Hoi Lan Fa, the Orchid Upon the Sea, was once a small port city at the southern edge of the Jin Empire. It was known for its half-submerged beauty, with canals cutting between the summer homes of the northern gentry and pouring into floating garden shrines. Also known as the "Fragrant Bay", mountain mists would roll down over the city on cold spring mornings, carrying the heavy smell of the flowering forests. The common fishers lived along the mainland coast, Saifeng, while the aristocrats of the Ten Yellow Houses lived across the bay on Orchid Island, carving their estates into the mountain sides.
After a ten year war between the Jin Empire and the Olgaeth Republic, Hoi Lan Fa became a colony of the global dwarven empire. Under colonial rule (or “guidance”), Hoi Lan Fa expanded from a small seaside town to a bustling port city, encompassing the entire peninsula as well as all the surrounding islands. 150 years later, the deva in the western continent of Baharam ousted the dwarves from their lands, and the entire empire collapse in what is called the Great Liberation.
A century later, the common people of Hoi Lan Fa now hurry down the streets to make the public ferry across Arrow Bay with silk scarves wrapped around their faces. Being late to their double shift at the factory means not just docked pay but fines for wasting company time. The thick fog lightens at dawn. The bankers and traders have breakfast at the second-floor cafes before work, while the Phoenix Daily shills call up to the balconies to offer the headlines of the day. University assistants run up to the open kitchen downstairs to place orders for their masters, while students run past the other way to class. The air is especially bad today and the boats can barely navigate through the trash-filled canals; the city sanitation workers are on the fourth day of their strike.
This is the only city of its kind in Saigai, a metropolis where races from all over the world work side-by-side, where technology is finally recovered from the loss of dwarven science to begin to lead the world into the future, where a single city can be torn asunder or saved by a band of adventurers.
This post is meant to be an overview to introduce players to the setting and to guide their character creation. I mainly want it to be accessible.
Hoi Lan Fa 海蘭花
Hoi Lan Fa is a port city undergoing rapid industrialization and the wealth and poverty that comes with it. While a colony, it was used as a port city by the dwarves and it has remained a center of trade since its liberation a century ago. The people of Hoi Lan Fa, though diverse, are commonly proud of their city as a vanguard of technological progress and of political freedom. Many see their city as blazing the path to the future for the world.
Legislative Council. The legislative body of Hoi Lan Fa is made up of ten councilors. Five of these are elected by popular vote, and the other five are chosen by functional constituencies: the Ten Yellow Houses, the New Territories, the indigenous elves, Culture and Education, and Industry.
Saifeng. The mainland side of Arrow Bay, Saifeng is where most working and professional class folk live in the city, as well as most of the city’s businesses and shops. Saifeng rests in a river valley among the mountainous coast, though the natural waterways have been diverted into the brackish canals that have seen better days.
Arrow Bay. The busy throughway between Saifeng and Orchid Island, Arrow Bay is named for the days during the Jin-Olgaeth war when defenders of Saifeng and Orchid Island rained arrows upon the dwarven ships for days. It is said that the sea floor is completely covered in arrowheads.
Orchid Island. The island side of Arrow Bay, the mountainous Orchid Island remains home to the city’s wealthy in the east but the western side of the island, which had been relatively undeveloped before the dwarves, has become the city’s industrial center. Between the two sides, the rapid development of Saifeng has spilled across Arrow Bay.
Saigai 世界
Saigai, as the Jin call the world, is home to diverse peoples but they are finding each day that the world is shrinking around them. This sections is broken up into the three major continents of the world. Roheisen is the largest continent, stretch from the far north to the far south, and has the greatest racial diversity, though it began with only humans, eladrin, halflings, and orcs. Baharam is the next largest continent and is characterized by its large eastern desert. Only minimal interaction had happened between these two continents in the past, and only between the dragonborn and the orcs, but Baharam and Roheisen are growing more familiar. Most isolated from the other two continents is Gheim, a small, very mountainous continent most dominated by fierce creatures and even more ferocious weather.
Roheisen
Jin Empire. After the Jin Empire signed an armistice with the Olgaeth Republic, ceding Hoi Lan Fa, the empire quickly fell into civil war with Emperor Yizong’s death. Even when the dust settled, the empire was plagued by a succession of weak rulers and fragile dynasties, as well as warlords and mage-kings and high priests who harbor the ambition characteristic of humanity.
Itsara Forests. The vast tropical forests of Itsara are home to the elves, though they make no territorial claims over it. Even if the fauna and flora were not already known for their lethality, the elves honor few promises and keep fewer alliances. Only fools wander into the forests without great reason.
Sixteenth Empire of the Silver Tusks. The orcs once ruled all of Roheisen, spreading their brand of military discipline; their great roads are still used by traders and travellers across this continent. Now, though, the empire is more a loose confederation of feudal princes who can barely hold off their internal bandits. Though military discipline is still valued by the common orc, most are simple pig keepers on the plains and fishers along the coasts. The emperor is rarely more than a figurehead, though the current reign has emphasized religious unity.
Haedai Kingdom. Ruled by twin monarchs, this human kingdom is known for its devotion to the spirit world. It has generally been quiet through history, passing in and out of tributary status with different nations.
Kakuriyo. The strange eladrin courts rule the islands of Kakuriyo, each of the four ruling for just a season. Few visit this land, though it is said that the eladrin come from lands as strange as their ways and the way there is hidden among these islands.
The League of Ash. Legend is that when the First Reich became too burdensome, twelve human heroes sought the favor of twelve great patrons who gave them the power to drive out the orcs. Each hero, transformed into tieflings, then established a city-state, each in honor of and guarded by one of the jealous gods of the League of Ash. A thousand years later, the city-states of the League are now dominated by tieflings, with the few pure humans forming an underclass.
Kotiritiri. Only the halflings have mapped out all of the Kotiritiri, whose islands are said to move and shift with the movement of the stars and moon. The islands are divided among the many halfling tribes and little kingdoms with different livelihoods, though the other races of Roheisen most often interact with the traders who come to the mainland.
Orcreach. The descendants of the orcs left in the far north when the First Reich retreated back to the southern plains. They still consider themselves part of the First Reich, though they are little more than scattered villagers living under jarls.
Baharam
The Baha’kar. Desert dominates western Baharam. Once home to a legendary dragonborn empire, the desert is now mostly empty, dotted by scattered dragonborn cities. Kobolds scramble about the desert, ambushing trading caravans, though some have moved to the mountains to the west.
Nchi. The homeland of the deva ranges from forests to savannah to flood plains. There is no real state here, though deva cities have expanded under the dwarves.
Assuracus. The reclusive minotaurs hide away on this island, shrouded in mists. Very little is known about the minotaurs’ home nation or culture.
Gheim
Olgaeth Republic. The mountain homes of the dwarves have fallen silent since the Great Liberation, and all attempts to access the mines have failed. Without the mines or the dwarves’ airships, their mountainside cities are inaccessible.
Valleys of Gheim. The goliaths are the only other intelligent race on Gheim. Where the dwarves retreated into the mountains from the dangers of the island, the goliaths have chosen to live each day in the cold, treacherous land.
Races
The races of Saigai are diverse and have traditionally lived in monoracial societies though interaction have always existed. In the city of Hoi Lan Fa, though, the races have begun to blend together, from the native humans and elves to the large immigrant community of deva, from the disgraced dwarves to the exotic dragonborn and minotaurs.
Races
Human. Passionate, ambitious, corruptible, humans make up the majority of Hoi Lan Fa’s population. The other races find humans to be unpredictable and prone to whimsy, but when a human believes in something, it is with the unbreakable fervor of a new convert.
Elf. Humble, free, and capricious. Once eladrin, the elves are said to have been cursed with earthliness. Humbled, the elves swore off the strict codes of their past lives and have embraced a life of freedom. Elves do not try to break promises, but rather, they see no need to be bound to them; one may as well try to bind the winds or seas. Some elves even practice trading children to encourage their youth to never form attachments. The elves of Hoi Lan Fa tend to be more settled, even those who continue to live in the forests, but they still have little affection for laws or homeownership.
Half-Elf. Self-sufficient, adventurous, and flighty. Due to the elves and the humans’ proximity, half-elves are not uncommon. Elves hold little prejudice against their half-human children, but humans tend to distrust half-elves, fearing that they share the elves’ tendency towards flightiness. They combine the ambition of humans and the wanderlust of elves to tend towards adventurousness. All children of humans and eladrin are half-elf, said that the mundaneness of humanity is much like the curse of elves.
Dwarf. Innovative, rational, and paternalistic. The dwarves are, at best, globally distrusted because of the Olgaeth Republic’s actions. For some, the dwarves will never be forgiven. The Great Liberation, for dwarves, was the Great Collapse, and the scattered dwarves around the world now are adrift. Much of their technology depended on creating leylines to form a mystic network that propelled their airships and carried their messages, and now the orphaned dwarves must make way in a world that is rightfully resentful of them. The children of dwarves and humans, the mul, face much of the prejudice that dwarves do.
Warforged. Steady, new to the world, and naïve. The first warforged were introduced by the dwarves to quell rebellious colonies and as elementals bound to armor. Today’s warforged were introduced by Industrialist Trung to work in his factories, especially as strikes became more common. Though most warforged seem to be automaton workers, a few warforged act independently in the world, with strange, vague memories.
Deva. Benevolent, restrained, and evangelical, the deva believe themselves divine beings embodied in flesh. In death, they physically reincarnate, fully-grown, but without memory of their past lives. The deva are preoccupied with their concept of neema, though they are divided in how it is achieved. Most deva in Hoi Lan Fa are wasafiri, the nomadic herders of the deva who settled in the port city after the dwarves had culled their herds. They believe neema is achieved through transcending the physical world, ultimately ending the punishment of reincarnation to return to their god, Jabari.
Orc (Half-Orc). Disciplined, bold, and aggressive. Orcs generally no longer have visions of empire, but they still maintain military discipline, even among the simple villagers. It is said that it is this unspent military instinct among young orcs that has created the problem of banditry. Perhaps because orcs will actually settle down with humans, half-orcs are actually more likely to come from stable homes in Hoi Lan Fa. Among the orc lands, half-orcs are common from the days of the First Reich; few are unmixed and full-blooded orcs are sometimes mistrusted as too aggressive.
Tiefling. Proud, cunning, and amoral, tieflings were once human but have since become something different. Though the tieflings were not the first to make infernal deals, the warlock arts are credited to this race. The arcane tradition is strong among the tieflings; even their religious orders tend to wield arcane magic rather than divine.
Eladrin. Honorable, skilled, and inexplicable, the eladrin maintain a complex, multi-tiered code of honor. All the eladrin share a standard code, which generally requires loyalty and courage, and each court has its own. Individuals and/or families may add additional rules of conduct. Breaking these rules is bane to the eladrin, but they have also developed a perverse joy of finding loopholes in their own rules. The eladrin favor arcane and psionic powers, both said to be connected to their esoteric, fae heritage. The art of the swordmage comes from the eladrin’s samurai class.
Shifter. Spirit-blessed, wild, and outcast. Born to human mothers, the nature of these creatures is not understood at all. Superstition says that shifters are the result of witchcraft or malicious spirits, while some of the non-human races snicker that humans can breed with anything, including their own cats and dogs. The shifters that are not killed as newborns tend to be left in the wild or at least raised in total seclusion.
Halfling. Charismatic, resourceful, and sneaky. Though diverse, the most common halflings among the mainland are traders (and in Hoi Lanfa, they are also favored to work in factories that require little hands to reach between gears). It is said that the reason halflings travel far to trade, though, is that their love of the oral tradition and are always seeking new songs and stories.
Dragonborn. Noble, chivalrous, and fundamentalist. Most dragonborn worship Bahamut, born when Io the First Dragon was torn apart. They tend to be conservative and rarely travel away from their desert cities or trade caravans, but a few seek to commit great justices in the world in the name of their god.
Goblin. Resilient, fearless, and nihilistic. Goblins lead short, brutal lives that end in short, brutal deaths. They have thus become strangely philosophical in their hard-scrabble life, though others sometimes interpret their dark and existential outlook as being malicious. Goblins are considered little more than pests in Hoi Lan Fa. Originally brought to the city by dwarves as shock troops and then labor, goblin gangs and beggars have become the plague of slums.
Gnoll. Life-affirming, fierce, and ravenous. To hunger is to live, according to the gnolls, and they live their lives accordingly. They have no great state and instead live in packs, and sometimes larger tribes, but always dominated by matriarchs. Stereotyped as savage cannibals, the gnolls have a deep appreciation for food and have a strong culinary tradition. It is the unmourned gnoll whose pack does not feast upon her corpse in death.
Minotaur. Steady, reclusive, and secretive. Coming from a land that no other races have ever visited, the wandering minotaurs divulge nothing of their homeland. These wanderers are often monks or shamans.
Goliath. Bold, boisterous, and vainglorious. Goliaths love life but more than that, they love recognition. Every goliath dreams of claiming glory in life and the worst fate is to die in obscurity.
Religions
Although some take the great power of the devout as proof of the existence of gods, there is little definitive proof of the divine. Religious practice varies wildly from culture to culture, and no mortal has heard of the "Astral Sea" and they instead postulate a variety of afterlives and/or divine realms.
Differentiation between the divine power source, the divine, and religion in general is important here. The divine power source objectively exists; it allows the divine classes like the cleric or the paladin to actually work. But the powers of the religious may come from any of the other power sources and individuals or organizations do not necessarily understand or recognize the difference. A warlock who worships a demon as a god, a druid who worships a personification of nature, and a cleric who worships an unverified deity may each create fire from nothing and their personal conceptualization of how that fire came to be may be identical.
Although the religions are centered on races or cultures, they are not exclusive to them. The religions of Roheisen, in particular, blends at borders and are most prone to syncretism. The religions of Baharam are more racially exclusive as they directly deal with the formation of the deva and the dragonborn races.
Religions of Roheisen
Pashen. The religion of Jin humans, Pashen centers eight major deities (shen) but also represents a vast system of ancestral worship. Each god is said to be an ancient Jin whose sublime wisdom allowed their deification. Little theological distinction is made between minor ancestral spirits and the major gods, except the major gods are seen as spiritual ancestors to Jin humans as a whole. Because of this lack of distinction, the primal and the divine traditions among the Jin are blurred, but the former generally tend to minor or local spirits and familial shrines while the latter focus on the eight shen. Although the eight shen are respected generally, they are rarely worshiped as a whole, having distinct domains.
Pashen Deities
Ci Wong Dai, the First Emperor, is the legendary originator of the Jin Empire. He is the most distant of the shen, taking watch over the Jin Empire rather than interceding on their behalf. He is worshiped as a patriarch of all Jin people and represents the need for order through honor and reciprocity. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Civilization, Justice, Protection, and Tyranny. He is said to hold the sun and the moon in his hands and is so worshiped by astrologers as well with the domains of Sun and Moon. In Fifth Edition, as protector of civilization and lord of the heavens, his domains are Life and Light.
Dong Wong, the Winter King, is said to sleep most of the year in the family hearth and dream the joys and misdeeds of the host family. When he awakens during the winter solstice, he travels up to Heaven to inform the First Emperor of the family's karma. A god of feasts and family, he has few temples, preferring kitchen shrines. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Fate, Hope, Love, Winter. In Fifth Edition, his domains are Nature and Life.
Ceon Si, the Spring Teacher, is said to be the original inventor of agriculture and husbandry who then taught humankind these arts. She emphasizes hard work, teaching that one's bounty or famine is the result of one's own ability and effort. Her primary domains are Knowledge and Life. Those who worship Ceon Si as the patron of craftspeople may attribute the Creation or Skill domains to her, and although she does not associate with magic herself, the Arcana domain is used by those who worship her as the patron of teachers including teachers of the arcane arts. Apothecaries and alchemists also worship Ceon Si as the god of the Poison domain. In Fifth Edition, her domains are Knowledge and Life.
Zoeng Fung, the General of Winds, is the summer god of war, who marshals the winds of death. A legendary general who attempted a coup against the emperor, he is still venerated for his great skill and passion in battle up until his very last breath. His rage takes the form of the southern winds in the summer, which brings terrible storms and in the flooding, disease. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Destruction, Sea, Storm, War, and Wilderness. In his aspect as a spreader of disease, Zoeng Fung also rules the Poison domain. In Fifth Edition, his domains are Tempest and War.
Cau Neoi, the Autumn Daughter, is seen as the effect to Ceon Si's cause. She protects people in their old age and oversees the passage of ghosts into her quiet realm, a hell where the dead mourn their misdeeds in life, meditate on the universe, or watch over their family. Rather than an arbiter of punishment or reward, Cau Neoi is simply seen to represent the natural consequence of actions, the necessary recession. She is said to be the first healer, preceding even death, but saw that without old age and death, there was great suffering and hunger in the world, and so became the first murderer. In Fourth Edition, her domains are Darkness, Death, Life and Fate. In Fifth Edition, her domain is Death and sometimes Life or Nature.
Zeoi Jau, the Drunk Wanderer, is the patron god of beggars, children, revolutionaries, and artists. He is an antagonistic figure towards the First Emperor, emphasizing spontaneity over ritual and teaching that good actions come effortlessly with humility and surrender to the inherent chaos of the universe. Many stories are told of this trickster figure whose wanderings bring misfortune and humiliation to those who abuse their power and wealth. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Change, Freedom, Luck, Madness, and Trickery. In Fifth Edition, his domain is Trickery.
Bagaai is the youngest of the shen and is the most passive of them all, acting as a model for ascetic living. Born a pig, he was the runt of his litter but grew large and powerful by securing gifts and powers from each of the seven shen. He abused this power, wallowed in lust, forced others to do his labor, and ate endlessly. His gifts were such that it made him immune to even the shen's punishments, and it was only by his own realization that he surrendered all his powers. His eighth sacrifice was his own porcine leg to a starving family, which is why his human form is depicted with an iron crutch. In this last sacrifice, he ascended to godhood. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Change, Freedom, Hope, and Strength. While Zeoi Jau champions social change and freedom of people, Bagaai epitomizes personal change and freedom from the physical. In Fifth Edition, his domain is Knowledge and sometimes Life for his clerics who focus on emulating his sacrifices to others.
Jyu Po, the Fish Grandmother, is the god of wealth and fortune and mother of feng shui. Said to be the legendary founder of feng shui practices, she was raised to immortality and divinity. She also represents humility and duties to one another, including the duty to share one's wealth. She is also concerned with face, both encouraging others to help others save face even in their most humiliating moments and punishing those who let their preoccupation with pride and status turn them cruel. She is also a protector of abused women. Her association with the sea is as a benevolent patron of fishers and she is said to ride upon a giant gold fish. In Fourth Edition, her domains are Civilization, Earth, Hope, Luck, and Sea. In Fifth Edition, her domain is mainly Trickery, though some worship her through the Nature or the Knowledge domains.
Haedai Throne. The Haedai religion centers the twin gods of the Sun (Hae) and the Moon (Dal), who rule over the spirits of nature. The gods are physically incarnate in the twin sovereigns of Haedai. The twins' domains are Hope, Justice, Sun, and Moon in Fourth Edition and Light in Fifth Edition. As the Haedai Kingdom's culture is heavily influenced by the Jin, they also recognize the divinity of most of the Pashen but as nature gods. The Spring Teacher (Bom Seonsaeng) and Autumn Daughter (Ga-Eul Ttal) are worshiped as a pair, as are the Winter King (Gyeoul Wang) and the Summer General (Yeoleum Daejang). Zeoi Jau is a cultural hero rather than a god, seen as the liberator of the Sun and Moon from the First Emperor's fists.
Leiterheim. The orcs once worshipped a robust pantheon of animal gods but they have all diminished in prominence to obscurity, with Leiter of the Roads becoming the patron deity of the orcs' ancient empire. Leiter of the Roads is the boar god of the moon, his tusks represented by the crescent moon. As indicated by his name, Leiter watches over all roads and it is said that his charge through the night sky carves the path from the material world to the final afterlife of orcs, Leiterheim. Those who worship Leiter emphasize military discipline in their everyday lives and pray to Leiter to control the unpredictable. Leiter of the Road's primary domains are Civilization, Moon, Strength, and War. Those who worship Leiter as a patron of empires also turn to the Creation, Skill, and Tyranny domains. In Fifth Edition, his main domain is War, with a few clerics turning to Light for the moon god.
The Celestial Court. The eladrin worship their pantheon of constellation gods as a whole, with the current ruler of the night sky enthroned on the moon. Like the eladrin, the celestial beings rotate rule among themselves. Currently, the god Tsusaki sits on the moon in the Age of the Rabbit. Those who worship the Celestial Court in general have access to the domains of Change, Civilization, Fate, and Moon in Fourth Edition and to the domain of Light in Fifth Edition.
Celestial Courtiers
Tsusaki ushered in the Age of the Rabbit as one of great beauty and art. Her priests teach that it is in the darkness of night that truths can be spoken without fear and that beauty is found in intimacy and not sight, which can be fooled. Tsusaki loves courtly love but also protects star-crossed lovers who must break rules and tradition to be together. She gave the art of the swordmage to the eladrin. In Fourth Edition, her domains are Arcana, Darkness, Earth, Hope, and Love. As the current queen of the Celestial Court, she also rules Fate and Moon. In Fifth Edition, her domains are Light and Nature.
Kitsaiyou is only worshiped openly by heretics but has admirers of her pride and strength. Tsusaki's predecessor ruled over the Age of the Fox, a time where the veil between the Kakuriyo and the Feywild was thin and the eladrin were even more unpredictable and deceptive than they are now. Embittered by the fall of the elves during her rule, Kitsaiyou refused to surrender her rule and created a new throne fueled purely by her spite, whose brightness hid the moon and all the stars. In Fourth Edition, her domains are Destruction, Freedom, Madness, Sun, Torment, Trickery, and Vengeance. In Fifth Edition, her domains are Light and Trickery.
Dodekatheon. The patron gods of the League of Ash are jealous and prideful beings, banded together in uneasy alliance. They are not benevolent beings and are worshiped as fulfillment of their deal to empower and protect their people, but still they are admired and loved for they teach shrewdness rather than Prayers to the twelve gods are worded less like pleas and more like deals. Because of this relationship, adventurer priests of the twelve gods are as likely to be warlocks as they are to be clerics or invokers.
The Twelve Gods
Hypatus the storm king-god is the leader of the Dodekatheon, keeping his fellows in line with the lash of his lightning. He extols his worshipers to realize their fate is one of greatness and upon that realization, one only has to move as though all the universe is behind that destiny. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Civilization, Fate, Justice, Storm, and Tyranny. In Fifth Edition, his domain is Tempest.
Teleia is the keeper of family and rituals. She teaches that social bonds are the foundation of civilization and marriage is the most sacred of these. Violations against family must be repaid in total and made an example. In Fourth Edition, her domains are Arcana, Civilization, Protection, Torment, and Vengeance. In Fifth Edition, her domain is Trickery.
Enosicthon rules the sea and earth and his wrath collapses cities and swallows fleets. He teaches that power must be exerted absolutely and definitively. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Earth, Destruction, Sea, and Wilderness. In Fifth Edition, his domain is Tempest.
Anesidora is the god of agriculture. Though a maternal and quiet figure, her worshipers understand that those who control resources and necessities control even those who think themselves most powerful. When you hold grain and water in hand, you can take them away at will at any displeasure. In Fourth Edition, her domains are Life and Winter. In Fifth Edition, her domain is Life.
Promachus is the warrior god of knowledge and civilization and a patron of the crafts. She teaches that bravery is not a virtue and instead, heroes are leaders of men, those who know how to strategize and administrate, how to get things done. In Fourth Edition, her domains are Civilization, Creation, Knowledge, Protection, Skill, and War. In Fifth Edition, her domains are Knowledge and War.
Paean is the sun god of the arts, including music, healing, and magic. He calls for beauty in all things and to cut all ugliness out of your life. His domains are Arcana, Fate, Life, Poison, Skill, and Sun. In Fifth Edition, his domains are Knowledge, Life, and Light.
Locheia is the moon god of the hunt, whose worshipers are exclusively women. She teachers that men are despoilers of nature and oppressors of women; a woman must take charge of her own freedom and life away from men. In Fourth Edition, her domains are Freedom, Moon, and Wilderness. In Fifth Edition, her domains are Nature and War.
Enyalios is the god of war and conquest, and he teaches that fear is the source of power. Your enemies' fear of their destruction is greater than any actual destruction. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Destruction, Strength, Strife, and War. In Fifth Edition, his domain is War.
Philomides is the god of beauty and love. She warns only fools think that appearances are shallow, that all power comes from others falling for the illusion. Seeming is being. In Fourth Edition, her sole domain is Love, though those who worship her as a dark inflictor of passions find her domains in Madness, Strife, and Torment. In Fifth Edition, her domains are Light and Trickery.
Polumetis is the god of the forge who warns that all mortal creatures are fragile beings and it is their tools and weapons that make them. The greatest weapon makes the greatest king. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Creation, Earth, Skill, Strength. In Fifth Edition, his domain is Knowledge.
Dolios is the trickster god of commerce. Guile and wit are virtues to him and he knows a single, secret deal can take and save more lives than any war. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Freedom, Knowledge, Luck, and Trickery. Those who worship Dolios as a psychopomp also access the Death domain. In Fifth Edition, his domains are Knowledge and Trickery.
Agrios is the god of wine. As the inducer of altered states of mind, he is the patron of madmen and drunks, actors and barbarians. He teaches the power of ecstatsy. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Change, Death, Life, Madness, and Wilderness. In Fifth Edition, his domains are Life, Nature, and Death.
Religions of Baharam
Jabarism. The religion of the deva centers a single, omnipresent deity, Jabari, and the journey of all deva to become a part of the immanent, all-being of Jabari by fulfilling their duty. All worshipers of Jabari have access to the domains of Fate, Hope, Justice, Life, and Protection in Fourth Edition or Life and Light in Fifth Edition. The wakulima's sacred duty is to cultivate the base into the sublime and practice this through agriculture and city-building; they have access to Civilization and Creation in Fourth or Knowledge in Fifth. The wasaka worship Jabari as a patron of warriors and hunters in their duty to purge all evil, and they have access to War and Wilderness in Fourth or War in Fifth. The wasafari believe the other two groups have become obsessed with the physical and seek ascension through detachment and meditation. As nomads, they have access to Freedom and Sea in Fourth or Nature in Fifth.
Covenant of Io. The dragonborn believe that there was once a great dragon empire under the Ur-Dragon, Io. At some point, Io was destroyed and sundered into the two dragon gods, Bahamut and Tiamat. Most myths blame Tiamat as the reason for the split and most dragonborn worship Bahamut.
Dragon Gods
Bahamut is the god of justice, the vanguard of civilization, and the patron of paladins. He extols the strong to protect the weak. In Fourth Edition, his domains are Civilization, Justice, Protection, Strength, and War. In Fifth Edition, his domains are Life and War.
Tiamat is the god of truth, the voice of the disenfranchised, and the patron of kobolds. Though most see her as an evil god, her worshipers see her as the antagonistic but necessary mirror to Bahamut: She is the ugly truth to his beautiful ideal. In Fourth Edition, her domains are Darkness, Freedom, Skill, Strife, and Vengeance. In Fifth Edition, her domains are Death and Trickery
Religion of Gheim
The Great Hall. The Great Hall consists of a long multitude of gods who represent the untouched elements of the earth but most dwarves see the gods as unworthy of their time. In their place are the saints, legendary dwarves who are not seen as divine beings but great figures to be emulated, who took the base materials of the earth and transformed them into tools for civilization.
Sometimes, the strive to emulate the saints becomes religious in nature, or some traditional clergy worship the saints as intercessors or secondary gods. They have access to the Civilization, Knowledge, and Skill domains in Fourth Edition or to Knowledge in Fifth.
Gods and Saints
Aolchloch is the god of limestone and Iarann is the god of iron. They both have the domain of Earth in Fourth Edition or Nature in Fifth.
Uisce is the god of water in all its forms and grants access to Sea in Fourth. With Spéir, god of breathable air, they grant access to Storm. In Fifth Edition, they both grant access to Tempest. Spéir contrasts with Meatán, the god of the flammable air found beneath the earth.
Dóiteáin is the god of fire. As the sun was originally understood to be made of fire, he grants access to the Sun domain in Fourth or Light in Fifth.
Prátaí is the god of potatoes and grant access to Life in both Fourth and Fifth.
Saint Barbara of the Arch is seen as the successor of Aolchloch and other stone gods, as she made limestone into the actual building blocks of civilization. Her name is invoked by masons and those who wish to shape elements into useful objects.
Saint Dominic of the Aqueduct is credited with leading the creation of the original aqueduct system that feeds Guildstone, which was then emulated through Olgaeth. Although he is primarily associated with engineers, he is also invoked by those who oversee the distribution and/or transportation of resources.
Saint George of the Terrace led the first large-scale project to cut terraces into side of mountains for farming. He is also a patron of engineers but is invoked by those who wish to master the wilderness wholescale rather than trying to take parts of the earth out and reshape it for use.
Saint Dunstan of the Mirror created the first mirror and crystal system to capture sunlight to light the underground tunnels without the danger of fire. His veneration has declined as the mirror system has declined in importance but he is still invoked by those who wish to utilize the difficult or evanescent materials like sunlight or lightning.
Saint Bridget of the Steel is credited with creating the first steel but is associated with all smithing and refinement of metals. She is invoked by those who wish to transform base materials into more useful ones, compared to those who invoke Saint Barbara in shaping materials but retaining their base properties.
Saint Joseph of the Sail and Saint Alfred of the Leyline are the newest of the saints, having created the skyships and leyline system.
Last edited by DS on Mon Jan 05, 2015 1:06 am, edited 16 times in total.
To create a fun, explorable, interesting, and customizable setting for games, focusing on Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons.
Values
These are things I keep in mind as I work on this setting. I try to make sure to go back to this whenever I am stuck.
People drive the story. The emphasis should be on individuals and peoples making decisions and not gods or similar great beings. Conflicts should be conflicts of interest, of political will, of ideology, of need, not vast cosmic conflicts to which mortal beings must dance.
The setting must be for games, not my own non-existent novels or whatever. This means the world must be ready for adventure and hooks must be built into the setting. The world needs to be alive and ready to react to and act on the adventurers.
The world does not need to be nor should it be fully fleshed out. It needs to be complex enough to really get your teeth into it, but it needs space for GMs to do what they want with it.
Humans are not white and they are not the end-all, be-all. I am tired of fantasy settings that center humans as the most diverse and most complex race, but they also only represent or reflect European cultures while American indigenous, African, and Asian cultures are relegated to non-human races. This also means that humans can't be the generic Mario of races; they must have their own racial perspective. It doesn't need to dominate all human thinking, but just as other races have 'tendencies', so must humans. This leads into the next point:
De-center the humans of modern Earth perspective. The races should have worldviews that make sense to them rather than fitting into our good or evil preconceptions. This also means we can't make assumptions about how society must or must not work. Things that we know as real people should not be the default for the setting, e.g., modern nation-states, racism, sexism, etc. It's a fantasy setting: Explore what can be!
Inspiration
Hong Kong is an obvious inspiration. After World War II, there was a moment when the British colony could have pushed for independence but, of course, this didn't happen and now the city has transferred back to China as a Special Administrative Region. But what if Hong Kong broke free of its colonizer but didn't return to its home nation but rather, became a sovereign city-state?
Late 1800s to early 1900s Europe is an obvious period that I drew inspiration from, a time where capitalism was not yet a certainty and the destiny of nations was fought over by anarchists and fascists and capitalists and communists. Less obvious is that I drew upon the idea of the Hundred Schools of Thought period of Ancient China, when many philosophers and writers argued for different ways of governing and living. The First Emperor of China took up legalism, while his successors took up Confucianism. But I want Hoi Lan Fa to feel like these periods, where there is no predetermined destiny of the world around these people, where everyone was holding their breath.
Another inspiration is the Magic: The Gathering setting of Ravnica. Specifically, I wanted to explore new ways for the color pairs interact and form ideological factions beyond the now-standard ones we see in Ravnica. For example, what if red and white came together not to create a fervent army but a social movement for democracy and economic liberation? Although I started off exploring ways to make this a MtG setting, Magic is a poor system for representing social and political elements of its worlds and I eventually moved onto D&D.
So, the easiest comparison I think is Avatar: The Legend of Korra, which also takes place in a city based on Hong Kong, experiencing industrialization and social unrest. I actually started working on this idea before I saw that first image of Korra standing over the city (which I recognized as Hong Kong), but it was when I started hearing about the premise for the new series that I thought, "That sounds neat!" and "That is what I am already doinggggggggg." But I hope that my setting will stand on its own merits away from Korra, which turned out to be not that great a follow-up series anyway.
But the other comparison I want to make is to the Bioshock series, which I think does a good job of showing you the dreams and hopes of ideologues and how it all went wrong. I want players to feel the passion and hope of the characters around them and the despair and pain of extremism and desperation.
I added [PEACH] to the thread title because I didn't know if it was clear that I am trying to workshop a lot of my ideas rather than let them sit around in a folder on my computer.
Interesting. Just a few problems: First, the kind of segregated nations like that seem highly implausible. Think about it, in a world of relatively simple transportation, can you think of any countries that could easily be described as a "white country," "black country," or "Hispanic country?" Predominantly a race, sure, but it's still jarring to say the least, especially with colonization going on. Second, seriously, describing entire races with three adjectives like that? That manages to cause even more unfortunate implications than the favored class system. Third, it feels like we're only getting a tiny fragment of the story here. What about the rest of the world? What about history? What about political relations? And finally, it's an exclusively 4e setting. Jus' saying, to me that's a dealbreaker even if the rest of the world was flawlessly beautiful and whatnot.
Hm, so this is sort of Industrial Revolution in Venice Plus Hong Kong?
As an elevator pitch, that would definitely win me over. I like what I'm seeing here.
Thanks
miss_bun wrote:
I'm going to comment more after I read all of this, but it looks amazinggg.
Thanks
Cyclone_Joker wrote:
Interesting. Just a few problems: First, the kind of segregated nations like that seem highly implausible. Think about it, in a world of relatively simple transportation, can you think of any countries that could easily be described as a "white country," "black country," or "Hispanic country?" Predominantly a race, sure, but it's still jarring to say the least, especially with colonization going on. Second, seriously, describing entire races with three adjectives like that? That manages to cause even more unfortunate implications than the favored class system. Third, it feels like we're only getting a tiny fragment of the story here. What about the rest of the world? What about history? What about political relations? And finally, it's an exclusively 4e setting. Jus' saying, to me that's a dealbreaker even if the rest of the world was flawlessly beautiful and whatnot.
I am just going to say that I am not done posting. If you look at the index I posted up there, there is a lot of content to roll out, but I also have like 55+ hour weeks, so even when I'm not working, I'm exhausted.
But yes, the setting was built towards 4E, which becomes apparent if you look at the races in the world and how I've more intentionally built in the power sources in 4E. I don't think it's 4E-exclusive though.
Hoi Lan Fa is the name of both the historical area covering just Saifeng and Orchid Island and the modern city-state region covering the peninsula off the south of the Jin Empire and the nearby islands. Most of the population live in the city proper of Hoi Lan Fa, and more than half of the cityfolk live in Saifeng.
History
Hoi Lan Fa was the first landing point of the Olgaeth Republic's airships and thus became the entry of the dwarves into the Jin Empire and eventually the entirety of Roheisen. The dwarves' presence naturally caused Saifeng to grow into a small port, when the traditional southern port had been to the northwest, Gamkong at the mouth of Gam River. The dwarves became increasingly influential in the Jin Empire until Emperor Yichan decided they were a threat to Jin sovereignty and his own rule and expelled the Olgaeth with the Decree of Imperial Faultlessness. The Republic responded by declaring progress cannot allow a single autocrat to stop it and quickly captured Hoi Lan Fa. The two sides were unable to make permanent wins for ten years; the dwarves had superior technology but their airships were too few to make permanent inroads into the massive empire.
Emperor Yichan died two years into the war and Emperor Yizong continued to execute his father's decree for eight more years before he met with the Olgaeth and declared armistice, ceding the historical Hoi Lan Fa to the dwarves. He died soon after, worn to the bone by war. With his death, the Jin Empire collapsed into civil war and the Olgaeth Republic moved quickly to seize the rest of the peninsula. The Olgaeth Republic remained in power for a hundred and fifty years, modernizing and building the area into the heart of the Olgaeth's empire in Roheisen.
With the Great Liberation, the transition of power was more civil than military. When the dwarven airships fell from the sky, independence activists seized the opportunity to stir up the people and demand the end of the colonial government. After a year of long debates, the Constitution of Hoi Lan Fa was drawn up and signed by the first Council President Li and the outgoing government head, Senator Smith.
Legislative Council
The Legislative Council is governmental body of the city. Five councilors are elected by popular vote, all of them running under the same ballot and the top five being put in place, while the other five are elected by the functional constituencies of the Ten Yellow Houses, the New Territories, the Elvish Population, Culture and Education, and Industry. This ten-person body carries out its duties through a spring and an autumn legislative session, with elections in winter before the new year. They make laws through majority vote and commission and empower ministers to carry out the law. Each district councilor serves a four-year term, with elections every two years for half the seats. The Council President is the councilor that won the general popular vote.
The Council is heir to the colonial government called the Hoi Lan Fa Intermediary Senate, which conceived itself as a body to oversee the transition of Hoi Lan Fa into a modern Olgaeth-style city.
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Council President Wu. The scion of House Wu, Council President Wu is often accused of favoring the Ten Yellow Houses, but in reality, he breaks with their stances on issues just as often. Publicly stoic, Wu is notorious for his utter devotion to his job. In his heart, Wu believes in protecting the city's stability over all else, whether it is from the ambitions of the wealthy or the hungry fury of the mob. He makes decisions on legislation not based on personal values or popular opinion but on whether the new policy would help maintain order.
Councilor Kam. Councilor Kam was elected by the functional constituency of Culture and Education, a voting body made up of Nganfong University faculty, primary and secondary school teachers and administrators, and officially registered patrons of the arts. In popular mind though, he is elected by the Chrysanthemum District because he is often seen boozing and partying among actors and opera singers. Despite his weekly scandals in the paper, he is an intelligent and dutiful councilor, which allow the reserved members of Culture and Education to feel okay with electing him three terms in a row.
Ministry of Justice. The first ministry commissioned, the Ministry of Justice is in charge of overseeing violations of city law. The ministry maintains a core base of professional judges who oversee criminal trials and determine guilt and punishment, while juries take on an investigatory role. The Bailiff Corps carries out the wishes of juries and judges, such as rounding up requested witnesses, while the Ministry of Justice has many private detectives on contract to investigate reported crimes. Minister Po has rapidly expanded the Ministry of Justice with the new City Patrol Commission, now in its eighth year, established to hire on public patrols to prevent crime. (Patrols previously were privately hired and/or tied to specific establishments such as markets or courthouses.
Ministry of Commerce. The second ministry commissioned, the Ministry of Commerce oversees and promotes trade, enforces contracts, and mediates civil disputes including divorces and property claims. The current minister is Minister Min of House Min and is regularly accused of favoring his cousin, Min Mao Yi, and her companies, because he does. Attempts to replace Minister Min have often found the potential successor put out of running in creative ways, such that "go run for Commerce" is a curse among the merchant class.
Adventure Hooks
Councilor Kam has gone missing. His personal assistant, the much beleaguered Little Cousin Hsu, has brought your group on to find the councilor before the papers catch wind of it. He's probably on another bender but Little Cousin Hsu hasn't found him any of the usual brothels and he's beginning to worry.
Council President Wu has gone too far. An anonymous employer has hired your group of adventurers to assassinate Council President Wu before the new moon. It's the summer, off-legislative season, so why that specific timeline?
Most folk in the New Territories are content with just their dedicated representative, but this group of grandmothers in the most remote farm region in the northeast are proud daughters of independence activists from the colonial days and want to make it to their local voting site for the popular elections. They're old and tired and the local roads have washed out from the winter rains, so they've hired you nice young men and women to make sure they make it there and back through the old forest paths around the flooded areas.
The Legislative Council is once again on the search for a new Minister of Commerce and they've found Dam Ai, an Nganfong economics professor. A reconciliation commission has just begun to assess Minister Min's performance and it is likely that afterwards, Dam Ai will be named the new Minister of Commerce, if he lives. Your group has been hired by Dam to keep him alive through the commission, but Minister Min seems intent on dragging it out with endless testimonies and expert witnesses.
It's election season and your group has been hired to make sure your employer makes it onto the Legislative Council. Your employer doesn't need to be council president, but they are seventh in the polls. Bribe, threaten, and assassinate your employer's way into a seat.
It was just a regular day when the public morning ferry crossing from Saifeng to Orchid Island blew up. It was carrying many civilians on their way to first shift but also Councilors Yau and Duong. Yau is a labor-friendly councilor and Duong is more moderate, focusing more often on education and foreign policy. Tin Ming is immediately suspected of the act, but they in turn are crying industrialist sabotage. The councilors were both going to vote yes on the new legislation that would have created the new work week, dividing the ten-day week into two four-day work periods and two one-day breaks, and Tin Ming says that the legislation is now in danger of failing yet again. Rumors though are that Yau has recently been seen meeting with Industrialist Trung. Your group is hired on by the Ministry of Justice to find those responsible and bring them to justice.
Saifeng
Originally a fishing village, Saifeng has become the lively heart of the world's first metropolis. The city's travel mostly follows the myriad canals, both natural and artificial, with footpaths that grow wide enough for multiple ox carts in commercial and wealthy areas and shrink to dangerously narrow in others. Dizzying alleys cut through neighborhoods to create pathways but they are usually only wide enough for a two humans to walk side by side comfortably. The canals that have long characterized Saifeng have been shored up and stabilized by dwarven engineering, but the waters in the canals are sickly and thick with waste.
The summer brings the worst winds to the many endless boat homes that line the shore of Saifeng. The network created by the boats and connecting planks extends the land out into Arrow Bay, but this traditional way of life is under threat as more and more of Saifeng's docks are cleared out for commercial and industrial use.
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Republic Square. The Legislative Council meets at City Hall, which stands at the head of Republic Square, an open plaza. Lining the plaza on either side are the city's major civic buildings, including the central courthouse and Ministry offices. The western edge of the plaza is bordered by the Heartway.
Chrysanthemum District. It is said the canal-thick Chrysanthemum District was once a beautiful home to gentle temples, waters flowing through and around shrines, but it is now a place of a more carnal beauty. Home to students, artists, actors, dancers, and other bohemian types, the Chrysanthemum District is known for its raucous lifestyle. Though generally quiet during the day, the whole district lights up with red lanterns at night, inviting all to see one of the many operas or dance performances, to drink away the night at a bar or restaurant, or to visit one of the exquisite brothels. The Oyster Theater sits at the center of the district, right on the edge of Heartway, and is home to the prestigious Oyster Theater Troupe.
Heartway. Saamdou is the largest artery of Saifeng, passing Republic Square and cutting through Chrysanthemum District to spill out into the Heartway Docks. Compromise has resulted in the western half of the docks to still be dominated by boat homes and the public market, while the eastern half is warehouses and industrial docking.
Red Gut Tenements. The Red Gut Tenements were several blocks of collapsing buildings, home to large families squeezing into a single room and sharing central waste facilities with the whole block. The adults there, if not unemployed, were often factory workers, while children worked as runners or ran the streets as thieves. The Red Gut Tenements are not unique in Saifeng in this way, but they are unique as the first fully transformed Tin Ming commune. The movement swept through the area and Tin Ming successfully negotiated/bullied the release of the tenements to the residents united as the Red Gut Association. Although most residents are still factory workers, the buildings were either torn down and radically renovated to create large communal living spaces, including a dining hall and a school. The Red Gut Tenements are used as an example of Tin Ming's way of life, but no other communities have managed to replicate the success here.
Little Nchi. Lining one of the canals that feeds into Heartway and another large canal is Little Nchi, a deva immigrant racial enclave. Though the quality of buildings in this area are the same as in other slums, the deva tendency towards asceticism makes this neighborhood much cleaner than others. There is no sidewalk here, where the canal butts right up against homes. Water flows into open cellars, where deva keep their boats.
Arrow Bay
Arrow Bay is named for how its bed is said to be entirely covered in arrowheads.
Orchid Island
Historically, Orchid Island was solely home to wildlife and the homes of the southern nobles known as the Ten Yellow Houses, as well as the summer homes of
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Hoi Dai Jyut Industrial Parks.
Peach Garden Court.
Irondeep.
New Territories
The New Territories were annexed rapidly by the Olgaeth Republic when the Jin Empire collapsed into civil war with the death of Emperor Yizong. They claimed it as a part of the armistice agreement and the Jin Empire has been unable to reclaim it. The New Territories is primarily farmland, as crisscrossed with rivers as Hoi Lan Fa city proper is with canals.
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Northern Committee.
Armistice Canal. After annexing the New Territories, the Olgaeth Republic quickly organized an engineering team to build a large canal from coast to coast to cut off the Olgaeth's holding from the rest of the Jin Empire.
Islands of Hoi Lan Fa
Tudo Island
Far Islands
Last edited by DS on Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Okay so I read all of it, and my main criticism is why aren't you running a game. :stare:
I actually did run a game with friends for a few sessions in this setting, but I just became too busy so we missed a couple sessions and then it just died out. Maybe I'll run a PbP game in the future here.
“To try to govern the people of a chaotic age with benevolence and lenient measures is like to drive wild horses without reins and whips.” — Han Feizi (韓非子)
The oldest of the factions of Hoi Lan Fa, the Ten Yellow Houses are also considered the most anachronistic by the rabble, but the noble families of Jin have seen the results of dwarven republicanism: political impasses, inefficient , and political corruption. They may have been long isolated from the monarchism of the Jin Empire, but the Houses understand that only the nobility of the gentry can rule a nation, not selfish mobs or star-eyed poets. Like a father come home to an unruly house, the Ten Yellow Houses would see Hoi Lan Fa brought to heel and returned to unity and glory.
The Ten Yellow Houses are most physically present at the Peach Garden Court, a large mountain courtyard-plaza surrounded by the receiving houses of the families. Though historically these homes were only rarely used, each family preferring estates more secluded from the others, the noble families were confined to these houses under the Olgaeth rule to keep them in check. The Peach Garden homes of the families are now where most business with the nobles take place, and the nobles see it as a gesture of public openness and accountability.
Members of the Houses can be usually distinguished by a single long fingernail, each finger corresponding to a different family. They tend to wear their hair long and up with ornate decorations meant to evoke crowns. Metal neck cuffs that keep heads held high are common. No matter how decorated, though, no aristocrat will cover their face or put on extensive make-up to show honesty.
Houses
Wu. The most prominent of the Ten Yellow Houses, the Wu have a strong tradition of priests in the family, including heroic clerics. The current scion though never went took to religious training and instead went into politics and is now the Council President.
Min. Previously declining, House Min has been led to new prominence by scion Min Mao Yi when she was able to claim and build the largest coal mines of southern Jin along the western Hoi Lan Fa mountains. These mines directly feed the new industries of Hoi Lan Fa, and the unkind refer to the smog that overtakes the city as Min's Breath.
Shu. One of the original Ten Yellow Houses, the original house was destroyed and their titles stripped away by the Jin Emperor for forgotten crimes. The current House Shu was established 260 years ago by a claimant to the original family, supported by Olgaeth diplomats. Though originally seen as spies for the dwarves, House Shu proved itself by funding much of the resistance during the Jin-Olgaeth war. Shu remains a military powerhouse.
Han. The Han have the strongest arcane tradition among the Ten Yellow Houses and it was them who introduced the practice of using goengsi servants to the families, though few other nobles have actually taken to it. The goengsi are vampiric corpses animated and controlled by magic, though when free, they hunger for the living breath of humanity.
Tang. One of the more ancient families, the Tang have the most ties to the Jin Empire and actually consider themselves not an independent noble house of the south but estranged from the Tang gentry of the north.
Adventurers
Adventurers from the Ten Yellow Houses are usually more minor family members, as the more prominent ones are usually pressured into following their duty to serve family and city. Rarest is a scion adventurer as the scion is expected to succeed as head of the family, not to gallivant about like a beast. All the families are human in origin, though individuals may be half-human products of affairs. Suggested skills: Diplomacy and History.
The Ten Yellow Houses see themselves as leaders of people and thus adventurers tend towards the leader roles of artificer, cleric, shaman, runepriest, or warlord. Bards are rare as they are seen as flighty artists and ardents are seen as wild, failed monks. Shamans here tend to be more focused priests or keepers of ancestral shrines, appearing as a commander of spirits rather than an eccentric who speaks to the air. Artificers, as well as wizards, appear among the younger ranks, recipients of the best education money can buy, while warlocks only appear among the Tang and they pretend to be wizards as well. Rangers and the non-shaman primal classes are also seen as highly uncivilized.
DMing the Ten Yellow Houses
When interacting with the Ten Yellow Houses, players should feel condescended to, but once they have proven themselves, they will find the Houses are loyal allies. The Houses are generally earnest and sincere about wanting the best for everyone, but they openly look down on those of non-noble blood. The Houses squabble a lot and think little of trying to one-up the other but unlike the stereotype of conspiring aristocracy, the families generally present a united front and it would be difficult for players to turn one family against another. On the other hand, individual family members are more vulnerable to corruption.
Unless the players seek out the Houses or vice-versa, there will generally be little indication of the Ten Yellow Houses. Outside of Tin Ming-influenced areas, charities like soup kitchens are generally funded by the Ten Yellow Houses and these tend to be staffed by a mix of rich young volunteers who see themselves as saving the poor and hired workers who care little for the cause. "Min's breath" is a common term for smog. Decorate docks with the rare personal yacht, trimmed with gold paint, and mention ornate litters or carriages pushing through crowds.
Adventure Hooks
A daughter of Tang has gone missing and her mother has contacted your band of adventurers to track her down. She is a university student but had taken to rebellion, moving out of the family home to some apartment in the Chrysanthemum District.
On of the scions is throwing a charity ball and your band of adventurers have been hired to provide the security.
One of the Min mines have gone silent. There are no signs of a collapse but investigators have not returned and the workers refuse to go in. Min Mao Yi want your group of adventurers to go in and find out what's wrong and more importantly, get the mine operational again.
The patriarch of Shu has disappeared and signs point to him having broken into the sealed ruins of the old Shu estate. Your group has been hired to go in after him and get him out.
On discovery of an aristocrat's attack and murder of a young woman, a mob has formed outside the gates of the Peach Garden Court. The adventurers are hired to locate and bring the young man to justice before the mob completely overtakes security and begin ransacking the noble houses.
The Han patriarch's private estate has gone silent and the Han scion fears the worst: the goengsi have broken free of their control and are running wild. He hires your band of adventurers to go in and discover what has happened.
Council President Wu has heard rumors of members of the Ten Yellow Houses moving to conspire with those from the Jin Empire against Hoi Lan Fa independence. He has hired you all to discreetly investigate these rumors and report back so he can figure out next steps.
Secrets
The ruins beneath the Shu estate at Peach Garden Court are go far deeper than anyone realizes. Here may be the clues to the Shu's ancient crime, and although House Shu is now known for its military might, as one descends, more relics pointing to the Feywild appear.
A young scion has taken up nocturnal vigilantism after the murders of his parents in Chrysanthemum District. He mostly beats up random gang members, street thugs, and pickpockets or muggers, but he is slowly being overwhelmed by the seemingly endless crime of the city.
The reclusive Han patriarch, alone on a private estate and served only by goengsi staff, is actually a lich. He realizes that only the immortal rule of a lich emperor cannot be compromised by the whimsies of the day and the rabble and aims for takeover of not just Hoi Lan Fa but the Jin Empire. He has hidden this from all others as he knows they will seek his destruction, so he bides his time until he can strike.
House Tang is conspiring with a general rising in the south of Jin Empire; this general aims to invade and repossess Hoi Lan Fa as proof for his bid for Jin Emperor. Above all else, the family wants Hoi Lan Fa to come back under the Jin Emperor, the correct ruler of this world as under the Mandate of Heaven.
Inspiration
This faction was originally meant to represent legalism, which is characterized by autocratic statism as a necessary control on the innate evil of people (see also: The Leviathan). The state is right by virtue of being the state. They want power and to rule by domination, but they do so to create order. The Houses believe they inherently have the moral rectitude to rule properly, but they embody noblesse oblige in that they want to rule but for the good of all.
Though the Houses share some elements with the Orzhov Syndicate (appreciation for hierarchy, aristocratic families, moralistic trappings), the Houses reverses the relationship between white and black. While the Orzhov use religion and order to establish their power and accumulate wealth, the Houses wishes to use power and money to create peace and order.
Last edited by DS on Tue Nov 26, 2013 7:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition” — Adam Smith
The dwarves were not wrong. The scholars of Nganfong do not necessarily remember the Olgaeth colonial government fondly, but they are not too proud to admit that the dwarves revived this poets’ retreat in the clouds as a monument to knowledge and progress. That the magic that placed this beautiful campus on top of clouds is now lost only demonstrates how much more about the universe there is to learn. While the Jin Empire continues to languish in technological stagnation and to be held hostage to the whims and irrationalities of emperors, Nganfong University will lead the way to a brighter future for Hoi Lan Fa. Science will democratize the privileges of magic, will allow humanity mastery over nature, and will be the salvation of the world. Those who refuse to change with the times will be left behind.
The university drifts around over the city proper, protected from the worst storms and winds by magic. The same magic allows people to walk upon, buildings to be built on, and even water to float in gentle streams over the clouds that form the base of the beautiful campus. Still, the clouds provide little traction and over time, more and more of the base cloud is covered by solid flooring to allow messengers to run about more easily. Teleportation circles in key locations of the city, including Republic Square and the Peach Garden Court, connect to the Reception Hall and are serviced by convenience mages. There are several terrestrial satellite campuses, including one by Lake Laogai and one in Irondeep, also connected by teleportation circles.
Nganfong University is hard to forget as one only has to scan the sky to see the rising pagodas of the campus among large clouds, but on the ground, it is far more common to see students rather than faculty, who often live in on-campus residences. Many of the technologies of the university go unrecognized because they quickly become ubiquitous in daily life due to usefulness and because the designs are manufactured and thus branded by corporations. Popular among many associated with the university is a whistling system where length and tone of whistles combine into tunes that can be quickly spread by messengers, human, bird, or mechanical. Silver keys are often used as university ritual foci or in the place of wands to hold common spells, but otherwise, Nganfong faculty and students dress plainly for the most part.
Faculty
Chancellor Harriet Brightsmith was elected into position to some controversy due to her being both half-dwarf and a woman, but her incisive ability to point out fatal flaws in any engineering scheme or philosophical treatise that passes through her hands won over her fellow academics. Of late, she has been more reclusive, disappearing on long research trips.
Vice Chancellor Lei oversees the day-to-day administration of the university. Where Chancellor Brightsmith is fixated on the pursuit of knowledge, Vice Chancellor Lei has a love for management and bureaucratic efficiency. If he were a less busy man, he would accept the many requests that he consult for outside businesses and even the city government.
The Gwok brothers are ethnologists who continue the tradition of scientific travel writing and it is through their work that humanity is discovering the world. They are most known for their overarching themes and theories of societies, which they expound upon in their lectures and books. They propose that societies who resist industrialization only doom themselves to future obsolescence.
Doctor Tshamba is a deva biologist most often found at the Laogai campus. She differs from her peers in being religiously devout, but she believes that she worships through studying and thus better understanding the creation of Jabari. She seeks to find a unifying theory for all of life and its complexity, and she thinks a key may be in humanity, who is able to interbreed with so many other species.
Adventurers
Adventurers from Nganfong University are more often students in need of adventure and/or real-world experience, if only because there are so many more students than faculty members. Researchers and explorers also join adventuring bands to explore the world and continue the tradition of travel writing as the dwarven sky expeditions once did. Adventurers associated with Nganfong University are diverse in race, though humans, dwarves, and deva are most likely to follow the path of higher education. Suggested skills: Arcana and Perception.
The arcane arts are the most practiced at the university, specifically the art of wizards and artificers. Sorcerers and warlocks also are among the student body, but their magic comes from personal mastery and can rarely be transmitted in coursework. Psions also find a place at the university, though they are taught more through mentorships than curricular activities. Divine and primal classes are looked down upon as perpetrators of superstition and illogical thinking, and martial adventurers will not find trainers here.
DMing Nganfong University
Dialogue with Nganfong faculty should be filled with jargon and be intellectually impressive. Important is that although each faculty member, researcher, etc. has an area of personal interest, they have been given an education which treated history, philosophy, poetry, science or natural philosophy, and politics together not as distinct subjects but parts of a whole education. Therefore, they should generally not seem like specialists. They are prone to healthy debate and enjoy careful consideration before executing plans or committing to anything.
Forensic investigators and civil engineers are commonly associated with the University, so crime scenes and scenes of public destruction will often see at least one or two university staff along with student assistants. If players establish a relationship with Nganfong University, they are a good place to drop off evidence that need analysis or to find obscure information. If the players become antagonistic with the university, they may find themselves blocked from using the teleportation circles but otherwise unharmed.
Adventure Hooks
A researcher posits that there is a low level of lightning always in the sky and furthermore, that lightning can be channeled to power devices without the need for burning coal. But he fears that there are conspiracies aligned against him and his work, so he has hired your team to expose this conspiracy while protecting him from sabotage or even murder. His peers think he is mad and his delusions only serve to make him feel more important than he is.
Still working on this.
Secrets
Chancellor Brightsmith is investigating the lockdown of the Olgaeth Republic. She feels she is on the verge of breaking the seals on the mine entrances that lead to the dwarven cities.
Doctor Tshamba has been secretly experimenting with animal-plant hybrids, with the goal of creating a solution to all hunger and disease. To this end, she has been recruiting human villagers near her laboratory at Lake Laogai and subjecting them to horrible experiments, after they signed a consent form and have been paid for their troubles of course.
The Gwok Brothers have started appropriating art pieces and even entire structures from places like the Itsara Forests and Baharam for study and preservation. They believe that the pieces' native homes are unable to properly maintain such important cultural works and plan on unveiling plans for a museum so all may learn from these wonders.
Inspirations
The European Enlightenment and particularly the Scottish Enlightenment fuels Nganfong University. The Scottish Enlightenment emphasized the role of science and technology to improve society, such as agricultural innovations. Nganfong University has ties to Hoi Dai Jyut as twin forces behind industrialization, but while the corporation is motivated by personal gain in a free market, the university aims to improve all of society rather than just personal gain. Many would rather distribute all their inventions to all of society but lack the resources to do so and instead must contract with private companies. To resist innovation, to them, is a madness driven by fear and superstition. Rationalism is the philosophy that motivates the Nganfong University.
Last edited by DS on Tue Nov 26, 2013 7:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish temper and confined views. People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.” — Edmund Burke
It is the way of the cityfolk to be constantly riled up about something, but the farming communities of the New Territories know that it all comes down to the simple things that never change: family, food, work, virtue. When the villages of the northern farmers were given the task of creating an electoral body to choose their representative on the Legislative Council, they decided that this duty could only be held by the wisest of them all. Priests technically sit on the Committee but they channel spirits not just to appoint their councilor but to adjudicate difficult cases and to make policies for the whole of the New Territories. Committee members have since come and gone, but the same spirits continue to speak through those mouths. The ideologues and industrialists of the city are like great winds, but the earth stays firm.
The farmers of the Northern Territory dress simply in loose worker's clothing and tend to show their hard life in their hands and faces. When traveling, meeting in public spaces, and gathering for parties, they will wear outerwear like cloaks or overcoats that have been passed down over many generations. This clothing will look almost like quilts, heavy with patches embroidered with pastoral or religious scenes, and are treated reverentially. Travelers will carry and decorate their wagons with pendants for protection from the ancestors.
Committee Members
Chairman Tou is the oldest committee member, having reached his centennial birthday some years ago, but he is still a powerful shaman. He commands almost as much respect as the venerable spirits, but he is particularly wary of foreign races and their strange gods.
Grain Child is soft-spoken but invariably wise. It has been secretive but hints at a relationship to the god, Spring Teacher. Grain Child will only speak through young children, before they have even come into their own as shamans.
Seoici is an imperious spirit who demands recognition as a minor goddess of irrigation. She speaks through a young man, Brother Hung, though none dare to laugh at Seoici while she speaks and acts through him.
Adventurers
Adventurers from the Northern Territory come from humble backgrounds but would diverge from typical Northern thinking to be leaving their hometowns. No matter their role, a Northern adventurer will tend to stay in the background; leaders will see themselves as supporters. They tend to be bewildered by fast city living. Most are humans though half-elves and half-orcs also live among the Territories. Suggested skills: Nature and Religion
Rarely do psionic or arcane adventurers come from the Northern Territories except for the occasional ardent or sorcerer is born into a random family. Shamans are prized, as are Clerics. Rangers are an easy fit into this rural life. Monks are also common, even if they are not native to the Northern Territories, as monasteries prefer to set up in the quieter communities.
DMing the Northern Committee
Northerners should be pleasant and generous while remaining conserved around strangers. Adventurers who stay in the city proper will encounter Northerners in markets as crop and meat vendors. They are especially wary around more foreign races and will tend to believe broad racial stereotypes. They are also wary of those with flashy powers like arcane casters.
When the farmers of the Territories encounter what they consider to be defilement of nature or destruction of traditional ways, they react negatively, either cautiously or hostilely. There is a tension between wanting to take advantage of new technology to ease their work and wanting to resist drastic changes, and so they have a tenuous relationship with Nganfong University. They care a lot for ritual and young adventurers who do not pay proper respect to their elders will be dismissed even if their services are direly needed.
Last edited by DS on Wed Nov 27, 2013 3:13 pm, edited 4 times in total.
“Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.” — Ayn Rand
Hoi Lan Fa is a liberated state. It is no longer the vassal of a distant emperor or the chattel of dwarven colonialists. So why should the city put a new yoke on its people? Greatness is not achieved when a man is swaddled like a child, but it is when the child goes forth to become a man that he takes greatness into his own hands. Anything else is a schoolteacher scolding simple children for not sharing. Hoi Dai Jyut is monument to the possibility of the individual’s ingenuity and ability. It has grown from a single elf’s dream of a better life to the leader of Hoi Lan Fa’s unprecedented industry. Its brand, a crescent moon beneath the waves, is more recognizable than national flags; its products more vital to the citizen than food.
Key Individuals
Industrialist Trung. Founder and president, Industrialist Trung often reminds people that he was an orphan in the fishing slums of Hoi Lan Fa. He scrambled in junkyards for the local tinker and it is by the skill of his hands and mind that he built up this corporation that is literally changing the landscape of the city.
Hekabe. Trung's chief rival is Hekabe, a tiefling who has set up a business to begin mass producing magical items like wands for common use. Despite their corporate rivalry, Industrialist Trung has resisted laws to restrict the sale of Hekabe’s products, citing the free market as where the virtues of her products will be tested.
“We muckraked, not because we hated our world, but because we loved it. We were not hopeless, we were not cynical, we were not bitter.” — Ray Stannard Baker
Whether it’s an exposé on working conditions in the newest Hoi Dai Jyut industrial park or where Councilor Kam was again seen with a prostitute, the Phoenix Daily is there to greet the citizens of Hoi Lan Fa every morning. The paper espouses liberation of the mind as the foundation of a free society and headlines blaze with the latest information to stir the hearts of the people. Others accuse the paper as a gossipmonger and warhawk, and the editorials lash back with accusations of censorship and suppression
Paper Staff
Editor-in-Chief Kenshin is known for his wild mood swings. There are times when he is out making headlines, joining protests on one side or the other and exulting in bloody honor duels, and he is otherwise sulky and reclusive. Either way, he always seems to be half-smiling at a private joke.
Dobrogost. It is said that Kenshin first gave his top journalist a shot because it amused him to see a goblin outsmart the proud races, but since then, Dobrogost has demonstrated incredible skills of investigation. No amount of security seems to be enough to stop him. There are many disgraced men and women in the city who would love ten minutes alone with the goblin.
“I asked myself, had the day been wet or fine? the spring wind was telling the mango-bird. Moved by its song, I soon begin to sigh, and as wine was there, I filled my own cup. Wildly singing, I waited for the moon to rise; when my song was over, all my senses had gone.” — Li Bai 李白
The moon does not try to turn in the sky and the tides do not try to rise and fall. The constant struggle that the supposedly intelligent races experience comes from their constant need to control and manage their lives and environments. Shed the worries of the day and the ache in your bones and let the Chrysanthemum Guild remind you of your animal heart.
Named for the district dominated by these bohemians and artists, the Chrysanthemum Guild does not act as a strict trade association, enforcing membership and regulating prices, but rather, is a loose association of the people who light up the streets of Hoi Lan Fa at night but are cast from the light of day. They like to associate with the revolutionaries of the day, but they find it all a bit too serious. The universe is beauty, and when people cease resisting the rhythms of the universe, they will be too.
“Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Mandate of Heaven puts sovereignty in the hands of the righteous and it is taken away from those who have failed the people. Beginning as a movement to unify the industrial working class of Hoi Lan Fa to demand better working conditions, the Tin Ming Movement has grown into full-scale movement that seeks not just reforms but revolution. The republicans of Hoi Lan Fa have shown themselves to be new oligarchs and puppets in the industrialists and the aristocrats’ hands; they do not represent the people and it is thus the righteous action is to seize the government for the people. Towards this end, the Tin Ming revolutionaries are diverse in specifics and means and are philosophically opposed to centralized leadership, making the movement difficult to suppress. And although the revolutionaries differ in their approval of violent means, they all agree that violence is defined by harm to people and that destruction of property is always a viable tactic.
In neighborhoods with strong Tin Ming presence, the revolutionaries have set up public services like medical clinics, soup kitchens, and food co-operatives, sometimes transforming entire neighborhoods into urban communes. In these places, the Tin Ming's symbol of the three-toed dragon claw is displayed openly on banners and signs in windows.
Revolutionaries
Grandmother Zhen is a popular public face for Tin Ming. Her pleasant, elderly countenance is lost in the fiery blaze of her eyes when she speaks of the movement.
Comrade Lau leads the Street Dragons, an armed group tasked with protecting the common folk, protesters, and strikers from violence, retaliation, and police abuse.
“In the north there is a beauty; surpassing the world, she stands alone. A glance from her will overthrow a city; another glance will overthrow a nation. One cannot know whether it will be a city or a nation that will be overthrown. But it would be difficult to behold such a beauty again.” — Li Yannian 李延年
In the end, we all just want the same things: security, wealth, belonging. A tong is a local organization created to protect the poor and the neglected slums they live in, particularly those of immigrant neighborhoods, but many of them grew into becoming loosely organized gangs running the economy of the underclass. Rivalry between gangs only promotes violence, unnecessary death, and loss of profit. Then came the Four Sisters, quadruplet leaders of a small but rising gang from Little Nchi. Almost overnight, it seemed, they crushed the leadership of the major tongs and gangs of Hoi Lan Fa and banded them together into the Four Sisters Tong.
The Four Sisters Tong have styled themselves as the provider of impoverished neighborhoods who have no other allies. By taking in the disenfranchised and putting them to work separating others from their wealth, the tong redistributes wealth far more quickly than the Tin Ming Movement ever does. They run the underworld economy, including brothels, gambling dens, and the drug trade, and proclaim that they are only guilty of cornering the market of vice.
Tong Members
Big Sister is known as a powerful enchantress with vast powers over the mind, such that she is often credited with artificially uniting the gangs of Hoi Lan Fa with her powers. Although many deva hate her and her sisters for corrupting their youth, she truly believes in doing right by the deva and funds more legitimate services in Little Nchi.
Second Sister oversees much of the gambling activity in the tong. No cheating escapes her eyes and fingers and she keeps the finger bones of punished cheaters as proof.
Third Sister is the most reclusive of the sisters and is a powerful alchemist. Although she does not manage the drug trade itself, she ensures the quality of the tong's product and is known for creating her own exclusive variants that has many wealthy men and women on their knees before her.
Little Sister. The "face" of the group, Little Sister is often found singing at the Snake Lounge and is where people start when they want to do business with the tong. She is known for being able to talk the gang and its members out of tight legal situations, but part of the power of her charm is the knowledge that it is backed up by her sisters and lethal force.
Longinus. Operating out of the Chrysanthemum District, Longinus is the tong's orc accountant and head loan shark . He often stacks on a second interest rate for personal profit on top of the standard loan interest rate on tong loans, but the sisters see it as gratuity for a job well done as long as he doesn't dip into the tong's earnings. He is said to be a bookie on the side and that he even runs pit fights beneath his office.
Adventurers
Adventurers generally cannot be current members of Four Sisters Tong, unless the whole band is a team of enforcers for the tong. But unlike other gangs, the tong is generally okay with lower level members leaving the gang, as long as they keep their mouth shut and know nothing they would open their mouth to reveal. Depending on the bridges burned when leaving the gang, adventurers may have a great network of contacts to draw upon and this should be represented by training in Streetwise or a background that provides a bonus to the skill. Suggested skills: Streetwise and Thievery.
The gang accepts all classes and races, but the divine classes rarely find the underworld of the Four Sisters suitable. Fighters and rogues are the most common classes, followed by sorcerers and warlocks. Youth who feel disenfranchised are drawn to the gang, which include humans, deva, goblins, half-elves, and even shifters. Dwarves are probably the least accepted.
DMing the Four Sisters Tong
As the adventurers enter less wealthy areas, the Four Sisters Tong should become more prominent, especially in areas with large racial minority populations. They are noticeable by enforcers on street corners, marked by face paint in a line over the left eye and a hook over right to create the character for four (四) with the face as the outer strokes. Almost all dealings with the underworld should have the Four Sisters' hand in it and as the adventurers begin to ruffle feathers, the tong will take notice. The four sisters will do anything to protect each other, their secrets, and their freedom, in that order.
Importantly, the Four Sisters Tong is the least idealistic of all the factions. They should be characterized by practicality and find little value in posturing pointlessly and pissing contests. The sisters themselves should seem like they are just making reasoned economic choices, but they will quickly lose control if any one of them are hurt or eliminated. Their gang members should have the same sense of economics of the slums, though they may range from secure to desperate. They are the most willing to compromise but if the adventurers prove themselves a thorn in the sisters' side, they will think little of ordering their deaths. They should rarely appear 'shaking down' businesses or randomly mugging or bullying people on the street; their approach is more that they are there to fulfill the vice needs of the city. Don't bother them, and they won't bother you.
Adventure Hooks
A friend of the party and general screw-up, Ping, has come to the party for help: His girlfriend has gone missing! He admits that it may have to do with the gambling debts he owes.
A tiefling bigwig has skipped out on his debts to the tong. Cut him off before he leaves town and get the money out of him, if nothing else.
The Four Sisters Tong needs this shipment of opiates to make it safely from Third Sister's lab to an outbound ship at the docks. It's an easy job and the pay is great.
A rival gang has decided that to break the Four Sisters Tong, they must bankrupt them and they need your help. They are doing things like calling in the city patrol to bust the dens of sin and spoiling the drug supply but they want your group to do the biggest hit of all: Empty Second Sister's vaults beneath her largest casino.
Someone has firebombed the small community center in Little Nchi run and funded by the tong. Your group has been hired to quickly find the perpetrators and report to Big Sister so that she can carry out retribution.
Third Sister has entered a comatose state. You have been brought in to figure out what is wrong. Now.
Secrets
The sisters are an adventuring party: Big Sister is a wizard, Second Sister is a rogue, Third Sister is a warden, and Little Sister is a bard.
Big Sister is actually an illusion-specialized wizard. Her 'enchantments' are woven by Little Sister's bardic magic. Big Sister uses her illusions to obscure the sisters' capabilities. Other than training the tong's wizards, she devotes much of her time on maintaining the many vital spells the tong keeps.
Second Sister is a consummate cheater and often uses sleight of hand to adjust the odds while she walks through gambling dens; she is very careful to not totally ruin people but to balance out the luck and keep the customers coming back.
Third Sister has a special concoction that merges the dreams of specially chosen imbibers to create a collective dreamspace where she spends much of her time.
Little Sister has enchanted sleeper agents placed in strategic locations either as emergency combatants or as spies.
One of the illusions maintained is on Second Sister, who is trans.
Another illusion is on Little Sister, who is a gorgon.
They are not actually sisters by blood, but four close friends who came up with this plan to run the underworld together. Big Sister does this because she believes the wasafiri community will never be able to stand up for themselves as long as they refuse to get dirty. Second Sister is an estranged daughter of House Tang who sees a chance to be herself and to have money and power free from her family's influence. Third Sister (who is actually a deva) just wants to escape the duty thrust upon her by the spirits as a warden. Little Sister also sees an opportunity to escape her apparent fate of one day being slain by heroes. She happily wields her power for the job, but she really just loves to sing.
The other sisters are actually very worried about Third Sister.
Inspiration
The four sisters are some of my favorite characters ever. The conception of the gang was somewhat difficult as Rakdos was already such a great implementation of black-red, but I decided I wanted to shift the focus from sadomasochism and the cult of the self to a more realistic faction. One problem Rakdos have is people expressing disbelief that anyone would join them. The Four Sisters Tong is supposed to capture the same sort of nihilism and desperation that must drive people to join the Rakdos, but in a way that doesn't involve mutilation. Rather than exulting in personal vice, the tong exploits others' vices. While Hoi Dai Jyut thinks of money and power as the end, the Four Sisters Tong thinks of money and power as the means to achieve personal freedom (for Second, Third, and Little Sister) and liberation for a community (for Big Sister).
This is definitely a more sympathetic approach towards gangs and that is couched in my own understanding of urban sociology and the history of tongs in Chinese immigrant communities. Tongs appeared in Chinatowns in the U.S. at first as a response to the lack of resources for Chinese Americans, but these tongs became criminal organizations in the poverty and isolation of these immigrant enclaves. Immigrant and impoverished communities continue to have similar experiences, with disenfranchised youth finding the order and prestige of gang membership preferable to the apparent lack of opportunities for them.
Also, the name of the group is a pun: "Four" and "death" are homonyms so another way to understand their name is that they are sisters of death.
Last edited by DS on Tue Nov 26, 2013 8:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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