understand to be a condition of the blood. Some claim that, in wilder lands, more children are born with this growth sickness. Some believe children conceived around mountains and other places where giant bones are buried imbues children with a portion of Giantsblood. Others still believe the Giants emerging across the land are the same creatures as those of old, having slept through the eons and awakened in modern Mirhne. Of course, perhaps it is most likely that the creatures we call 'giants' are not a unified whole and might be creatures of disparate and unique origin.

• 'Giants' could very well be a form of alternate hominid, like the Gigantopithecus or the cryptid Sasquatch and Bigfoot which could be very real in Mirhne. The cavemen of Mirhne could be akin to a missing link of sort.
• Giants could be indeed akin to the Nephilim found in Ezekiel. They would be the offspring of the mating between human and the Gods. Of course, the true nature of these 'Gods' would be far more Lovecraftian than some simple Ancient Aliens story. The Giants could be Mirhne's equivalent to the spawns of Shub-Niggurath.
• 'Giants' are simply another mutation or corruption of humans run amock, this time distending the human form and expanding it with uncontrollable bone growth. In that case, such monstrous transformation could be easily coaxed to further advance and mutate through exposure to some corruption and/or through special means.
• Some giants may not even be large humanoids at all, but rather some eldritch monstrosity which lurks in the deep wood and the mountain peaks. What form it takes might be difficult to ascertain for sure.
• In any case, the bones of Giants is a 'magical material' in Mirhne, akin to what Mithril or Adamantium is in many settings. It is rare and stronger than bronze and is a substantial upgrade.

The Sorcerers

From Legend of Zelda

Mirhne both has a lot of magic and yet no true magic to speak of, unless one wish to delve into the darker powers of this world and brave the eldritch corruption. That said there are many things in Mirhne which blur the boundary between what we 21st century humans call science and what the people of Mirhne call 'magic': medical knowledge, chemical production and metalworking being a good example of what does work alongside more questionable practices such as trepanation, palm reading, astrology and so on. Openly magical effects as we recognize them in tabletop RPG are virtually unknown: there are no fireballs or healing spells. Even the darkest, blackest magic powered by eldritch knowledge and human sacrifice isn't so straightforward.

Except, maybe, for the Sorcerers. If the legends are true, anyway.

The Sorcerers are each unique individuals and they been woven through the history and myth of Mirhne. They are immortal and in the shape of men and women but beyond that who or what they are is unclear. They are said to possess unique powers, can speak all languages, curse the land, summon dead gods and travel all corners of the earth even beyond Mirhne. Sometimes the stories say they were the chosen servants of the Gods of old while others claim they are the last survivors of an older race of men, one closer to the powers of the gods. Others make them out to be evil and jealous individuals who have taken into themselves dark powers which no mortal should ever bear inside their flesh and soul. Some say they are all as old of Mirhne itself and were there when the land was young while others claim they are evil, foreign people with foreign magic and foreign gods to be feared and reviled by 'all good folks' (as the people of Mirhne often fear strangers from faraway lands). Their exact nature is unclear but so are their numbers, with an estimate around nine and twelve, assuming some names which pop up in myths are alternate names or conflation of different sorcerers.

• Sorcerers, if they exist, are unique high HD npc/monsters woven deep into the history of Mirhne. They are less like the Wizards of modern D&D and more akin to figures such as Merlin, Medea, Circe or Gandalf, but adapted to the more sword & sorcery-meet-Lovecraft tone. What powers they have beyond seemingly immortal in some shape or form is ultimately unknown until it pops up.
• Sorcerers could be indeed the rarest breed of humans: people who have indeed understood some fundamental knowledge about the world and how to warp it. Or they could very well be former slaves of ancient Gods who have broke free.
• Alternatively, the Sorcerers aren't innately magical. Rather they are the last remaining members of some older and more advanced civilization whose 'magic' they guard and keep to themselves for reasons only known to them.
• The Sorcerers aren't native to Mirhne and come from an alternate reality where the fundamental rules are different. Their magic is unique to how their biology function, yet they are also weakened by Mirhne. Alternatively they are aliens in the extra terrestrial sense.
• The Sorcerers aren't remotely human and are basically like the Istari of Middle Earth, only they are not 'angels' but rather servants of some ancient cosmic power from the darkness beyond. They are the rare eldritch threat which is fully able to think and act like a human, having faked it for so long.

Lands of Mihrne: Character Creation

Art by Andreas Rocha

Some quick and simple rules for how characters would be made for a Lands of Mihrne game.

• The campaign make use of the upcoming (currently available in its beta form) Worlds Without Numbers from Sine Nomine. The game's core mechanics, base classes, backgrounds and skills are well suited to be used as a base for a Mihrne campaign. The 'Magic' skill is not available at character creation and represent knowledge of the normally unknowable.
• The only classes available are Warriors and Experts (or Adventurers which are a mix of the two). By itself, Mihrne has no 'magic' in the traditional D&D style. Obviously, the only choice of race is human.
• Possible, the following Foci from the Codex of the Black Sun from Stars Without Numbers could be allowed to represent the very peak of mortal abilities without fully surrendering to corrupting, eldritch powers: Soul Shield and Witch Finder.
• The campaign make use of the Silent Legions Madness mechanic, albeit with reduced or non-existent Madness gain from ordinary violence for characters of the Warrior class, as they are expected to be hardened to ordinary violence. Suitably gruesome butchery might still affect them, as does any serious violence involving a truly unnatural creature.
• Spells are learned as they are in Silent Legions. There are many practices on Mihrne which are considered 'magic' by itself people but isn't: herbology, crude and early chemistry, signs reading, shamanic rituals and even more advanced forms of metallurgy. However, capital M 'Magic' is exceedingly rare and learning it exact a toll on the mind and soul. Such powers are unlikely to be made easily available.

Monsters(?) of Mihrne

A key concept I wish to use in the Lands of Mirhne game pitch is the idea of uncertainty about what is and isn't supernatural. The people inhabiting the lands are a simple folk, living off the land and fighting with swords and spears. Written language is extremely primitive and most people don't know how to write and read. As a result, concepts which we modern humans would understand in scientific terms are completely unknown to these people. At the same time, however, there are eldritch and unearthly forces at work in Mirhne. The question then become: what is truly supernatural and what isn't? Is there even a clear line?

Keep in mind Mirhne is intended to be fiction and deliberately plays into eldritch horror concepts through the lenses of a pre-modern society.

The Others/The Wild Folks/The Cavemen

Frank Frazetta's iconic cavemen-morlock
thingies.

This is an unpleasant subject, but Mirhne is an unpleasant and grim setting. The mandatory savage humanoids of Mirhne are not orcs or goblins, but simple other humans. The thing is, are they really human in the same way the men and women of Mirhne are? In the northernmost lands and other wild places inimical to human life and too wild to tame yet are tribes of people that are cruder than even the poorest of the people of Mirhne. They live in ghost-haunted swamps, deep forests, the mountain peaks and other places. Many of them live in caves. They hunt and kill each others as well as the ordinary folks. They are shaggy, hunched and ugly. Many of them file what teeth they have left to a point. They are monsters and boogeymen and many wonder if they aren't demons clad in the flesh of Man.  Unlike the classic orc and goblins, however, encounter with these beings is extremely rare as they do not assemble in large hordes but rather have small, organized hunting bands or a raiding party consisting of one or two maladjusted lunatics.

The Wild Folks are the silly subhuman cavemen of Sword & Sorcery...except they also aren't. They are the uncomfortable outdated archetype of the caveman and the primitive people. They often have thick brows, they speak in grunting noises and are overly violent. They look like a Frank Frazetta painting of a caveman, more or less. So what are they? Are they a particularly scientifically plausible take on orcs and goblins, some sort of leftover 'caveman' race? Maybe. At the same time, the rare folks who have been killed in civilized lands and weren't promptly burnt or thrown in a river showed signs which even the uneducated men of Mirhne would recognize as sickness. Living in these foul lands, full of fungus and bog parasites may have infected these otherwise benign human relatives and driven these attacking individuals away from their tribe and into cannibalistic madness. It could be that there is a scientific and medical reason for why they are the way they are. Or it could be that something foul and unearthly has corrupted and degraded these beings. Which answer is true? I don't know.

Beasts of Mirhne

On Mirhne there are beasts and then there are Beasts. While common animals are dangerous enough, Mirhne is haunted by creatures of a somewhat unnatural bent. While there are many tall tales, rumors and folklore of particularly large animal (and some of it is used to tell children to never go alone in the woods), every few generation emerge particularly terrifying specimens from the wild. Much of Mirhne remain unexplored and once in a while, some new animal will come out of the woods and terrify the locals. And then there are the Beasts.

Art by Sarah Hartman

There is a phenomena in Mirhne, where animals are said to never truly die and with advanced age comes a malign form of sentience and a thirst for man-flesh. Unnaturally large and ugly, sometimes misshapen beasts emerge from the wilderness, displaying a remarkable level of size, strength, cunning and resilience. Large, black wolves with distended jaws larger than horses. Ugly misshapen hairless bears and strangely intelligent spider or ant colonies are part of the bestiary of Mirhne. Some of these creatures might simply be naturally large specimen. It might be that animals do grow larger and more intelligent in Mirhne but this does not explain the rest. Too many of Mirhne's beasts display a cunning that no normal animal should. These large, sickly beast (and many do carry sickness with them) are driven by a hatred or hunger that goes beyond what any normal animal would display. To the people of Mirhne however, it is simply an accepted fact that as beasts grow old and wise they realize that Men are not their friend and they grow into evil spirits that hunger for men's flesh, if not their souls.

• Black wolves and dogs tend to grow large, with shaggy fur that is tangled and oily. They often display large and jagged, asymmetrical teeth and their eyes have a certain reflective quality to it which simulate a 'glow'.
• Bears, elks, moose and other beasts often display a sickness akin to mange, followed by unnatural growth. Their skin thicken with scabs and scars. As long-lived beasts are survivors, most of them are indeed scarred from the snout to their rear.
• The Spiders of Mihrne are particularly infamous for their size. These range from the size of a house cat to that of a bear and it is said that spiders never stop growing or even grow larger and smarter with every soul consumed. The Spiders of Mihrne are the most intelligent of the Beasts and can even mimic human voices some say. The crabs of the coast display similar behavior but are known for their greed and guarding treasures.
• The rare Crows of Ill Omen are Crow Beasts the size of a cattle or so the stories claim. They too can mimic voices and some believe they can see the future or posses similar powers of sorcery.

The Touched

Art by Jose Garay.

Some say that all things can grow old, wild and evil. There are also some who claim that even men and women can become monsters, creatures of the night and wild. A lot of it is common folk superstition which vary from region to region: born with red hair, born on a moonless night, born out of wedlock on the seventh day of the week. Most of it is just that, superstition. Yet some people are sometimes born 'wrong' or develop a certain streak to their character which is unnatural and grows beyond mere mental illness, trauma or anti-social behavior. Stories speak of ogres, men and women who developed a taste for the flesh of children, Of strange wooden hermits whose bodies have become covered in shaggy hair and who can turn into bears and badgers. Others say that spiteful and vengeful men can feed off hatred and extend their lives until their flesh start to rot and yet the keep on living.

A detail all these stories have in common is that of retreat from society and a 'calling'. Considering many are exiled from their home for disgusting and socially inappropriate behavior they are often chased into the wilderness, where most hope they will be eaten by wild animals. The stories tell of another fate, however. The in the blackened hearts of human monsters they find themselves called to the deep and dark places of the world and that they are reborn as monsters. How much, if any of this is true is up for debate but, maybe (just maybe!) there might be evil powers out there in the world who worm their way into the heart of the insane, the monstrous, the exiled and those who are simply unlucky in life. Maybe there are dark forces at work, perverting the flesh and mind.

• Old Crones and Mad Hermits can be found in Mirhne, living away from civilization. They are ugly and bent, even by the standards of old folks but they possess near-supernatural insight. As their bodies wither and their sanity degrade their mind seemingly grow sharper in different ways. Many have been living at the edges of civilization for generations and they have lived long enough for grandparents to remember stories about them arriving. Somehow, these individuals have exceeded the ordinary human life span. (Interesting connection with how many versions of D&D and related systems increase the mental stats of people as they age, which make no sense as generally people lose cognitive abilities with age...) Or it could be lies, with some being nothing but stories and folk tales.
• There are tale of Bog Hags and Swamp Trolls in the lands of Mihrne. Some of the more scholarly mind of Mirhne (of which there are few, alas) believe that these are the people which were exiled from society, as it is commonly where many are sent. However this does not explain the stories of tall, lanky figures with slimy skin and wet hair. Some people believe that these people become evil spirit, living or dead, who haunt the swamps. The curse for exile is monsterhood and bogs are places where civilization rarely thrive. So there is a connection there.
• Folklore speak of a sea witch which collect abandoned infants left on boats, as many sickly and deformed children often are sent away in Mihrne. They say that under the ocean is another world, a reflection of ours, where the abandoned and the outcast are adopted by the sea witch. Some say she a goddess, others says she's simply the first woman who drowned. Stories say that one should mistrust sailors one doesn't know, because they might be hiding a flipper or a crab claw under their clothing. Or, perhaps, a fish eye under their eye patch.
• Some people are twisted not in body but in their soul. Madness is one thing, but some people are truly touched and are twisted in a way which ordinary madness cannot explain. There are stories of this madness spreading across Mirhne, affecting anything from wounded soldiers to ordinary farmers to children. While at first it will manifest as another form of mania or madness, the sickness will evolve and develop until their entire personalities are lost. These people speak in gibberish or unknown tongues or claim to be something else. They have inexplicable knowledge, such as the story of a villager who went mad and was sequestered in a well for weeks. Despite being down there, he knew of things he should not be able to know, such the name of a newborn child whose parents had not announced to the village. It appears that those twisted in the mind and soul develop extra sensorial perception.

Urban Fantasy: Bogeymen Revised

Before I started working on the Urban Fantasy setting, I wrote about one of its monster categories (if such a thing even truly exist), entities born of human primal fear, the dark and alienation. These creatures are known as Bogeymen.

Nature And (Lack Of) Origin

The Creeper, from Jeepers Creepers.

Bogeymen are wholly corporeal creatures, at least when alive and active. While they embody certain things and concepts they are not Spirits. A bogeyman can be touched, its pulse will be felt (if it has a heart, anyway), its skin will have sweat and it will bleed when cut. As long as the creature remain alive, it is mortal flesh and blood although often of a particularly hard to kill variety, as these creatures sometime display a baffling anatomy and an uncanny ability to resist mortal wounds. In form, they are humanoid but all similarities with human end there: these creatures never look human up close, indeed they are horrific mockeries of humanity at the best of times. Their skin may be pale and waxy or it could be a horrid mass of scabs and scars erupting in bony spikes. It may have scaly skin, four eyes, a jaw that can open like a snake or even bugs living in its flesh. Even the most human-like of these creatures would look like someone who has been disfigured beyond what one would think is possible. Unlike Witch-Breed they never have the ability to appear human, relying on dark lighting and bulky clothes to hide briefly among ordinary people.

Where they come from is a mystery. No one has ever observed them raising their own children nor displaying any kind of familial link, safe perhaps for the myth of Grendel (who was definitely a Bogeyman in many aspect of its behavior) and the appearance of his mother. They are not transformed from ordinary people, as those are Witch-Breeds. Bogeymen simply come into existence over a period of time until they just exist and take their first life at which point the monster is indeed a fully realized entity. Some speculate they are a form of transformed Spirit of Fear and Darkness somehow given flesh but there are several holes in this theory. Beyond their connection with primal fears no one know where they come from or how they come to be. They just are. They are monsters lurking in the shadow, trolls under the bridge and manic monsters too bizarre to be considered a true Slasher. To make a comparison from movies: the Creeper is a Bogeyman and Jason Vorhees is a Slasher. One is a mostly inexplicable monster, some demon-like entity while the other is a supernaturally tough killer-later-turned-undead.

Abilities

The abilities of Bogeymen are quite varied, given that each is a mostly unique monster. These are not particularly impressive or potent supernatural abilities most of the time but simply quirks of their implausible biology manifesting as minor gifts such as being able to resist a specific type of damage (from a tough hide or spongy flesh), wall-crawling or stretching their limbs and/or jaws. As a whole, however, Bogeymen do display a few commonalities:

'It' is too powerful to be a Bogeyman but its motives
and the way it mess with people are spot on for their nature.

• Bogeymen are Hard to Detect. At the very least they are hard to take recordings of, as their innate nature will corrupt the recording, ranging from distorting the image to a mere smudge to rending a video completely corrupted and unreadable. More potent Bogeymen can extend this ability to a greater degree, such as causing all lights in their vicinity to crackle or even go out at will. In ancient time, this snuffed all candles and fire but in modern times it turn off lights. Finally their corpses tend to disappear and/or crumble to dust in some fashion. The most human-like may very well leave a corpse behind but to medical examination it would simply appear to be a horrifically deformed human, all supernatural properties having left the body upon termination.
• Some Bogeymen rely on minor and passive mind-influencing powers in addition to the basic abilities. These creatures could, for example, put out a minor aura of confusion and/or forgetfulness which only affect adults for example, prompting a Saving Throw to remember seeing the creature and not just a vague, blurred shadow.
• Finally all Bogeymen can see in the perfect darkness. Those who can't usually have other ways of detecting their prey, such as advance echolocation or scent.

These basic abilities, while rather minor and of no use in a direct fight if cornered by some supernatural investigators of some sort, exist to aid the creature's nature as a nocturnal predator. Many Bogeymen prey on children (possibly because children are easily afraid of the dark and the unknown), for example and these minor abilities are enough for it to devour a few kids here and there. No one will ever believe these children who DO see the creature due to the aforementioned mind influencing powers.

Previously in this post, the Bogeymen were described as mostly identical stat-wise to the Slashers. Because the Urban Fantasy game tend to involve more potent characters with a better chance of fighting back, the Bogeymen is instead re imagined as 3-5 HD monster with above average attack bonus and damage. The Slasher's immunity to non-magical attacks is missing but it might exist in more powerful Bogeymen. Potential new abilities include:

• Licking the blood of a victim gives the Bogeyman the ability to instantly sense the victim's presence within 30m even through walls.
• Either through eldritch geometries or the disgusting ability to break and reshape its bones the Bogeyman can take 1d4 rounds to squeeze through any hole no bigger than a human fist. It can also seemingly hide in similar spaces or larger even if it would not fit normally. Yes, this include hiding a seven feet tall monster under a child's bed.
• As long as the Bogeyman remain in areas of even partial darkness, its AC become 17. Blows either miss or seemingly glance off the obscure form of the monster as if having its horrid form hidden by the darkness made it harder to wound.
• Much like its relative the Slasher, Bogeymen are known to fake death. When taking damage the creature can pretend to drop dead from the wound as it extend its mind-clogging powers as a defense mechanism. Anyone that see the Bogeyman fall must make a Saving Throw or be compelled to think its 'dead for good, now'. They will be compelled to move on, tend their wounds, maybe turn around or talk to each others as if all tension is deflated. The creature will then either spring back to attack then or wait for them to leave its body unattended at which point it will scuttle off and prepare for a new offensive.Note that this 'off screen body disappearance' is akin to a teleportation effect and works even inside of a room so long as it has more than a single exit.
• Some Revenant abilities associated with Slashers also work, such as Sense Victim or Pursuit. The ability Long Tongue can also be given to Bogeymen.
• Like some Demons they can sometimes also Sense Sin, even if its limited to weird things like misbehaving children or horny teenagers.

Bogeymen occupy a conceptual zone which overlap with ogre-like monsters, demons and slashers but they are neither. They are monsters born of fear and nightmares which are made flesh. They are not tied to specific mythologies nor are they truly powerful creatures which can be a threat on a massive scale. They are a simple yet potent archetype of the monster in the dark.

Urban Fantasy: The Witch-Breeds

There's a lot of critters out there that don't really fit any categories. Attempting to categorize everything is a fruitless endeavor. However, this is Halloween so we'll have to talk about witches. But not the 'neo pagan fruitcakes' or the 'hot goth chick' style of witch. No, these are weirdos at worst and mortal spellcasters at best. Depraved or evil as some may be they retain their humanity.

Some spellcasters don't. And some become monsters long before they even learn the simplest trick.

The Witch-Breeds

There are many promises in magic: power and immortality tend to come up a whole lot due to basic human fear and needs. Supernatural powers, when acquired by mortals, always come at a price and some are more terrible than others. In certain era, where knowledge was rare and limited (or restrained), the more researched forms of magic remained beyond the reach of most individuals. In modern times, the same primordial urges and darkness remain and sometimes, even when readily available, the 'slow path' to power can be seen as not being enough. There is always greater sacrifice to be made. There is always more to offer to dark and chtonic powers if it mean more secrets revealed in less time. And then there are others who simply never know of another path, whose own wickedness and ambitions damn them so quickly they never find out about other means and paths to power.

These are the creatures which myths and folklore have recorded as Roogaroo, Obayifo, Soucouyant, Pricolici, Strega and Tlalicque. They are the witches and ogres which eat children.

Art by Larry Wilson.

Witch-Breed is a loose term to refer to a magical being which are similar in nature to Bogeymen, albeit one of human origin. They straddle the line between mortal, bogeyman, cryptid, demon and more but are none of these. Some vague power or cursed tied to primordial and terrifying things of the dark have imbued and transformed them into the evil witches of folklore, the type who look like hags with green skin covered in warts and eat children. They are monsters born of the meeting point between wickedness and the knowledge/desire for supernatural powers. They are evil and cursed beings, stunted in true arcane might but swollen with minor and dreadful abilities which make them the bane of ordinary folks. Like bogeymen they live in the shadows and are elusive even to modern technology.

In modern society, one would think that such beings have no place. This is untrue, in fact they have never flourished more! We live in an era where parents are deathly afraid of letting their children interact with strangers. We are hyper connected yet increasingly alienated from others. We love to paint ourselves as open-minded people, tolerant of what is different yet...how many of us have recoiled when they met an ugly old man or woman clearly suffering from some mental illness, muttering to themselves and reeking of alcohol? Or perhaps we've been scared of an unusually tall and broad man, with a misshapen face and scraggly beard, thinking he might be some violent brute. 

In most cases there are people like any other and we let out prejudice get in the way. But at the corner of our vision or in the shadows lurk creatures feeding off our mundane fear and spite. Many of them are hidden behind veils and illusions and we never know we've met them. Their magic is weak and flawed but its enough to foil people long enough to trick them. That they often resemble the dregs of our society, the mentally ill, the ugly, the outcasts and the poor is a useful trick for them. Many poor innocents have been framed as the killer when in reality, Jack the Hobo was the only one who saw that little girl being taken by the old lady with the monstrous shadow of a horned giant with the barbed tongue. He tried to help but it was too late. The old hag snatched the child and went down the sewers, leaving poor old man Jack with a bloody arm. There was no other evidence and he was condemned to death for the murder of that little girl. Such tragedies repeat themselves time and time again...

Modern Wicked Witches and Ogres

This is the archetype the Witch Breeds embodies. They are the wicked, warty children-eating witches and villainous kidnapping ogres of the modern era. Their origin, however, hints at the potential flaws in one's quest for arcane power, as Witch Breeds are either failed magicians who were weak and, in their craving for power, sacrifice too much for too little or they are those who never even considered the greater cosmic power (or weren't even aware of it!) and went straight to the part where their humanity is sacrificed. Some people are wicked and jealous and sometimes they might even attract equally vile patrons who care not that the bargain is inherently flawed and destructive.

Common Witch-Breed Abilities

Beyond their connection to the dark corners of the world and the human mind, as well as magic, few of these creatures share much in common. Their abilities are a wide and disparate lot and their unpredictability make up for their otherwise lack in truly powerful magic. These are not monsters which fight openly, preferring trickery and corruption most of the time.

Flawed Glamour

Most, if not all Witch-Breed end up twisted from a mixture of their inner darkness, the evil source of their powers or simply age. These creatures very commonly age more quickly yet also live longer than any human should and the more they age the worst they get as their bodies both break down yet also warp and twist. Skin become unnatural colors, nails grow thick and dirty, teeth lengthen while others rot and fall off. Eyes become swollen and bloody or clouded by cataracts yet somehow still see in pitch darkness. For others it is a subtle wrongness such as a creepy glare, a monstrous shadow or a foul smell. Their twisted from can be clouded with a simple Glamour at will but there is always a flaw to it.

D6	Flawed Glamour
1	The Witch-Breed’s human appearance is purely an illusion rather than a mixture of biological transformation and supernatural illusion and as such will appear distorted or even in their true form when viewed through other means (such as a mirror, a camera or cell phone). Note that, when it comes to recording devices they might still be able to have powers which negate/corrupt the recording, in which case it will only appear in its true form through ‘live’ footage from the device itself.
2	The creature’s true form can be exposed if it is touched by a specific category of people, such as men, women or children. Alternatively, this category could be ‘a legally recognized holy man/woman’ such a priest, a nun or a rabbi for example.  If touched by such an individual the Witch-Breed must immediately make a saving throw or temporarily (or until the end of the scene, depending on the creature) lose its disguise. Even if the effect is temporary, lasting a mere few seconds, it is enough to reveal it to be a hideous monster.
3	Specific materials or objects repel the creature and weaken its disguised. If touched by a specific material, such as salt, silver or iron, for example, the creature must immediately make a saving throw or recoil in pain/fear and temporarily lose its disguise. Even if the effect is temporary, lasting a mere few seconds, it is enough to reveal it to be a hideous monster.
4	The creature’s disguise is flawless...against human. Animals, on the other hand, always sense that something is wrong and will become agitated. Particularly large animals, such as a large dog, will become enraged and even vicious an attack the creature.
5	The disguise is seemingly flawless, safe for a telltale sign which is blatantly unnatural, such as causing milk to curdle in its presence or for its shadow to be that of its monstrous true form. Those who know what signs to look for can identity the creature for what it truly is.
6	The creature’s disguise cannot be used once the sun has set and it will always revert to its true form under the cover of the night. In some cases, such creatures might even be unaware of their monstrous form and live a double life.

Lesser Witchery

Providing an exact and complete list of powers such creatures can have is pointless. However, generally speaking the powers of Witch-Breed are weaker than high level spells and generally quite specific and situational. Most of them also Commit Effort for the day rather than scene.

• Animal Form: The Witch-Breed Commit Effort for the day and assume the form of an animal. Generally it is very likely this form is limited to a single creature type and requires some ritual/has some very specific drawback to assume this form or to revert from it.
• Lure Child: The Witch Breed Commit Effort for the day, select a child it has some view of and spend a minute enacting a ritual. At the end of the ritual the child is put into a daze and is compelled to trust the Witch-Breed. This power obviously can be modified to fit another category of people.
• Open The Path: The Witch-Breed Commit Effort for the day, selects a building and takes a full minute to enact whatever ritual she need. After the full minute of casting is complete, it can now walk through the walls of said building until the next sunrise.

Most Witch-Breeds are fairly average monsters in the 2 to 6 HD range, albeit with potentially an higher-than-their-HD's-average amount of Effort to fuel their abilities. Some of them are able to cast spells up to the 2nd level and usually know a number of spell equal to half their HD.

Urban Fantasy: On Vampires, Part 3

If one know the Vampire, they can kill the Vampire. This isn't exactly easily done but it can and has been done before.

Fighting Vampires

Soul Reaver's Melchiah by Jakub Bazyluk

Generally speaking, Vampires tend to shun open battles. This come as a direct contradiction, since they have been established to be monstrously powerful by themselves but this ties into their mentality. Vampires grow weary with age and they tend to draw a line between a 'hunt' and a 'battle'. A vampire will hunt alone, relying on stealth and manipulation until it can get close to its victim and consume it. On the other hand, an open and direct battle can be bad news for a vampire especially if it is faced with foes that might actually be able to harm it. Most vampires are just plain bastards and would simply rather use their minions to dispose of their enemies, only fighting when they have the upper hand. There is also the fact minions might not share the vampire's weaknesses.

A bloodthirsty or battle-hungry vampire is a monster to face, however. It revel in its raw physical power and will exert its immense strength to brutalize foes, ripping them apart with their bare hands or swallowing smaller foes whole. Others have had centuries to learn hand to hand combat and can unleash strikes which would shatter bones. All Vampires have the following abilities:

• Hardy Nemesis: A Nemesis Vampire has +3 HP by default and receive +1 additional HP every 3 other HD.
• Blood Drain: Any time a Vampire damage a living being in melee (be it with natural weapons or an held weapon) they regain 1 HP.
• Weakened by Sunlight: The light of the sun (and in some cases, a magical equivalent) is the bane of Vampires. Each round of exposure they must make a Saving Throw or become weakened. In this state. they lose half their AC, attack bonus and movement speed. In addition they cannot regain HP in any form. Once weakened in such a fashion they must spend 6 hours in darkness to fully regain their full power.
• Weak to Fire: Vampires always suffer at least 1 point of damage against fire and heat.
• Store Effort: Vampires can exceed their base Effort through the draining of living beings, storing excess energy. Consuming their HD worth of life force grant +1 Effort. Sucking someone and not killing them count as half their HD value.

Name	HD	HP	AC	Atk	Dmg	Move	ML	Ski.	Svs	Effort
Vampire	5	19	16	+5 x2	1d12	20m	9	+2	13+	5 (Base)
Master Vampire	7	32	18	+7 x2	1d12	20m	8	+3	12+	7 (Base)

Each Vampire should be treated as a unique NPC, a major antagonist (or even ally, in some odd cases!) with a name and fully fleshed out personality. Each is a unique monster which has spent centuries refining their powers, developing unique and terrifying techniques which manipulate the stolen life energies of living beings.

Vampiric Abilities

These are but a sample of the dark powers available to True Vampires:

• Rebuke The Light (Constant): As long as the Vampire isn't in combat, it doesn't need to make Saving Throws for sunlight expose. As soon as it begin to exert itself, it must immediately make a Saving Throw or become weakened.
• True Regeneration (On Turn): The Vampire sacrifice 1 Effort and regain 2d12 HP. Should the Vampire use its own 'base' Effort for this ability, it become Weakened.
• Blood Servant (On Turn): The Vampire Commit Effort, creating a 4 HD worth of servants as long as it remain committed. These can be split into any number of servants. These creatures aren't truly alive and mindlessly loyal to the Vampire.
• Charming Gaze (Constant): The Vampire has mild hypnotic abilities. Anyone it interact with (who isn't a Worthy Foe) is immediately friendly with the Vampire. In addition, the Vampire can sacrifice 1 Effort to force someone to take a single, one sentence command. Worthy Foes get a Saving Throw and cannot be affected by this ability more than once per 24 hours.