Chapter One: People and Places
justice in the name of the Diamond Throne. Ironically, the Diamond Throne disavowed—or perhaps simply dismissed— the order almost immediately because it was not a giantish organization. (A giantish order called the Knights of the Diamond serves the Diamond Throne throughout the realm.) Sir Redic, who claimed knighthood by right of blood (he traced his lineage back to the nobles of Sennes), was outraged at this slight. The Order of the Axe rededicated itself to those original goals—order, peace, and justice—but as a group in opposition to the throne. Thus, the Order of the Axe became a contradiction: a group dedicated to upholding order but not supporting the rule of those in power. They work outside the bounds of law to seek justice. They protect the innocent, but not always through lawful means. The Order of the Axe does not seek open rebellion but would like to see, one day, the return of the individual kingdoms, duchies, and principalities that controlled the land 1,700 years ago.
The Runepriests Related to the ancient Cult of the Fleshrunes, the Runepriests revere the power of the runechildren. However, they do not worship this power. In fact, contrary to their name, they are not a true religious organization at all. The Runepriests’ primary goal is to artificially recreate the Rune Messiah. The Runepriests have established small “temples” throughout the realm where they engage in clandestine research. This research involves using magic and alchemy on kidnap victims— some runechildren, some not—in order to discover the source of the runechild’s abilities, how to instill these abilities into nonrunechildren, and how to control and increase the potency of the whole process. Each Runepriest temple works individually. In a sense, they work competitively, although it is not a hostile competition, and Runepriests from one temple sometimes work with those of another on a joint project. Some Runepriests have established controlled breeding programs, where they manipulate communities (often magically) so that desirable candidates marry and produce offspring. They seek to engineer a certain strain they believe to be more conducive to runechildren and eventually the Rune Messiah. This, obviously, is an incredibly long-term plan. Sometimes membership in the Runepriests is a secret. Secret members can play “matchmaker” in a village or town to facilitate the group’s breeding programs or maintain a position in a community to watch for candidates for experiments. However, the Runepriest temples are not secret, and some members are very open. Most people simply have no idea what goes on inside them, or what the Runepriests’ real goals are.
The Cosmology The number of planes of existence, magisters theorize, is infinite. Some are truly alien realms with their own logic and physics and bizarre inhabitants. Others are closer alternate dimensions that hold worlds not terribly unlike the one we are all familiar with.
Heavens and Hells These realms do not fit into easy categories, although some planes are more heavenly or hellish than others. Angelic beings inhabit the more heavenly planes, and demons or devils the hellish planes. These exist in varying degrees, so that the pleasant and unpleasant qualities of the plane diverge from minor aspects to nearly unimaginable extremes. Some learned scholars suggest that these effects may relate to the planes’ “cosmological proximity” to the theoretical planes of ultimate positive energy and ultimate negative energy. Those places, of course, are what greenbonds call the Green and the Dark.
Planar Movements and Conjunctions As time passes, the world of Serran and the plane it inhabits comes into conjunction with some planes and moves “away” from others. This means that, during certain periods, extradimensional connections (allowing travel, communication, and conjuration effects) work 100 percent of the time. When this world is not in full conjunction with another plane, there is between a 99 percent and 0 percent chance for such connections to function, or function properly. A Knowledge (cosmology) check (DC 15) allows a character to predict which planes are in conjunction at any given time. A check (DC 20) provides the chance of success to establish a connection if two planes are not in conjunction.
Outsiders on Serran Despite the fact that interplanar travel is not terribly common, nor is the summoning of creatures from other planes, Serran still harbors many creatures not native to the world. The presence of the vast majority of these aliens is due to the dramojh’s use of the phase heart to rip inhabitants, objects, and places from other planes. Thus, if one is interested in outsiders, one need go no further than the bizarre land of Thartholan. Some of those kidnapped outsiders (or, more often, their descendants) have left Thartholan and now live elsewhere in the realm. For example, the fire-loving hell-hound packs mostly migrated to the dry, hot climes of the Southern Wastes. Occasionally, a demon or angel (or similar creature) whose truename falls into the hands of a powerful mage will find itself on Serran. Even after the mage dismisses it, the creature’s attention might remain drawn to this world, leading it to interfere in the affairs of its inhabitants. For example, adventurers fighting a coven of harrids might learn that their master is actually a powerful demon working from the shadows. This is the exception, however, not the norm. Beyond the bounds of Thartholan, outsiders are extremely rare.
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