What Thunder Brings

Recruitment Thread

Character Creation

• Characters must have a name, description and personality sketch when they are submitted.
• Use the standard attribute array.
• PHB races.
• PHB classes, plus the Artificer UA, the Death Domain in the DMG, and Xanathar's Guide.
• Use backgrounds, feel free to make up your own ideals/flaws/bonds, etc. Custom backgrounds need approval.
• Use the class equipment packages or roll for starting gold at the player's discretion.

PbP Notes

• The DM does the rolling. I use rolz.org, and I label rolls for transparency. I will provide a link to the campaign room once the game is off the ground.
• Keep your character updated. Not just mechanically, but major events, personality changes, etc.
• This wiki is a resource for everybody. If you like an NPC, put them on the wiki. If something is relevant to your character, put it on the wiki. If you want to remember it, put it on the wiki. I would prefer the wiki getting cluttered to it staying bare bones.
• Lay out a basic strategy for your reactions on your character sheet. If you want to do something novel with your reaction, say so in the OOC thread.
• During combat, social scenes, etc, declare your intent and action, referencing mechanics as needed, in the OOC thread; this is an adjunct post to the IC posts.

Posting Guide

• Tell me your intention (what you want to accomplish), your action (what you attempt to do) and your method (how you attempt to do something).
• Post with purpose. Posts should push the action forward, uncover information or reveal something about the character. Preferably two or more of those at once!
• Banter is fine as long as things are moving.
• Avoid getting caught in the politeness spiral. Pick a direction, post it, and if other characters want to do something else, then that's rp fodder!
• I am aiming for four to five purposeful posts from each player every week. More is fine, but 4-5 is a good ballpark.
• If you are planning on an absence, please let me know.
• If for some reason you fall behind on posting, don't fret, just jump back in. Everyone goes through lulls occasionally.
• If you are no longer interested or no longer have the time to play, please let me know you are withdrawing. There will be no hard feelings, and not only is it polite, it keeps The Wyzard from blacklisting you.

Setting

Bright Council

The Bright Council is an assembly of communities and powers formed of the various cooperating peoples. The Council is several centuries old and is extremely proud of the fact that it has never waged a war of conquest, instead expanding by reasoned diplomacy (and perhaps also by econonic pressure and the occasional 'defensive war until the enemy is willing to talk'). It is one of three major nations on the continent, and the only one that allows people of any race to join.

Bright Council lands are divided into provinces, representing at first historic powers that made up the council, and later planned colonial zones on the frontier. Each province elects a Councillor to the Bright Council, who serves a five year term. The Council appoints an Administrator to each province. In the older provinces, the Administrator serves as an overlay to the local government, but in the frontier provinces they act as the head of the local government. Cities within a province elect their own Mayors, who may have a council of elected Aldermen serving under them. Rural areas within a province are divided into Districts, who elect Ministers to serve under the Administrator.

There are a number of standing bureaus serving the Council, headed up by Committees of Councillors.

Military

The Bright Council maintains an army, navy and cloud navy. Cities have independent militias, which have their arms distributed to them as needed and cannot be called as auxiliaries to the army; they serve as peace keepers and fire fighters during peace time. Districts have levies, which keep their arms individually, but may be called up by the army during local campaigns. The Bright Council focuses on magical and technological superiority, and have a fair number of mages in the military. They also have a substantial weight of cannons and muskets, provided by the dwarven members of the Council.

Religion

Many gods are worshipped in Council lands. The gods have their own churches and philosophies, and their worship is only very tenously unified, with the Convocation agreeing to share common areas for temples and not to fight each other too openly. Not all gods have access to all types of divine clerics and paladins, and gods are often associated with various professions and magical schools. These gods are active, if distant, participants in the grand experiment of the Bright Council, and have been known to visit their faithful.

The Divine Convocation

• Ishanna, the Thunderbolt Goddess. She embodies inspiration, surprise, justice, war, storms, lightning and fast travel. Her clerics are Knowledge, War and Tempest, her paladins are Vengeance and Devotion. Many evokers and transmuters revere her.
• Efuna, the Green Lord. He embodies agriculture, herding, fertility, healing, both parents and students, the harvest. His clerics are Nature and Life, his paladins Devotion.
• Shaliitu, the Demon Huntress. She embodies the wilderness, self-sufficiency, the frontier and boundaries. She hates the infernal and associates with the fey. Her paladins are Ancients, and many rangers and druids follow her, as do some conjurers and abjurers.
• Milvanu, the Goddess of War and Money. She embodies war and money, but also trade, deception, politics and ambition. Her clerics are War and Trickery, and many evokers and illusionists venerate her.
• Ilatu, the Upraised Fist. He embodies theft, rebellion, freedom and community. His clerics are Trickery, his paladins Vengeance. Many rogues worship him, as do some illusionists.
• Belshah, the Singing Lady. She embodies song, dance, poetry, theater, stories and etiquette. Her clerics are Knowledge, and she is the first bard. Some enchanters worship her.
• Nindavu, the Doom God. He rules the fire at the end of the world, and embodies destruction and fate. His clerics are Light, his warlocks follow him as the Great Old One. Diviners and some necromancers revere him.
• Endafu, the Raven Queen. Child of Efuna and Nindavu, she guards the sanctity of death and the dead. Her clerics are Death and the Grave, her scions shadow sorcerers. A few necromancers worship her as well.

Alpine Province

This province is a frontier settlement, meant to provide a buffer between the Council and the mountain monsters, as well as to serve as a trade post with the traders that come through the pass. It encompasses the near slopes of the mountain range, the lowland valley below and the river that cuts through the valley.

High Home

This large town has a population of roughly 5,000, mostly of dwarves and humans, though there are a variety of small families and new settlers. It is located below the treeline of the largest local mountain, placed on a defensible outcropping of rock. It is ringed by low walls and maintains an active levy to defend against goblins and the monsters of the mountains. It serves as the center of the High Home District, and is supported by the farming and herding of the rural communities around it. The district, including the town, has a population of roughly 20,000.

High Home is roughly divided between the dwarven half and the human and others one. The dwarves moved there several centuries ago when their mountaintop city-fort was crushed by goblins. The streets are cobbled where they aren't bare stone, and the town has a small market, a dairy, a village blacksmith, and a redsmith in the walls, with a smelter and a tanner outside the city. High Home operates a substantial quarry that supplies most of the province with stone, a small tin mine that supplies all the tin goods to the province with a small surplus of tin ingots besides, and several small iron mines that supply the district with a small surplus. The dwarves handle most of the mining. The other half of town does most of the farming, with some growing orchards of alpine apples and gardens of alpine strawberries, and the rest herding their distinctive brown cattle for milk and meat, or their large mountain sheep for mutton and wool. Hunting is common pastime.

The town has grown quite a bit and space on the rock is getting a little cramped; the dwarves have started adding second stories to their buildings, while the humans are digging cellars in the stone below their homes.

Errat

Errat is the provincial capitol, and has nearly 20,000 citizens. It contains the Administrative palace, a temple plaza, a small cannonworks and an Academy extension, as well as a riverside dock and a cloudship landing field. The city is a center of trade and learning, has a diverse population, and has walls and guards. They tend to regard the citizens of High Home as somewhat backwards and superstitious, even while they recognize their bravery. Errat has a mayor and council of aldermen.

North District

The Northern district lies in the valley north of the river and into the hills opposite the mountains. It has a population of 40,000 and is heavily focused on agriculture, harvesting rich crops of wheat and barley.

South District

The Southern district lies between the river and the mountains. They have about 40,000 citizens and are also farmers. Being closer to the mountains and the dangers therein, they take the people of High Home a little more seriously.