Editing Heros Paths. (section)

=Setting=
The setting [at the moment] is the ruins of a vast megapolis that stretches from coast to mountains, inhabited by the various rude successors to a once vast magical empire.
Entire communities the size of a medieval city can be found and there will be at least two or three small ‘kingdoms’ within the bounds of the ancient ruins.
To give a rough size, imagine the north east of the USA and the growing urbanisation that stretches around the cities based there – then flatten the lot.

Here is a map of your local part of the great ruins

[http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r14/drifterne05/gamemap.jpg]

==Background==

Three towers is a bustling little port town/city on the Southern shore of the old Polis, a home to some 5000 souls. It is an old town as things stand...the walls are over 500 years old and the city has been governed by the Three towers for most of that time.
The towers are three orders of Mages - White, Grey and Black - who together form the governing body of the town. They have a commons council that handles the actual running of the city [elected by popular vote every five years], but deal with the overall policy and diplomatic ties of the city.
The orders, despite their colors, are not directly aligned to any of the great forces - the white order deals with protection and nurture, the grey order progress and understanding, and the black order with the otherworldly. There is some correlation between Good, Balance and Evil and the orders, in that many who profess to these aligning and are touched by the Magic- users path are drawn to their respective colors, but all are loyal to the orders and what evil is allowed is strictly controlled - necromancers may be dire, but they are a necessary defence against the remnants of the shattered past. 
These matters rest far above the heads of the common folk, however, who see only that the three orders work together to the common good of the city and keep it free of the depredations that could befall it without them.
The chief temple of the city is the Veil of six cloaks, though there are also temples to the Founding Mother and the Three sons, local ancestors who have grown to be worshipped across many of the settlements in the old ruins. The old Mann of the Sea is also well represented, and there is an avenue of prayers where prophets and followers of half-a-hundred gods and spirits compete for followers.

Every citizen of Three towers must serve military duty to remain so, and every clan or family must provide a full-time Guard, by blood or payment. The Guard are responsible for the outer defences of the city and fields, while the citizens watch provides internal policing.

Foreigners from across the oceans may be found visiting here for the lucrative if irregular trade in ancient relics and treasures, stone and minerals, exotic furs, pelts and animals as well as locally caught fish and fish oils. Finely made local crafts [often using exotic techniques] and the trade of Cliff hill are a secondary but growing market.

Cliff hill is a Dwarf dominated community - much of the actual settlement is underground. A community of 3000 hardy souls lives here, with a peoples government and no royal line. Though lacking the magical power of Three towers, the cunning traps and fortifications of the mixed community, as well as a strong warrior ethos, keep the worst the ruins have to offer at bay. The temple to the founding mother is larger here than in Three towers, and the sons are represented by three fighting orders. The town has alliances with many of the 'good folk' - those faeries and such who live mostly underground, such as Knockers and Piskies. It produces extremely expensive and high quality weaponry and armour for trade, as well as ores and metal goods. 

The two enclaves are close allies but engage in constant friendly rivalry, including touneys and sporting/athletic events. 
every time in the last 300 years that one city has been attacked or warred upon, the other has come to its aid. Despite this, there has never ben any desire for the two to join as one.

==Worship, the Great Forces, Priests and the Clericals==

===The great forces===
*Nature
*Law
*Chaos
*Good
*Evil
*Balance
*Infinity [or pass-not]
*Entropy
*Fate
*Luck
*Mastery and 
*Magic

are amorhpous forces in the world, rather than personified through gods. They congeal into sentience only in the Otherworlds, and hence create 'otherworldy' beings. [demons, devils and servants of 'higher' or 'deeper' powers].

===The worldy forces===
The six elements:
*air
*earth
*fire
*water
*light
*darkness

and

The powers:
*death/growth
*truth/illusion
*harmony/discord
*movement/stillness

are often claimed by gods as representing aspects of their divine strengths. However, to Clerics they are often aligned as secondary qualifiers [elemental or power 'forces'].

All gods are ancestor spirits writ large, and what they control of the otherworlds is what they wrest from it. Hence, worship and the promise of an afterlife within the gods otherworldy demense. 

'''Priests''' generally worship a god or pantheon and gain divine magic from it. Their gods may have aspects of the various forces represented as part of their divine powers, but they are never its master, nor its sole user. There are many sun gods...

'''Clerics''' tap into a divine relationship with the great forces far more directly and personify, to some extent, these forces on the walking world [mundane plane].
Often an order of clerics will serve a nebulous collection of forces to a specific aim - though never one as petty as conquest [unless it is world domination] or money.

Each cleric or order can align with up to three forces, though they cannot chooses forces in oppostion. Thus, law, good and fate would be fine, but law, chaos and fate would not.
'''Druids''' tap directly into a divine pact with Nature and Balance, two sides of the same coin. They qualify their pact with the 'elemental' force.