Post/Author/DateTime	Post
rankrath 09-19-07, 07:13 PM	ok, so after lurking on this board for a few months I finally got off my rear and started working on a project. This is my first homebrew work, and I'm not sure how cohesive it is (working while stuck at home with food poisoning). All comments are welcomed, thanks in advance. Balskiva A low magic campaign setting. Section 1: Gods and planes. The gods The gods in Balskiva are based around the calendar, so to understand them one must first know the Balskivan calendar. The year is broken up into eight months, each twenty-eight days long, for a total of 224 days per year. Weeks are still seven days long and days are still twenty-four hours. Each god has a month named after them, and that month is the time when that god’s power is the strongest. Two gods also share each season, and depending on when their month falls, they are known as the first and second god of each season. Goddess of first spring: Mola’ena Month: Mola The first month of the year, Mola is a time of renewal, for Mola’ena is the god of healing and of rebirth, providing the earth with care after the ravages of winter. She is the lover of Suil’vipis, god of first summer, and the enemy of Hyl, goddess of second winter. Her favorite weapon is the quarterstaff. Common followers of Mola’ena include druids, rangers, and clerics of the animal and healing domains. Domains: animal, healing, plant, and earth. Alignment: Neutral. weapon: longsword God of second spring: Sel’vagem Month: Sel God of tricks, drink and music, nothing pleases Sel’vagem more than a good party or practical joke. Carefree and unattached, his followers know not to expect too much in the way of aid or blessing, and even the clerics don’t seem to take him seriously. At the end of each month, Sel’vagem’s followers hold massive celebrations at their temples, and he graces the best one with his presence. Common followers include bards, good and neutral rogues, barbarians and brewers. Alignment: Chaotic neutral Domains: chaos, trickery, luck, travel, war Favorite weapon: rapier. God of first summer: Suil’vipis Month: Suil God of growth, Suil’vipis is the god of farmers and others who survive by working and hunting from the land. In love with Mola’ena, Suil’vipis once married Hyl, however he left her after she revealed her true nature. Alignment: chaotic good Domains: good, chaos, plant, earth, protection Weapon: sickle God of second Summer: Guoru Month: Guo The god of war, Guoru is fierce and vicious, hating quite and cold, and reveling in war and fire. He often touches off forest fires for fun, and loathes both Hyl and K’reou, the winter deities. Common followers include barbarians, fighters, and pyromaniacly inclined spellcasters. Alignment: chaotic good. Domains: war, chaos, destruction, fire, strength Weapon: bastard sword. Goddess of first autumn: Bou’loam Month: Boul Goddess of harvest, Bou’loam sees it as her job to make sure everyone has enough to make it through the winter. Sister of Sel’vegam, she shares his affinity for celebrations and drink, and encourages religious ceremonies to be harvests and parties, thanking the gods for the crop they raised. Common followers are druids, alignment: neutral good Domains: good, protection, earth, healing, weapon: sickle Goddess of second autumn: Del’fst Month: Del Goddess of death, Del’fst is morose and serious. Taking no joy in life, Del’fst sees it as her sole goal in life to bring an end to the summer celebrations. She tolerates Hyl and K’reuo, and cannot stand any other god. Common followers include undertakers, necromancers and chartered accountants. Alignment: lawful neutral Domains: death, destruction, earth, law Weapon: all axes. Goddess of first winter: Hyl Month: Hyl’mad Known as the scornful one to her followers, Hyl is a goddess of deception and seduction. Full of wrath, she is quick to anger and takes cruel revenge for the slightest offensives, and condemns those she sees as the perpetrators of a major offensive to freeze forever. Hyl seduced and married Suil’vipis back at the dawn of the world, bearing a son, then showed him the “kinky” side of her personality, driving Suil’vipis away out of horror. Alignment: Lawful evil Domains: evil, law, trickery, death, knowledge. Weapon: dagger and whip God of second winter: K’reuo Month: Kre Guoru’s brother and opposite, K’reuo is just as unpredictable as Guoru, however rather than torching fires and causing panic, K’reuo prefers slower, more certain means of destruction, freezing the unwary traveler slowly and destroying farms with icy blizzards. Common followers include mages who favor ice over fire, methodical rogues, and evil druids. Alignment: Neutral evil Domains: evil, death, destruction, war, air Weapon: mace The Planes The planar system in Balskiva contains twelve planes, split into three groups. The Material plane and Hell are “real” planes, i.e., creatures on these planes not natively of the mythical plane have real substance. The material plane holds all normal and magical creatures, and hell is the home of the demons and devils. The Mythical plane serves as the gateway between all planes, and links the alignment planes and the real planes. The only creatures natively of the mythical plane are those that would be incorporeal or ethereal on the material plane. The nine planes of alignment are the living place of outsiders, and they live on the planes respective of their alignment. Note that demons and devils occupy Hell, not the chaotic evil plane.
rankrath 09-20-07, 04:56 PM	section two up. Section 2: Rule and Fluff changes Magic Arcane Magic is another element, similar to fire, earth, air or water. Most people have no idea of the type of forces that surround them, as only a select few, known as adapts, bards and sorcerers can sense this fifth element. Adapts are those with a “limited” connection to magic. Bards manifest their power through the arts, and sorcerers are those who are the most in tune with arcane magic. Note that wizards are not a playable class in Balskiva. One would think that with such an abundance of magic, powerful spell are easy to use, but that is not the case. When one casts any spell that involves interplanar travel, all spells of the polymorph school, and all ninth level spells ,they must make a DC 15 + the spell level will save or become fatigued. Also, wish, limited wish, and time stop are all now divine spells. Divine: Divine magic is power requested and granted by the gods. As such, Paladins, druids and rangers must worship a god in the same way clerics do, but they do not gain domain spells. Druids can loose their power in the same way a cleric and paladin can, but only if they cause massive intentional damage to the natural world, such as burning down a forest without sufficient reason. Ninth level divine spells and spells that bring people back to life will only be granted by the gods after spending 24 hours per spell in meditation and prayer, and the caster must rest for eight hours after. Limited wish, wish and time stop will only be granted to extremely devout worshipers after 48 hours of prayer and meditation, and even then only at the discretion of the deity. The caster must then rest for 16 hours after attempting to secure wish, limited wish, or time stop. Extraplannar travel: Any spell involving extraplannar travel, including the restraints already on them, have a 30% chance of having the opposite effect, i.e. banishing the caster to plane they were trying to summon creatures from, or bringing a random creature from the plane the caster was trying to travel to. (Monsters of correct alignment only) Undead: Undead of any kind are not evil or “unholy” and therefore cannot be turned or rebuked, nor do druids consider them unnatural. Skeletons and Zombies are just bodies that have been animated, such as an object would be, and are therefore are of neutral alignment. To replace the lost turn or rebuke attempts, clerics gain the ability to smite evil if the are of good alignment, and smite good if they are evil. Neutral clerics may choose either. Attempts to raise undead fail 25% of the time, and have a 10% chance of turning on their creator as soon as they are raised. Magic Items: Items that cost 1,000gp and more cannot be created or purchased, they must be found by the party at the DM’s discretion. Races Racial variants: No racial variants, such as drow, duegar, sea elves, or suchlike exist. Elves are elves, dwarves are dwarves, and gnomes are gnomes. Dwarves: -2 charisma is replaced by -2 dexterity. Dwarves are tough but not nimble or fast. Half-orcs: Half-orcs no longer suffer from a -2 charisma penalty Favored classes no longer exist, xp penalties for multiclassing only apply if character has more than two different classes.