Lightbringer d20adaptation Knowledge Primer and Player Knowledge101

i mentioned in the campaign primer that knowledge of this world will work a little differently. If you have taken the initiative to read the books you are ahead of the game, but you are also a little hindered because i have changed things. Like the students who were taught how to use the Abacus on a base twelve, you know a lot about the world. But some of your instincts will be off because here we are going to use a base ten. To that end.

As you gain life experience you will gain access to more and more information. Some of this will be in the form of player-character knowledge and some of it will be in the form of more game documents. If you have spent the time it takes to learn how to be an expert with Martial Weapons, chances are you have learned some things without realizing it. For example, most people reading this doesn't know what a "Bich'hwa" is. But after some amount of time training it is safe to assume you that you have at least seen one in the armory and barracks. So instead of getting a weapon description you will gain access to a page that lists uncommon martial weapons and describes them (Knowledge Martial Weapons 1). So when you face someone with a Bich'hwa you will have a few advantages. Similarly, If you have pored enough time into Martial training, you probably gleaned some information on military tactics, so at a certain point you would gain access to "Knowledge Combat Tactics 1". This will help you play your character more precisely when it comes to combat. Not only will you gain information about the world but you might also be able to apply the information your player has more acutely. In most D&D systems if you as a player knows something you can roll character intelligence or wisdom to see if your avatar can realize it too. Depending on the Knowledge gained and the level that you have unlocked, you will be making knowledge ____ rolls to fill the gap left by an absence of an intelligence or wisdom stat. Some of this information is built around opportunity costs. I.e "Knowledge Local Chromeria" can only be learned by living in that area as non-nobility. You know every backstreet and alley because you grew up there. But similarly "Knowledge Nobility Chromeria" will be foreign to the person who has knowledge local.

There will be an infinite number of "Knowledge ____"s because there is always someone who has specialized in something. Routinely, by the end of a characters life they will probably have access to 10 or so knowledge charts.

here is the kicker.

you can also gain access to knowledges for your player. So if you have never had a character who has Knowledge Local Ilyta. Please do not read that note. But if your player has unlocked it at any point they can still access it for reference even if their current character does not have this proficiency. That being said, your character cannot make Local Ilyta rolls if your character doesn't have the proficiency.

Lastly, Some knowledges are unlocked through incarnation levels. To that end there information in one knowledge might make reference to information found in others. This is done (usually) by intention. Just to remind you that there is always more to learn and to give you hints as to side-quests you can send your character after.

oh. and one last thing.

Something that is in "knowledge military tactics 1" might be refuted in "knowledge military tactics 4"; after all, rules of thumb for beginners are can often find their exception in the actions of their superiors. Or, Something that is stated unequivocally in "Knowledge Local X", you might learn characters later from "Knowledge Nobility X" that those facts are actually an elaborate ruse put on by the nobility to keep their people docile.

General Glossary and Reference for all Players Some of the information in here will not be known by your characters, but it might be necessary for the creation of those characters. Anything that is not a capital city or famous landmark can be assumed to only be known to your character through a knowledge concerning that geographic region or a knowledge that would readily encompass said information. Thus the following has been provided:

On Luxin (with sections on phsycis, metaphysics, effects on personality, legendary colors, and colloquial terms)

Magic & Luxin: The basis of magic is light. Those who use magic are called drafters. A drafter is able to transform a color of light into a physical substance. Each color has its own properties, but the uses of those building blocks are as boundless as a drafters imagination and skill.

The magic in the Seven Satrapies functions roughly the opposite of a candle burning. When a candle burns, a physical substance (wax) is transformed into light. With chromaturgy, light is transformed into a physical substance, luxin. Each color of luxin has its own properties. if drafted correctly (within a tight allowance), the resulting luxin will be stable, lasting for days or even years, depending on its color.

Physics Luxin has weight. If a drafter drafts a luxin hay cart over her head the first thing it will do is crush her.

Luxin has tactility.

Luxin has scent. the smells below are approximate, because each color of luxin smells like itself. imagine trying to describe the smell of an orange. You'd say citrus and sharp but that isn't it exactly. an orange smells like an orange. however, the below approximations are close.

Colloquial terms: Students at the Chromeria are encouraged to use the proper names for each color, but the impetus to name seems unstoppable. in some cases, the names are used technically: Pyrejelly is a thicker, longer burning draft of red that willburn long enough to reduce a body to ash. In other cases, the reference becomes precisely the opposite of the technical definition: brightwater was first a name or liquid yellow luxin, but brightwater wall is solid yellow luxin.

On Technology and Weapons The Seven Satrapies are in a time of great leaps in understanding. The peace since the Prisms' War and the following suppression of piracy has allowed the flow of goods and ideas freely through the satrapies. Cheap, high-quality iron and steel are available in every satrapy, leading to high-quality weapons, durable wagon wheels, and everything in between. Though traditional forms of weapons like the Atashian Bich'hwaor Parian parry-sticks continue, now they are rarely made of horn or hardened wood. Luxin is often used for improvised weapons, but most luxins' tendency to break down after long exposure to light, and the scarcity of yellow drafters who can make solid yellows (which dont break down in light), means that metal weapons predominate among mundane armies. The greatest leaps are occurring in the improvement of firearms. in most cases, each musket is the product of a different smith. This means each man must be able to fix his own firearm, and that pieces must be crafted individually. a faulty hammer or flash pan can't be swapped out for a new one, but must be detached and reworked into the appropriate shape. Some large-scale productions with hundreds of apprentice smiths have tried to tackle this problem in Rath by making parts as nearly identical as possible. Elsewhere, the smiths if Ilyta have gone the other direction, making the highest-quality custom muskets in the world. Recently they've pioneered a form they call the flintlock. Instead of affixing a burning slow match to ignite powder in the flash pan and thence into the breach of the rifle, they've affixed a flint that scrapes a frizzen to throw sparks directly into the breech. This approach means a musket or pistol is always ready to fire, without a soldier having to first light a slow match. Thus far, the combination of luxin with firearms has been largely unsuccessful. The casting of perfectly round yellow luxin musket balls was possible, but the small number of yellow drafters able to make solid yellow creates a bottleneck in production. Blue luxin musket balls often shatter from the force of the black powder explosion. An exploding shell made by filling a yellow luxin ball with red luxin (which would ignite explosively from the shattering yellow when the ball hit a target) was demonstrated to the Nuqaba, but the exact balance of making the yellow thick enough to not explode inside the musket, but thin enough to shatter when it hit its target, is too difficult that several smiths have died trying to replicate it, probably barring this technique from widespread adoption. Other experiments are doubtless being carried out all over the Seven Satrapies, and if high-quality, consistent, and somewhat accurate firearms are introduced, the ways of war will change forever. As it stands, a trained archer can shoot farther, far more quickly, and more accurately.

Glossary

• Aghbalu: a Parian city

* Alcaldesa: a Tyrean term, akin to village mayor or chief

* Aslal: The Capital city of Paria

* Balance: the primary work of the Prism. When the prism drafts at the top of the Chromeria, he alone can sense all the world's imbalances in magic and can draft enough of its opposite (i.e. balancing) color to stop the imbalance from geting any worse and leading to catastrophe. Frequent imbalances occurred throughout the world's history before Lucidonius came, and the resulting disasters of fire, famine, and sword killed thousands if not millions.

* Belt knife: a blade small enough to be tucked in a man's belt, commonly used for eating, rarely for defense.

* Big Jasper (Island): the island on which the city of Big Jasper rests just opposite the Chromeria, and where the embassies of all the satrapies reside.

* Binocle: a double-barreled spyglass that allows the use of both eyes for viewing objects at a distance

* Blood Plains, the: an older collective term for Ruthgar and Blood Forest

* Cavendish: Tabacco-like fruit leather.

* Cerulean Sea, The: the sea at the center of the Seven Satrapies

* Chirurgeon: one who stitches up the wounded and studies anatomy.

* Chosen, Orholam's: Another term for the Prism.

* Chromeria, The: the ruling body of the Seven Satrapies; also a term for the school where drafters are trained.

* Colors, The: The seven members of the Spectrum. each originally represented a single color of the seven sacred colors, and could draft that color, and each satrapy had one representative on the Spectrum. Since the founding of the Spectrum, that practice has deteriorated as satrapies have maneuvered for power. thus a satrapy's representative, though usually appointed to a color corresponding to his/her abilities, could be appointed as Luxlord Green, but not actually draft green himself. likewise, some of the satrapies might lose their representative, and others could have two or even three representatives on the Spectrum at a time, depending on the politics of the day. The Term is for life.

* Color Wight: Mythological demons made of Luxin and blood magic. Created by from drafters driven mad from having broken the halo.

* Conn: A Title for a mayor or leader of a village in far northern Atash; more common in Blood Forest.

* Cracked Lands, the: a region of broken land in the extreme west of Atash. Its treacherous terrain is only crossed by the most hardy and experienced traders.

* Cubit: a unit of volume. One cubit is one foot high, one foot wide, and one foot deep.

* Danar: the currency of the Seven Satrapies. One danar at an expensive inn on Jasper Island buys a cup of kopi. The average worker makes about a danar a day, while an unskilled laborer can expect to earn a half danar a day. The coins have a square hole cut in the middle, and are often carried on square-sticks. They can be cut in half and still hold their value.

* Dee: one tenth of a Den, one one hundredth of a Danar (1copper)

* Den: one tenth of a Danar. (1 silver)

* Tin Danar: worth eight regular danar coins. a stick of tin Danars usually carries twenty-five coins, that is, two hundred Danars. (8 gold, 400 gold)

* Silver Quintar: worth twenty Danars, slightly wider than the tin Danar, but only half as thick. a stick of silver quintars usually carries fifty coins, that is, one thousand danars. (20 gold, 1000 gold)

* Dazen's War: an alternate name for the False Prism's War, used by the victors.

* drafter: one who can shape or harness light into physical form (luxin)

* Everdark Gates, the: the strait connecting the Cerulean Sea to the oceans beyond. It was closed by Lucidonius

* Evernight: often a curse word, it refers to death and hell.

* False Prism, the: another term for Dazen Guile, who claimed to be a Prism even after his older brother Gavin had already been rightly chosen by orholam and installed as Prism.

* False Prism's War, the: a common term for the war between Gavin and Dazen Guile.

* Foot: once a varying measure based on the current Prism's foot length. later standardized to twelve thumbs (the length of Prism Sayid Talim's foot).

* Freed, the: those drafters who accept the Pact of the Chromeria and choose to be ushered into Orholam's embrace before they break the halo and go mad.

* Freeing: the ritual release of those about to break the halo from incipient madness; performed by the Prism every year on Sun Day.

* Gada: a ball game that involves kicking and passing a ball of wrapped leather.

* Garriston: the former commercial capital of Tyrea at the mouth of the Umber River on the Cerulean Sea.

* Gatu, the: a parian tribe, despised by other parians for how they integrate their old religious customs into the worship of Orholam. Technically, their beliefs are heresy, but the Chromeria ahs enver moved to put the heresy down with anything more than harsh words

* Gemshorn: a musical instrument made from the tusk of a Javelina with finger-holes drilled into it to allow different notes to be produced.

* Ghotra: A Parian headscarf, used by many Parian men to demonstrate their reverence to Orholam. Most wear it while the sun is up, but some wear it even at nighttime.

* Giist: Physical manifestations of the spirit of a mad Blue Oathbreakers.

* Gold Standard: the literal standard weights and measures, made of gold, against which all measures are judged. the originals are kept at the chomeria, and certified copies are kept in every caital and major city for the adjudication of disputes. Merchants found using short measures and innacurate weights are punished severely.

* Great Chain (of being), The: a theological term for the order of creation. The first link is Orholam himself and all the other links (creation) derive from him.

* Great Desert, the: another term for the Badlands of Tyrea.

* Great River, The: the river between Ruthgar and Blood Forest, the scene of many pitched battles between the two countries.

* Green Forest: a collective term for Blood Forest and Ruthgar

* Green haven: the Capital of Blood Forest

* Habia: a long man's garment.

* Haze: a mind-altering drug. Often Smoked with a pipe, it produces a sickly sweet odor.

* Hellhounds: In accordance with the Office of Doctrine, this entry has been removed.

* Hellstone: A pure black substance that cuts effortlessly cuts through luxin and is poisonous to drafters.

* Idoss: an Atashian city, ruled by a council of city mothers and a corregidor

* Inura, Mount: A mountain on Seers Island.

* Jasper Island / The Jaspers: Islands in the Cerulean Sea that hold the Chromeria.

* Jasperites: Residents of Big Jasper.

* Khat: an addictive stimulant, a lead that stains teeth after chewing, used especially in paria.

* Kopi: an addictive stimulant, a popular beverage. Bitter, dark-colored, and served hot.

* Lightbane: See Bane

* Little jasper: The island on which the Chromeria resides.

* Longbow: a weapon that allows for the efficient (in speed, distance, and force) firing of arrow. its construction and its user must both be extremely strong. The Yew forests of Crater Lake provide the best wood available for longbows.

* Lord Prism: a term of address for the Prism.

* Luxiat: a priest of Orholam. a luxiat wears black as an acknowledgment that he needs Orholam's light most of all; thus he is commonly called a black robe.

* Luxin: A material created by drafting from light.

* Luxors: Officials empowered by the Chromeria to bring the light of Orholam by almost any means necessary.

* Matchlock Musket: a firearm that works by snapping a lit slow match into the flash pan, which ignites the gunpowder in the breech of the firearm, whose explosion propels a rock or lead ball out of the barrel at high speed.

* Midsummer: another term for Sun Day, the Longest day of the year.

* Midsummer's Dance: a rural version of the Sun Day celebration.

* Mirrormen: Soldiers who wear mirrored armor.

* Mund: a person who cannot draft. Insulting.

* Narrows, the: A strait of the Cerulean Sea between Abornea and the Ruthgari mainland. Aborneans strangle trade between the Narrows by charging high toll fees to merchants attempting to sail the silk route, or simply between Paria and Ruthgar.

* non-drafter: one who cannot drafT.

* norm: another term for non drafter. insulting.

* Oathbreaker: One who has chosen not to be freed by the Prism. One hunted by death herself.

* Odess: a city in Abornea that sits at the head of the narrows.

* Old World: The world before Lucidonius united the Seven Satrapies and abolished worship of the pagan gods.

* Overhill: a neighborhood in Big Jasper

* Pact, the: Since Lucidonius, the Pact has governed the Seven Satrapies. its essence is that drafters agree to serve their community and receive the all the benefits of status and sometimes weath in exchange for their service and eventual choice to be freed by the Prism just before or after breaking the halo.

* Parry-stick: a primarily defense weapon that blocks bladed attacks. it sometimes includes a punching dagger at the center of the stick to follow up on a deflecting blow.

* Petasos: a broad rimmed Ruthgari hat, usually made of straw, meant to keep the sun off the face.

* Portmaster: a city official in charge of collecting tariffs and the organized exit and entrance of ships into his harbor.

* Prism: There is only one Prism a generation. She senses the balance of the world's magic, can balance the magic, and can split light within herself. Her role is largely ceremonial and religious, no political, except for her balancing the world's magic so that wights and catastrophes don't result.

* Promachia: the institution of a Prism named to the office of Promachos. It gives great, nearly absolute powers during wartime. It is an ancient term meaning He Who Fights Before Us.

* Providence: a belief in the care of Orholam over the Seven Satrapies and its people.

* Psantria: a stringed musical instrument.

* Pyrejelly: Red luxin that, once set alight, will engulf whatever object it adheres to.

* Rake: a heavy insult, with the implication of both moral and intellectual idiocy

* Rath: The capital of Ruthgar, set o the confluence of the Great River and its delta into the Cerulean Sea.

* Rathcaeson: a mythical city.

* Ratweed: a toxic plant whose leaves are often smoked for their strong stimulant properties. addictive

* Rekton: a small Tyrean town on the Umber River, near the site of the Battle of Sundered Rock. An important trading post before the False Prism's War.

* Rozanos Bridge, the: a bridge on the Great River between Ruthgar and the Blood Forest that Blessed Satrap Rados burned.

* Ru: The Capital of atash, once famous for its castle, still famous for its Great Pyramid.

* Ru, Castle of: The pride of Ru, equaled in gradeur only by its pyramid.

* Salve: a common greeting, originally meaning "Be of Good Health".

* Sapphire Bay: a bay off little jasper.

* Satrap/Satrapah: The title of a ruler of one of the seven satrapies.

* Sev: a unit of measurement for weight, equal to one seventh of a seven. (roughly 8.9lbs)

* Seven: a unit of measurement for weight, equal to one cubit of water's weight (roughly 62.5lbs)

* Sharazan Mountains, the: Impassable mountains south of Tyrea.

* Shimmercloak: The glittering cloak worn by death when she hunts those who have broken The Pact.

* Spyglass: a small telescope using curved, clear lenses to aid in sighting distant objects.

* Sun Day: a holy day to followers of Orholam and pagans alike, the longest day of the year. For the Seven Satrapies, Sun Day is the day when the Prism Frees those drafters who are about to break the Halo. The ceremonies usually take place on the Jaspers, when all of the Thousand Stars are trained onto the Prism, who can absorb and split the light, whereas other men are burn or burst from drafting so much power.

* Sun Day's Eve: an evening of festivities before the longest day of the year and the Freeing the next day.

* Sundered Rock: Twin mountains in Tyrea, opposite each other and so alike that they look as if they were once one huge rock cut down the middle

* Sundered Rock, Battle of: The final battle between Gavin and Dazen near a small Tyrean town on the Umber River.

* Tainted: One who has broken the Halo,also called Oathbreaker.

* Thobe: an ankle-length garment, usually with long sleeves.

* Translucification, Forced: See

* Umber River, the: the lifeblood of Tyrea. Its water allows the growth of every kind of plant in the hot climate; its locks fed trade throughout the country before the False Prism's War. Often besieged by bandits.

* Unification, the: a term for Lucidonius's and Karris Shadowblinder's establishment of the Seven Satrapies four hundred years prior to Gavin Guile's rule as Prism.

* Urum: a three-tined dining implement.

* Verdant Plains, the: The cominant geographical feature of Ruthgar. The Verdant Plains are favored by green drafters.

* Voril: a small own two days from Ru.

* Weasel Rock: a neighborhood in Big Jasper dominated by narrow alleys

* Weedling: A small coastal village in Ru close to Ruic Head.

* Widdershins: a direction; Counter-sunwise.

* Wiwurgh: a parian town that hosts many Blood Forest refugees from the Blood War.

* Zigarro: rolled tobacco, a form useful for smoking. Ratweed is sometiems used as a wrapping to hold the loose tobacco.