RPG update: The Witch-hunters
Season 1: Burn the Witch
RPG 6-10 sessions, 2024 (TBD)
I’m sharing the player information publicly here, and will hopefully go back and do the same for some of our previous fictive RPG projects. Setting documents like this may become a new section of the site, when there’s substantial enough material to put it live.
This will be a campaign based in the Fallen Cycle setting of Alterran, during the reign of one of Chernaya’s most notorious kings. The technology of this period is on par with the 16th-17th century, however in many other ways it is more akin to our world several centuries earlier. The Kingdom of Chernaya is about the size of Ukraine, and half the size of the continent.
If I’ve done my part, you only need to read this short document to have all the setting material you need to start brainstorming your character. However, there is considerably more lore in Tales From When I Had A Face (Gran’s journey through Alterran is several generations later than this campaign will be), and the alpha Fallen Cycle playtest RPG v1.1
Themes and Inspiration:
Late Dark Ages (900s) mashed up with the early Colonial era (1500s). Dark fantasy, Paranoid neo-noir, period spy thriller, rebels, monsters hunting monsters, Slavic and Nordic folklore, Yokai, Kaidan and Samurai stories
Media:
The Black Death (Movie), Shadow and Bone, The Witch, The Witcher, Turn, Princess Mononuke, The Headhunter, Tales From When I Had A Face
You may recognize some of the names Alterran from other fictional sources. The conceit is that as a version of the world of dreams, fragments of fiction from our world have somewhat haphazardly been sewn through their own cultural bedrock. In the process the original meaning is long lost, if it was indeed ever recalled.
Systems:
We'll use the Chronicles of Darkness rules as a basis for this one, with a few small modifications, particularly in the magic system. Most characters will likely be humans, although some may be part Feyn. Magic will be handled through a simplified versions of CoD Systems like Mage and Vampire, with only 4 Traditions: Oyun, Dreamwalker, Hedge, and Apostate.
Oyun
Oyun work Feyn magic, either stolen or through a compact similar to a “Warlock Patron” in D&D 5e. They can channel the abilities of the Feyn, to speak and entreat with the spirits of the dead, to see in the dark or move with blinding speed, even to turn into animal forms or into mist. Oyun are quite powerful, as they channel the full force of Feyn magic directly with their bodies. They also pay a high price. Those who have a Pact must “feed” their patron, and many of those who try to wield stolen Feyn magic themselves are restricted to their most base form of sustenance: human blood. (Vampire)
Although this is beyond the ken of most PCs, the Witch-hunters themselves wield a form of Oyun magic, are derivation of that which was taught the first king, Aryn.
Dreamwalker
Alterran is a dream-world that has been “hardened” by generations of permanent human residents. This is of particular benefit to Dreamwalkers, as they benefit from the fact that Alterran is a chunk of the dream world made solid. Put simply, the dreams of mortals who dwell here permanently are far more potent than those in the material Cosmos. It is however the rare few who are cursed or blessed with an aptitude to produce anything beyond the most basic effects. (Mage)
Hedge
Hedge Magic in Alterran is essentially a primal nature based ability to weave the Second World. This comes in many outer forms, from mad scientist and alchemist to the tribal traditions of the Oblidan and Waylan that haven’t been stamped out. The powers are the same, working on the substrate of already existing objects. Many although not all of them have a single focus or method of working, such as through potions.
Apostate
Although some may find tutelage from others like them (likely self-taught themselves), Apostates operate without a unifying tradition. They are aberrations, mutants, or so the stories go. Whether rightly or wrongly, they are probably the most feared, as the most powerful of them can affect the Second World at a fundamental level with their will alone. (Mage)
More details will be provided on this in another document for PC spellcrafters.
A time of great suspicion. . .
This is a highly paranoid point in history amongst a fairly paranoid people by disposition, so while the abilities provided by dealing with the supernatural are great, it comes with substantially higher personal (and possibly collective) risk.
Every type of magic is considered “witchcraft” in Chernaya. Only the Witch-hunters and Alchemists (hedge mages) under the employ of the King are offered official sanction. Magical practices of all kinds have always been frowned on there, often fined or cause for persecution outside amongst the practitioners of the more rural descendents of Oblidan, Waylan and Duvik; however, it wasn’t until Belgarion that the mere suspicion could be a death sentence.
In fact, that decree was just made when our story will begin...
This version of Alterran appears as a single continent floating in a vast ocean. In all likelihood this story will take place north of the Divide, as an easy means of conveyance across the Divide has not yet been built, and the journey by sea is incredibly treacherous.
At A Glance . . .
Chernaya is just one generation past being “united” fully under one king. Despite the myths of direct lineage, all the lands outside Sevgorod were not so long ago ruled by their own regional rulers. His son now sits the throne, and is rumored to have “strange predilections” and “unusual cruelty, even as a child”.
Information control is such that the young king claims direct lineage just four generations removed from the mythic founder Aryn Chernaya, and this is not questioned to his face. However, over two centuries have passed, and there is no direct lineage. Only butchery.
Fort Ozbekov (aka “Highmount” to those in Waylan) is literally just a fort fashioned mostly of wood, a military encampment precariously positioned at the furthest reach of the Kingdom, with the vast forest stretching between it and the rest of the Kingdom. Those forests still reach all the way to the mountains in this era, and are said to resemble the shadow forests of the Feyn’s original home, the Land of the Dead.
Skalliheim is being built up around the ruins of an ancient black monolith that has long stood between Rostova and the Tovag Baragu.
Rustov, the free city, is already named Rostova by official decree, but that is not yet what they call themselves.
The Feyn have enacted isolationist policies, and often strike any Chernayans that venture beyond certain unspoken boundaries. There are claims they sometimes operate beyond those borders, but there are also claims they steal babies from their cribs at night.
Crude muskets have recently come into use, which has made Chernaya more bold, but musketballs need to be crafted specially with a composite including sufficient silver if they hope to hold up against enraged Feyn. Melee weapons, bows and crossbows are still in frequent use.
Much of the flora and fauna of Alterran will be familiar to anyone from Earth, although extinct species that were contemporaneous with humans on Earth may yet remain here. There are also rare “mutants”, fantastical aberrations of those forms of life, as they have been shaped by their time in the Second World.
Character Backgrounds
We’re going to start in a backwater crossroads between Duvik, Waylan, and Oblidan. But you can be from anywhere in the Kingdom, from any station in society.
I’d suggest some characters already know one another as we start, (whether bandits, childhood friends, former Regiment or Regiment AWOL running from capture, etc) but leave that open.
Not every character need be primarily combat oriented, but without a survival strategy, their lives are like to be short.
Loyalties will probably be important in this story, whether to a person or ideal. Both those with contacts of some sort to the Chernayan cause as well as the Feyn one may be interesting, although it is inevitable in this story that loyalties will be tested, and may change. We will discuss this more when we get to Session 0.
Lore: Key Locations and Concepts
The Southlands
The most fertile regions lay between Highmount and Sevgorod’s southern extent.
The somewhat pointless roads that wind westward from beneath Sevgorod were part of a previous ruler’s project to carve roads into the Chatillian’s forests. His reign has been mostly expunged from the record, but his name is still remembered, as the road is known as “Vladikar’s Folly”.
The Great Divide
Cherny Razlom
When humans first arrived as permanent residents, the Feyn had already laid claim to the North, a liminal space between dream and death not unlike their first home. This seemed to them to be the natural order of things. After all, the South was once the Borderlands, the collective deep dream that all sleeping minds might visit. Let the humans have it, they thought. But the humans didn’t stay there.
There was once a truly impassable divide between north and south, a barrier. When humans took up residence, the Borderlands began to solidify, and gradually turned to desert, and the barrier became similarly literal: an enormous cliff face rising nearly a mile above the desert below. Enormous, but not truly impassable. The southernmost portions of the Kingdom of Chernaya sits atop this Divide, whereas the northern regions are ringed by steep mountains and still sizable plateaus that fall suddenly to the oceans below.
There are no ports in Chernaya that can reach the South year round, so although there is some contact with the people of the south via the incredibly dangerous ocean passages that exist by sailing the long way around the continent from Rostova to Banqu or back, there is little cultural exchange.
Highmount (Fort Ozbekov) is only worth a mention for what it will later become. It is a fringe where Regiment are often garrisoned as a subtle “fuck you” from their superiors. Although it has quite the view.
Duvik
The ancestral lands of the people who once subjugated the Oblidan paid in many lives over subsequent generations, however by this point Duvik has itself been mostly subjugated by the Crown, and serves as de facto transportation hub and military encampment. The extinct volcano that Sevgorod is built upon is visible for miles, and looms just as large over its affairs. The terrain is a mix of small scrub forests broken up by stony ground, similar to the terrain of parts of Italy. Good for grapes, goats, bad for most sorts of large scale agriculture.
There are a number of small cities in Duvik, as well as many small towns connected by winding wagon paths, streams and trails.
Sample Concepts:
Investigator
Veteran of the Border Wars (with Waylan)
Fugitive Scholar
Itinerant Bard
Retired Mercenary
Wandering Herbalist
Waylan
More recently conquered by the Kingdom during a period of brutal border wars, Waylan still harbors a significant population who are hostile to the crown, and by all appearances, the young king Belgarion intends to make them suffer for it. Waylan is incredibly fertile, a sprawling land of rolling hills and lush grasslands, and is the primary agricultural center for the Kingdom. People live in a variety of towns, villages and hamlets, under constant “supervision” from the Regiment and their superiors, or out in the hills.
Cartels here are prominent, but are still very rooted in their communities.
Sample Concepts:
Former Cartel Enforcer
Runaway Slave (likely from Sevgorod)
Disenchanted Soldier
Rebel
Wandering Sword-For-Hire
Waylan Skald
Actual Witch
Sevgorod
“Berath” in Waylan
Sevgorod is by far the most populated center in Chernaya, although its exact population is unknown if we are including the “Crown’s Labor.” Also known as the City in the Clouds, it grew up around a forge established a century ago in the bowl of an extinct volcano. Some heat still rises up from below, fueling the forges and heating the nobles’ houses. True to its name, clouds often trickle from the rim of that stone bowl, curling around the lip like a liquid, tumbling down its steep sides into a vague, gray haze.
Above ground, it is a city of concentric circles constructed of stone, built to weather the ages. Underneath lies the mines and forges that helped to build that Kingdom, and the thousand-thousand bones of those upon whose thankless labor it stands. At its center sits the Imperial Court.
The city’s markets are controlled by numerous merchant guilds / crime syndicates. These factions, ever-engaged in a silent but fierce struggle for dominance, play a larger role in the day-to-day lives of the average “gorod” than the isolate Court.
The commoners in Sevgorod are wary, knowing that a single whisper or misplaced trust could summon the unwelcome attention of the Kingdom’s most feared agents. In contrast, the richer areas of the city are realms of unchecked extravagance. Here, the elite indulge their tastes, seemingly oblivious to what goes on in the city’s less fortunate districts. Though those who fall from such heights fare no better than the commoners...
Sample Concepts:
Resistance Mole
Mad Scholar (Feyn Lore)
Rebellious Noble
Feyn-touched Cutpurse
Guild Shadow Broker
Haunted Regiment Veteran
The Midlands
Much of the Midlands consists of scattered forests and fields, prone to especially harsh winters. Small settlements are connected by often treacherous roads that wind between this varied landscape.
The people of the Midlands are equally varied, from communal to paranoid.
Population is clustered near Sevgorod on one end and Rostova on the other. However, the Midlands notably has no major cities.
Oblidan
Oblidan sprawls from the south to the north of Sevgorod on its eastern side. The southern portions of the region consist mostly of grassland and tundra, less fertile than Waylan but perfect for hardy herding animals. The northern portion is a trackless waste that serves as a nearly perfect bulwark against incursions, for those who learn its ways.
This long served the original people of Oblidan well, up until the day the Duvik came in force, and decimated their long rivals. The man who would be named Aryn Chernaya was amongst the survivors.
Oblidan now serves as both a hinterland and a rich resource trove for the Crown, despite its climate. The threat of Tovag raids makes northward expansion a perilous endeavor, while the eastward expanse, less obstructed, attracts those fleeing the overcrowded urban centers, particularly Sevgorod. These new settlers, criminals, would-be revolutionaries or escapees from the mines, find in Oblidan a harsh refuge, but one far from the oversight of either Watch or Regiment.
Sample Concepts:
Nomadic Warrior
Oyun
Apostate
Bounty Hunter
Escaped Prisoner
Exiled Scholar or Noble
Known Rebel
Prospector
The North
The Free City is the primary hub of the region, and paradoxically has the most contact with outsiders from the opposite side of the continent.
There has been a considerable amount of recent development around Skalliheim, although the region is strictly policed by the Regiment.
Beren the Bald was recently appointed head of the command in Skalliheim. A former war hero from the Border Wars with Waylan, known in equal measure for his savage efficiency and fairness, he is widely well-liked by the Regiment. However, many might also say not so much by the King, so it is odd that he was chosen.
Rostova
Still “Rustov” to many of its inhabitants, especially in the lower city region
Nestled beside the Reach, a deep lake with a northern strait leading to the ocean, this city is often isolated, save a single road at either end of the city, when this passage freezes. The city is mad with activity during the trading season, and then turns equally strongly inward during the long freeze. Rostova is now the most populated Chernayan holding north of its capital.
The lower city of Rostova is criss-crossed by a dense network of canals, marked by its own, stately and refined architectural style. These waterways bustle with life in the warmer months, serving as the main arteries of commerce and daily activities, where boats and barges are the lifelines of trade and transport. During the freeze, people treat them like roads, and go about on snow-shoes and sleds. Rostova has long valued its artisans and merchant Houses alike, and this is clear in its longevity, as well as the distance many Chernayans will go to get their hands on Rostovan crafts.
Ascending from the older parts of the city, the grid-designed outer city climbs up the hillside along the eastern side of the Reach. This part of Rostova showcases newer, more fortified structures designed to withstand the harsh northern winters, built around central “hearth rooms”, which in some cases can get quite large.
The Finger of Sendiir juts out into the ocean north of the lower city, an icy peninsula that is home to an enclave of exiles from the south who have grown quite rich liaising between the Rustov Houses and Imari. They are the only foreign House in the council.
Rostova ‘partnered’ with the Kingdom within living memory, which is to say they joined the Kingdom rather than be conquered by it. This strategic decision amongst the various Houses to join the Kingdom was shaped by survival and prosperity, yet the spirit of the Free City remains palpable. Many citizens still carry the pride of their heritage, but although there are many academic revolutionaries, there is little outright rebellion within Rostova.
The spirit of mixed irony and pride is encapsulated in a message upon the tomb of Aryn Chernaya, relocated from the capital when Rostova was claimed by Belgarion’s predecessor. It is set among ivy-wreathed avenues, according to the plaque placed there by the Regiment, symbolizing the city’s “enduring connection to its past and hope for the future, the complex bouquet of independence and collaboration, which is truly the Free City’s finest vintage, now perfected in union with Chernaya.”
Sample Concepts:
Disgraced Noble or Guild Member
Dreamwalker on the Run
Scholar in Exile (Skalliheim)
Free City Steel-dancer (swordmaster)
Monster Hunter
Traveler or Refugee from the South
Skalliheim
Skalliheim was originally built of a single slab of some alien, ageless black stone. A hollow obelisk with a single central staircase with 500 steps. It has no seams, and was first discovered when a group of Chernayans, fleeing savage Tovag assaults, took shelter here. This tale is remembered, because their pursuers were unwilling or unable to enter, and broke off.
The single tower has long served as lookout against attack from the original peoples that settled the north. It is rumored to hail from the long forgotten ages between the disappearance of the Old Fey and the rise of Chernaya.
This lone monolith is in the process of being expanded with new construction by decree of Belgarion. The extensive keep and castle exterior designed by a renowned Rustovan architect is still in construction at the point this story begins.
The Feyn avoid the place as if it was a chemical fire, and so... they intend to build a prison, as well as a garrison.
Chatillian Shadow Forest
The Kray Lesa
A thick forest stretches nearly uninterrupted from north of Highmount to the Reach, some 500 miles. It is only broken by several small mountain ranges, meandering rivers and ponds and the occasional clearing.
Although they are far from the only inhabitants, the Feyn are thought to exist in numbers somewhere back there in the wilderness. Only the most desperate or risk-prone trackers, hunters, or delvers into arcane secrets dare to enter. Some have even returned from the denser parts of the Shadow Forest, if their stories are to be believed.
The Tovag Baragu
The Tovag-Baragu is a dense forest cradled between the arms of the Alyak, a vast mountain range that culminates in Skrellingskaald, the highest peak in the Second World. Like the forest that enshrines it, the Meliae fields that lay beyond its distant glacial waterfalls have not been seen by many human eyes. What is known is likely hearsay.
The outermost arrowood trees wear veils of pearl mists, creating a gradient from wood to swirling vapor. Their massive trunks dominate the horizon even from the Oblidan. In the northernmost lands, the veil between worlds thins, where (according to the Tovag Oyun) the Fall Tree’s roots intertwine with the “world’s cosmic wheel” and allow them to return lost spirits to the Oyun’s true home, the Land of the Dead.
The largest gathering of Tovag dwells in the upper boughs of this tree in the House of Bones, where a council of their Oyun sits in judgement upon both this world, and the next.
Factions of the Crown
The Regiment
Voisko Chernaya
Common soldiers who are frequently stationed at the borders of the Kingdom with the alien lands beyond, in expectation of a war that is yet to come but always just beyond the horizon, or to stand in reserve against internal unrest. They are also used to police the Crown’s Labor, and areas like Waylan.
The Regiment has rank-and-file and elite units, but the latter are as much a product of nepotism as competency. There are three ranks: Stelets (1 man), Desyatnik (of ten men), and Sotnik (of one hundred men). These are valued as 1 copper, 1 silver, 1 gold, and their rank insignia is made of a small embedded circlet of the corresponding metal. This sets the fixed rate of exchange value within the Chernayhan economy. Their headquarters are technically in Sevgorod, although the Regiment has at least a small outpost in most towns throughout the kingdom.
The Watch
Strazha Poryadok
The Watch are trained investigators as well as serving as de facto police in places where the intention is to actually solve a crime. They are better trained and supplied than the Regiment, although the Regiment has cannon and other heavier weapons that don’t tend to come into the Watch’s purview. The Watch is often called on by the Regiment in their own duties when a proper investigation is called for.
The Watch has a subdivision that are focused on spycraft, who have substantial contacts throughout the merchant guilds of the two major cities of the Kingdom. As there is little direct interaction between Chernayan heads of state and those outside their borders, aside from loose trade compacts (with major houses of the Banqu city-state and the Imari dynasty), their activities are mostly inward facing. Their headquarters are now in Rostova.
The Inquisitors
Okhotnik na ved'm, Witch-hunters
The rare appearance of a Witch-hunter, supported by their clandestine network of informants, always sends ripples of unease through the community. These ominous figures, masked, robed in authority and enigma, are said to be able to read the minds and even dreams of those they suspect of any wrongdoing. This is not the limit of their mind-magic.
The identity of Witch-hunters is kept secret, and they are some of the only “servants” in the Kingdom who are allowed to have face-to-face interaction with the King. Their headquarters are within the Imperial Court itself, although it is said their training and interrogation facilities exist underneath Sevgorod, in chambers independent from the network of mines, tunnels and prisons that extend into the mountains for several miles around the city.
Only their highest ranking members are allowed to wear the Death's Head regalia.
The Feyn
Nightfolk
Threshold spirits of death, who found a way to take form in this second home, thus aka “the Second World.” They soon discovered that in the Second World they could learn to weave bodies for themselves. These bodies have a natural regeneration that is augmented by the presence of blood, moonlight, or the souls of humans who have been transformed into scripture by Chatillian ritual.
They are believed to have a kind of allergy to silver. It is only mildly irritating to the touch, but wounds created with silver weapons or otherwise infused by silver heal much more slowly. Nightfolk are particularly difficult to kill by normal means, and they have varying degrees of other supernatural abilities. They do not die of old age or illness. However, for them there is only nothingness waiting. Human spirits are recycled, but theirs are not, as they are already in essence a spirit. The price of creating a form for themselves in the Second World is that it can be destroyed.
They are essentially vampiric, as they cannot generate their own life-force, but more akin to Yokai than “Western” vampires. It is only due to the nature of the Second World itself that they were able to become corporeal, on earth they were spirits that frequented abandoned and forgotten places, and the sites of great psychological trauma or intensity. One of their primary sources of nourishment is from the life-force of others in a variety of forms, ranging from the crude (blood, organs) to the subtle (moonlight, sexual energy).
Feyn Seasons:
The Feyn themselves do not track the years, but rather refer to time as a seasonal progression, based around their mating cycle framed in a mythic, even religious context. Unfortunately, much of their “life” cycle remains unknown, so the system remains enigmatic.
The Four Feyn Types:
“Where Chatillians bore the wisdom of death, and the Meliae embodied its seductive and otherworldly pull, the Tovag were the promise of death’s utter annihilation. All Feyn are dangerous, but the Tovag are terrible. Their warriors entered battle without fear, for having originally come from the Feyn, Land of the Dead, what could frighten them?”
The Tovag
The Tovag are the most bestial in appearance, and by far the most physically intimidating. They range in size from a very large man to truly monstrous, 2-3.5 meters. This size change is something they can affect upon themselves, although the energy consumed makes them ravenously hungry. They look more bestial the larger they are, but otherwise cannot change their appearance.
They dwell beyond the reaches of the Chernayan empire, in the massive forests and mountains beyond. During the time of Belgarion’s reign, their uncharted forest is still quite large. The Tovag’s House of Bones is built in the largest arrowood tree in their forest, which sits atop the only known still active border Gate between Alterran and their original home, Land of the Dead. They guard it still.
They are fierce warriors, distrustful of outsiders, but can be quite boisterous and kind amongst themselves. Their magic is cruder than the Chatillians though no less powerful.
The Chatillian
The most contemplative and introspective of the Feyn, also known for being cold, distant, and alien. The form they take amongst themselves is similar to the fantasy personification of elves, oftentimes with a slender pair of horns and bone-white to deep blue-black skin, although one of their innate abilities is to change their appearance to varying degrees.
Chatillians are equal parts male and female (or both, or neither) and can change this element of their appearance to suit their needs as well, however, they can only impregnate, and cannot carry children. Amongst themselves, they have no particular concept of gender as most human cultures conceive of it. To a spirit, it’s simply an alien concept.
When they go amongst humans, they can craft new faces for themselves, having the greatest subtle control of the weave of their forms. Although possessing a physical form in this Realm, these Feyn still excell at the arts of possession, and are thought to work much trickery throughout the land.
They dwell in quietly contemplative solitary places, appearing in small enclaves throughout their so-called “shadow forests”, although their only communal home is rumored to exist deep inside the bedrock of the Divide. It is not common knowledge how to find it or if indeed the “crystal city” (Cryst-Nirithea) is real or only a myth. They have had extensive dealings with the Imari in the south, because the Imari respect and honor them, and have never encroached upon them, but otherwise they are as a rule almost as isolationist as the Tovag, if less openly hostile to outsiders.
The Meliae
Changelings
The Meliae are shape-shifters of a very different kind than their brethren, a sort of fixed camouflage designed specifically to allow them to pass within human society, where they typically drift about like dandelion seed pods.
Generally appearing as remarkably attractive human females, they are able to insert themselves into nearly any social environment, and can exert a kind of influence on the emotions of those around them using potent pheromones that have been described as smelling similarly to Angel’s Trumpets. In a sense the Meliae are the least like humans, but they are best able to blend in. Contrary to their nickname amongst humans, they do not shapeshift as the others Feyn types do, but they have one physical transformative ability: when severely threatened their eyes turn white and can see in the dark, and they sprout razor-sharp claws.
For this reason, they are the only full Feyn who commonly and willingly wander amongst humans. There is a rumor amongst many humans that the Meliae do such a “walkabout” in the process of coming to maturity so as to bring the offspring produced back with them to the other Feyn for some sort of nefarious dark magic, although this is like to be at least partially human superstition. The suspicion isn’t entirely unwarranted: to date there are no known direct human-meliae descendents, despite their methodical promiscuity. All the Karlu-Chatil are the result of a Chatillian, or more infrequently, Tovag impregnating a human.
The Meliae are known to be crucial to the procreation of the Feyn themselves, at least within the Second World. For their part, they sprout asexually from pods under the light of a full moon in a single protected mountain meadow in the Tovag Baragu. They normally wander shortly after reaching maturity, and have no real society of their own. Although Meliae and Tovag seem to have little dealings outside from whatever is involved in Feyn reproduction, the Tovag see protecting that meadow as one of their chief responsibilities.
Karlu-Chatil
Goblins, Halfbloods
The Karlu-Chatil (aka “goblins”, “halfbloods”) are descendents of human-Feyn interbreeding. Most who can’t pass as fully human are outcasts in both societies, although they sometimes find welcome amongst the human cultures of the South. Some Chatillians sympathize with them, or look on them as a tragic mistake, whereas the Tovag almost universally view them with disdain or outright hostility. True to form, Meliae don’t all think one way or the other.
Their appearance and abilities are a grab-bag of the options provided by the other Feyn sub-types, often presenting less potently than in their full Feyn counterparts. Some can pass as fully human and might not even themselves know otherwise, unless a strange ability comes to manifest itself. Those who favor Tovag features are most frequently called “goblins” in Chernaya, which is a slur that many of them use themselves.
On a rare occasion, a Karlu-Chatil exhibits innate abilities on the level of any full-blooded Feyn. Most of them eat as humans do, although some gain additional benefits from blood, moonlight, etc.
Karlu-Chatil are unique in that they get a choice at the time of their passing, either to hold to their Feyn nature and vanish entirely into the Void, or to renounce it and enter the cycle of rebirth with all the other lost souls of humanity.
Religion in Chernaya
It is a common saying within the Kingdom that Chernaya’s first religion is the worship of the king, and second religion is the worship of coin. Mass religious practice is considered tantamount to witchcraft, however, anywhere off the beaten path one might encounter shrines and rites which are for the most part left alone, so long as they do not gather any undue attention.
Major Figures
King Valerik Aatos Chernaya “the Unifier”
King Valerik was the one who fully “united” the Kingdom, through the bloody borderland wars with Waylan. He also oversaw the more diplomatic acquisition and renaming of Rostova. Belgarion was Valerik’s bastard son, born Vasily. Valerik made the mistake of naming Belgarion heir when his other children were assassinated by rebels. This is one of many facts that is quickly being forgotten and rewritten, as to so much as speak of such things now is punishable by death.
Verik was a stern man, always of ill humor even before the lengthy impalement that ended his life. He was however always measured, strategic, even cautious. His son is proving to be of precisely the opposite temperament.
King Belgarion “the Prescient”
There are several aspects of King Belgarion’s rule that deviate from the traditions of the Kingdom. His coronation occurred merely three years ago, yet this twenty-something monarch asserts his immortality, claiming a reign that will span over a thousand years.
He has eschewed his father’s surname in favor of a moniker derived from a prophetic dream he reportedly had as a child. He possesses no surname himself, and underwent sterilization to prevent any offspring from potentially “stealing” his name.
The nature of his ascension has set the tone for his reign. Rumors suggest he employed his Inquisitors to execute his father, solidifying his uncontested authority. He works closely with this ever-present cult of fanatics, who are the only ones allowed in his presence and permitted to leave his Sevgorod tower.
His servants are bound to him for life, whether their tenure is long or short. Despite his confinement to the tower, his decisions have far-reaching impacts, and claims that he has spies everywhere are not merely paranoia.
Another such erratic decision was the recent appointment of a highly popular general to lead the rehabilitation project of Skalliheim.
Beren “the Bald”
The story goes that Beren was born “cursed and deformed” somewhere in the Midlands, and the villagers ratted out this mother to the Crown, assuming she must have been a witch to have a child so ugly. Shortly thereafter, she was put to the torch by the Witch-hunters.
According to this story, they hadn’t come for her, but simply wanted her out of the way. No, this child was what they had come for. They had been charged to kill him for the power he would one day wield, but decided instead to make him one of them.
And so he was named a member of their Order on the spot and brought back to Sevgorod, where he disappeared into the School until he left the Inquisitors, a nearly unprecedented move for one who still draws breath. He joined the Regiment, and soon after was given his first command of 100 men in the Border Wars.
In truth, Beren’s “disfigurement” is simply that he is both hairless and has differently colored eyes (heterochromia) and a slight limp, likely from a severed tendon that never healed right. This origin story probably originates from the men who served him in Waylan, and may well come from the man himself. Those who meet him say he has a peculiar way about him, self-effacing and self-important at the same time, but nearly everyone comes away liking him.
To be continued…
