New Edition
Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 4:16 pm
This is where I'm going to be keeping the draft as it gets fleshed out and updated so that it doesn't get lost over a double handful of threads. I'll be adjusting it and updating it as things get finalized. The first six posts are going to be primarily fluff, with the ones afterwards being used for mechanics.
Sumeru
The world that the action of New Edition takes place in is called Sumeru. It is the name of the world and also the name of a continent where the action is assumed to mostly take place. Also it is the name of a very large mountain in the middle of that continent which is a tremendous and long dormant volcano. There are a number of other worlds: Asuraloka, Naraka, Pretaloka, Tiryagyoni, and Yâma. These worlds exist separately from Sumeru and also overlap in specific places, both literally and figuratively.
There are places in Sumeru which are also places in Yâma or one of the other worlds. While you are in those places you are literally in both places. You can enter these shared locations from either world, and you can leave these locations to either world. There is usually a trick to getting from one world to the other from these places, which may be as complicated as following a specific path, or as simple as outright deciding where you want to be.
Sumeru also has places where the magic of one of the other worlds holds sway. These are called nodes if you can't physically travel through them and portals if you can. There are one-way portals, where monsters from the other worlds pop out at various intervals, and two-way portals which are more like doors or overlapping locations that are simply extremely thin.
Sumeru is in many ways the least magical of the worlds, but it is also the center upon which all other worlds rest.
Dharma: Animals, People, and Monsters
All creatures have a Dharma. A path that they are supposed to follow. If they do it well, they are supposed to come back in a better state next time around. If they do it badly, they are supposed to be punished with a worse form next time. Of course, supposed to is somewhat loose in this case, as they
The Dharma for people is to do good things, avoid excess, and become as enlightened as possible. Also to be useful and productive at whatever it is that they do. People in Sumeru can draw power from one or more of the other worlds by aligning their life and their meditations with them. Not everyone does this, and those who don't will never really be that important in the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately for people in general, it's Kali Yurga right now, and basically none of them will actually get the promised rewards on the completion of their lives. Which means that many people have turned to wickedness on the grounds that it hardly seems to matter any more.
Monsters get a substantial amount of power just from being born. They start the race of life at a dead run and halfway down the track. To make things even more totally unfair, their dharma really is to rampage around, destroy things, and in some cases even eat people. Doing those horrible things well may get them reincarnated as a higher form of monster when they die. Seriously. But while a sphinx or a rakshasa is a terribly potent individual, their potential is not unlimited. The greatest of the people exceed the greatest of the monsters.
Animals have a dharma as well, which is to go around being a boar or a chicken or whatever it is that they do. When exposed to the portals to other worlds, they can become infused with otherworldly power. This causes them to leave their dharma and become very powerful. But this is actually quite bad for them in the long run, as every moment a chicken spends as a cockatrice destroying life with its breath is a moment that it is not spending living as a chicken, which means that it isn't following its dharma and it won't get reincarnated into something better. These monstrous animals are often driven to destructive madness, and you're generally doing them a favor by killing them.
There are also monstrous people, creatures which were long ago spawned from the interactions of Sumeru and the other worlds. They are extremely powerful, but they are still from Sumeru and can potentially aspire to being even greater. Yes, trolls and yak folk are better than you, and it;a not fair.
Finally, there are races of legend. These are monsters who came to steal the potential of Sumeru. They are very, very powerful. They can usually draw on powers aligned to more than one otherworld. And they have substantial potential to become world threats. However, these abominations had to tell their Dharma to go pound sand in order to get where they are, so their mere presence unravels reality somewhat and they are generally bad to have around. Fortunately, they are rare.
Castes
There are three Varnas:
Using and Abandoning Castes
The established castes are lists of preselected abilities for each level. A character who is a member of a caste can be advanced to a certain level simply by grabbing all the powers listed for the caste up to that level, making the creation of PCs and NPCs of specific level relatively easy.
As characters go up in level they are perfectly able to select other powers than the ones preselected for their caste. Heck, if they so choose they can select exactly the powers and abilities offered to another caste. This can be a decent role playing hook, as many within the world of Sumeru have an intolerance or fear of those who abandon their caste. But there is no game mechanical penalty for doing this, indeed a character who abandons the caste they are born into and attains great things may well establish a new caste where those who come after them will take the same ability set as they go up in levels, naming their caste after the legendary hero who first blazed that trail. This can happen regardless of whether the original hero was rebelling against the caste system or simply doing what felt natural to them at the time.
Disguising one's caste: A caste is a whole way of life, a system of training, and a job in life. But it's also a fashion template, a set of arbitrary prohibitions and traditions, and a set of favored tools. Many castes have specific outfits that they are supposed to wear to mark themselves. One can simply not wear that and make it fairly difficult to spot one's true caste. Indeed, if a character has abandoned their caste, it doesn't really matter what they wear. Wearing the garb of another caste is sometimes considered flattery and sometimes considered to be a grave insult.
Races of People
There are 10 races of people in Sumeru. Roughly speaking, each race is mostly aligned with one or another of the other worlds. Not every hobgoblin draws power from another world. Many of them simply farm rice and do their thing. And not every hobgoblin who does draw power from another world draws it from Naraka, but as a stereotype it has a reason for existing. More hobgoblins draw power from Naraka than any two other worlds. So while the assumption that a hobgoblin Kshatriya is of the Darkness Warrior caste is wrong more often than it is right, it is correct more often than any other assumption would be and a lot of people in the worlds actually make that assumption.
The ten sapient races of Sumeru cannot interbreed successfully. No matter how much a vanara and a gremlin love each other, they will never be able to have children. There are no half-human/ half-garudas in the world. The different races can and do live in the same cities as one another, but like chickens and goats who share the same barn, there will never be offspring between them.
Sumeru
The world that the action of New Edition takes place in is called Sumeru. It is the name of the world and also the name of a continent where the action is assumed to mostly take place. Also it is the name of a very large mountain in the middle of that continent which is a tremendous and long dormant volcano. There are a number of other worlds: Asuraloka, Naraka, Pretaloka, Tiryagyoni, and Yâma. These worlds exist separately from Sumeru and also overlap in specific places, both literally and figuratively.
There are places in Sumeru which are also places in Yâma or one of the other worlds. While you are in those places you are literally in both places. You can enter these shared locations from either world, and you can leave these locations to either world. There is usually a trick to getting from one world to the other from these places, which may be as complicated as following a specific path, or as simple as outright deciding where you want to be.
Sumeru also has places where the magic of one of the other worlds holds sway. These are called nodes if you can't physically travel through them and portals if you can. There are one-way portals, where monsters from the other worlds pop out at various intervals, and two-way portals which are more like doors or overlapping locations that are simply extremely thin.
Sumeru is in many ways the least magical of the worlds, but it is also the center upon which all other worlds rest.
Dharma: Animals, People, and Monsters
All creatures have a Dharma. A path that they are supposed to follow. If they do it well, they are supposed to come back in a better state next time around. If they do it badly, they are supposed to be punished with a worse form next time. Of course, supposed to is somewhat loose in this case, as they
The Dharma for people is to do good things, avoid excess, and become as enlightened as possible. Also to be useful and productive at whatever it is that they do. People in Sumeru can draw power from one or more of the other worlds by aligning their life and their meditations with them. Not everyone does this, and those who don't will never really be that important in the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately for people in general, it's Kali Yurga right now, and basically none of them will actually get the promised rewards on the completion of their lives. Which means that many people have turned to wickedness on the grounds that it hardly seems to matter any more.
Monsters get a substantial amount of power just from being born. They start the race of life at a dead run and halfway down the track. To make things even more totally unfair, their dharma really is to rampage around, destroy things, and in some cases even eat people. Doing those horrible things well may get them reincarnated as a higher form of monster when they die. Seriously. But while a sphinx or a rakshasa is a terribly potent individual, their potential is not unlimited. The greatest of the people exceed the greatest of the monsters.
Animals have a dharma as well, which is to go around being a boar or a chicken or whatever it is that they do. When exposed to the portals to other worlds, they can become infused with otherworldly power. This causes them to leave their dharma and become very powerful. But this is actually quite bad for them in the long run, as every moment a chicken spends as a cockatrice destroying life with its breath is a moment that it is not spending living as a chicken, which means that it isn't following its dharma and it won't get reincarnated into something better. These monstrous animals are often driven to destructive madness, and you're generally doing them a favor by killing them.
There are also monstrous people, creatures which were long ago spawned from the interactions of Sumeru and the other worlds. They are extremely powerful, but they are still from Sumeru and can potentially aspire to being even greater. Yes, trolls and yak folk are better than you, and it;a not fair.
Finally, there are races of legend. These are monsters who came to steal the potential of Sumeru. They are very, very powerful. They can usually draw on powers aligned to more than one otherworld. And they have substantial potential to become world threats. However, these abominations had to tell their Dharma to go pound sand in order to get where they are, so their mere presence unravels reality somewhat and they are generally bad to have around. Fortunately, they are rare.
Castes
There are three Varnas:
- Brahmin – “Scholars and Magicians,” the color of Brahmin varna is white.
- Kshatriya – “Warriors and Leaders,” the color of the Kshatriya varna is red.
- Vaishya – “Merchants and Artisans,” the color of the Vaishya varna is yellow.
Using and Abandoning Castes
The established castes are lists of preselected abilities for each level. A character who is a member of a caste can be advanced to a certain level simply by grabbing all the powers listed for the caste up to that level, making the creation of PCs and NPCs of specific level relatively easy.
As characters go up in level they are perfectly able to select other powers than the ones preselected for their caste. Heck, if they so choose they can select exactly the powers and abilities offered to another caste. This can be a decent role playing hook, as many within the world of Sumeru have an intolerance or fear of those who abandon their caste. But there is no game mechanical penalty for doing this, indeed a character who abandons the caste they are born into and attains great things may well establish a new caste where those who come after them will take the same ability set as they go up in levels, naming their caste after the legendary hero who first blazed that trail. This can happen regardless of whether the original hero was rebelling against the caste system or simply doing what felt natural to them at the time.
Disguising one's caste: A caste is a whole way of life, a system of training, and a job in life. But it's also a fashion template, a set of arbitrary prohibitions and traditions, and a set of favored tools. Many castes have specific outfits that they are supposed to wear to mark themselves. One can simply not wear that and make it fairly difficult to spot one's true caste. Indeed, if a character has abandoned their caste, it doesn't really matter what they wear. Wearing the garb of another caste is sometimes considered flattery and sometimes considered to be a grave insult.
Races of People
There are 10 races of people in Sumeru. Roughly speaking, each race is mostly aligned with one or another of the other worlds. Not every hobgoblin draws power from another world. Many of them simply farm rice and do their thing. And not every hobgoblin who does draw power from another world draws it from Naraka, but as a stereotype it has a reason for existing. More hobgoblins draw power from Naraka than any two other worlds. So while the assumption that a hobgoblin Kshatriya is of the Darkness Warrior caste is wrong more often than it is right, it is correct more often than any other assumption would be and a lot of people in the worlds actually make that assumption.
The ten sapient races of Sumeru cannot interbreed successfully. No matter how much a vanara and a gremlin love each other, they will never be able to have children. There are no half-human/ half-garudas in the world. The different races can and do live in the same cities as one another, but like chickens and goats who share the same barn, there will never be offspring between them.