Session 0 for Belswick is happening this Friday, and there's character ideas bouncing around. Regular player Robert sent me these 20 questions to help shape his character (and the setting). Then in the next email, detailed the charlatan/criminal background that he'll choose for his cleric... Looking forward to it! Now let's get to answering these questions.
1 - How large and influential are Arcane and Priestly Orders in the public eye?Are commoners just trying to eat after taxes, or are the Orders omnipresent and a clear influence on daily life?
Commoners are mainly trying to survive. They want to get their chores for the First and Second Estate sorted, with spare time dedicated to gossip, smuggling, brewing moonshine, fornication, wild feasts for the whole village on the memorial day of some local saint or hero, experimental mushroom and bark smoking, speaking ill of their betters and so on.
In general, Church and Nobility are seen as Important Folk, not quite part of the real world where you work for a living. They get to mess up your life with the kind of annoying demands that Important Folk make. The local noble has the right to work - your work. Commoners have to provide a certain amount of free labour on top of those 75% taxes. And they have to pick up arms if the nobles tell them to, provide crazy hunts or lavish feasts, produce wondrous gifts and so on. (Sometimes this ruler will be a member of the Church - land grants for past loans or favours. That muddies the waters even further.)
The Church of the Authority is everywhere in terms of culture: after all, they decide what is Right and Wrong and advise people on that. Curses, oaths and lots of art reference the Church. And you'll see lots of signs the Church like statues, shrines, churches and monasteries. There's hundreds of saints, with little orders or monasteries dedicated to them. You might know them all if you're a trained cleric or a particularly devout commoner.
Commoners and Nobles know very well that the major Saintly Orders exist. But at the same time they're seen as minor variations within The Church. After all, the Orders concern themselves with pretty weird shit, which doesn't touch on daily life all that much. Think modern day political parties or ministries - you will probably recognize them by name, but will find it harder to explain exactly what they do and don't. And so in Belswick peasants don't necessarily know that the Leaden Order and the Kurelda Order have different remits in terms of hunting demons and heretics. But they do know that these Orders exist and have a rough idea of what they're for.
Arcane Orders are like weird guilds that offer specialty training. This does not make those wizards any better than other commoners; their dealing with dark magics may even make them worse off than a random peasant. The peasant is invisible to the nobility. A wizard stands out and will be called upon.
There are of course ways to protest if nobles, or churchmen, demand too much. Make your case at the court of their liege, or just acting like an ignorant, wellmeaning but allruining yokel. They'll get the hint.
2 - How are the Arcane/Divine Orders viewed in the public eye?Are they mostly benevolent, mysterious, dangerous or tyrannical?
Depends which Order you're talking about. Arcane Orders are pretty secretive and don't have a big role in public life. Which means they get lumped together. Who can remember those fancy names for their wizard guilds anyway? Divine orders range from mysterious to remote to dangerous:
- Order of the Scroll - monasteries with lots of books full of lots of mostly useless information. Teach you how to read and do sums (useful!), try to explain to you how farming works (they mean well, you're sure). Weird sideline in sleeping drugs.
- Leaden Order of St. Vivione - run hospitals, train chirurgeons, chase away the minor demons of infections. Deeply scary sideline in excorcism, which they blend with the regular medicine work just in case. Expect an excorcism of the demon in your tooth before it's yanked out and the pain stopped cold in its tracks with excellent herbs. Excellent herbs.
- Ivory Candle of St. Kurelda - oh man. Bad news. Witch hunters, trained to see all the signs of witches and warlocks. And if all you're trained to see is witch signs... The Archbishop is part ot this Order.
- The Circle of Thorns / Carnellians - actually know their shit. Nature clerics, who help out the locals with dangerous predators, diseases, famine and so on. Attitudes vary from preaching the good word of the Authority to the forest people, to half-druidic veneration of nature.
- Gale Order of St. Ingvar, the Raven Order - rarely seen, thank the Authority. Hauled out of their mountain monasteries to subdue monstrous servants of the Exile with gale-force winds and lightning storms. Zero regard for casualties or property damage when they're fighting an Exile-begotten Beast of the Apocalypse. Say goodbye to your town and crops.
- Silent Order of St. Gustau / Gustavinians - mostly known for their work on the Small Gods; captured godlings or angels that are placated with minimal prayers. Seen as harmless excentrics.
- The Black Hand, the Ferragun Order - knights of the Church, warrior-clergy. Obey, get out of the way. Reputation for slaughter, torture, sacking, deposing local rulers. Key word: reputation. They work very hard to be seen as terrifying witchfinders, because intimidating someone is so much easier than dealing with the forms and penances for chopping off some asshole noble's head. Which they will still do when its needs doing or when the guys is really getting on their nerve. Somehow they count as both nobility and clerics, with mandate from high up in the church to Deal With Things as they see fit. Power hungry nobles hate these guys with their dread inspiring black plate armor and insufferable encroachment on their lands and rights. Politically minded bishops and abbots hate these guys with their according-to-scripture-we're-supposed-to-live-in-poverty-and-humility interpretation of the Church's teachings. Take in orphans without any ties to proper families and give them both clerical magic and noble rights.
- Order of the Third Lantern - used to be some kind of witch hunters, but their kind of witch died out or something? Not taken too serious anymore.
3 - How prevalent are actual spellcasters, ie Wizards and Clerics, within the Orders?Are most representatives of the Orders capable of at least minor magic, or are magic users rare?
About half of the members in an Order have some kind of spellcasting capability - either through a Ritual Caster / Magic Initiate feat, or actual Bard/Cleric/Wizard levels. Spellcasters who can invoke 3rd to 5th level spells are rare (1 in 10), with a small group of excellents (1 in 20) reaching even higher. Of course high level wizards may get the spell slots for 7th - 9th level spells, but Church and even their own Orders make sure that no spells are available - in other words, they learn to cast lower level spells more intensely. Which is still terrifying.
4 - How is the political power divided in the public eye?Are the nobility on top, with the King undisputed figurehead of the Church, and Arcanists no more than advisors – is the King appointed by the Church, with nobility managing the lands, the Church ruling daily life and the Arcane Orders in clear opposition – something completely different?
The nobility rules, period. Archbishop annoints and blesses the ruler, some landgrabbing church folk may administer lands but mostly their influence on daily life is cultural, advisory. A Churchman (or woman) will have a good chance to catch the local noble's ear though.
Wizards are used as status symbol because as a noble you are expected to cover their upkeep in return for their work. They may advise or counsel, but on an individual basis - the Unbroken Circle doesn't have a seat on the Duke's privy council. Put differently, wizards are weird meddlers in half-sanctioned magics at best, and old-fashioned nobles will feel they should "know their place".
5 - Has there been open and widespread conflict between the Nobility, the Church and/or the Arcane Orders in recent history? Or is the something brewing right now?
Belswick has mercifully been spared this. Seriously misbehaving wizards (demonology, necromancy) tend to get hunted by their peers before the Church or State feels it needs to step in. There are tensions between the Duke and his Archbishop, a powerhungry Mouseling named Hector of Caerleon. There are also tensions between the Duke and the bishop of Ozillac, who descends from Arraynian royalty and is suspected of colluding with his brother, a baron in Arrayne.
6 - How dangerous is daily life for commoners?
Is the most common cause of danger monsters, famine, disease, cruel feudal lords, accusations of heresy, criminality, something else entirely?
Most dangers are natural - monsters (including crap like unicorns, hydras), famine, disease, cruelty, war, brigandry and other criminals. Accusations of heresy are rare, but see below. Likewise, fullblown supernatural manifestations such as demons or undead, or Warlock cults, are rare. But the more talked about for that rarity.
7 - Can everybody read and write?Is there organised education like elementary school and/or many colleges and universities, or do most people learn the trades of their parents or by applying to Guilds?
Many people can read haltingly or do simple sums. There is no organized elementary education. Your best chance is to get into the church, be a noble, luck out by having an Order of the Scroll library/monastery nearby who teach letters and numbers, or have your parents or a guild master teach you. There are lots of guild trained tradesmen who can teach you, and if you have talent, send you to a skilled master to learn more. You likely learn to do what your family did, but you're not locked into that - especially in larger towns and cities.
8 - How influential are the Guilds in the scheme of things?And are there well known Criminal Organisations?
Guilds are learning to play at politics in the cities and larger towns - they are showing that they can deliver more money, prestige and goods when given freedom and influence than a micro-managing ruler can.
There are small gangs of brigands and smugglers of course. But there is only one organization known across the land for crime, murder and allround villainy: the Violet Cloud. Its thieves' cant even has a swanky name: Mist. (Actually a dumbed down version of the arcane language that the Cloud's wizards use.)
9 - How common is travelling?Do most people stay within a 5 mile radius of where they were born, does everyone make at least one pilgrimage, or do people freely and often roam the country?
Most people have seen some travel throughout the Duchy, although on regular days they stick to their job and home. Serfs have to actually get permission to leave their lord's domain. People who traveled far on pilgrimages or to distant lands are uncommon and exotic. But definitely not unheard of.
10 - The Belswick Campaign uses NPC’s such as Mentors, Patrons and Contacts, which can be gained depending on the method of Attribute Generation. Are there other ways of gaining these at character generation, such as Background features, writing them in your character history etc? And can they be gained later, through roleplaying, Carousing, hiring them, or starting at higher character level after dying for instance?
Definitely! Any NPC that you build up a bond with during play can become a contact. If you write someone in your starting character history, I expect they were 'bought' at character creation. Future contacts, mentors and patrons will just take in-game effort. Do them a favor, blackmail them, pay them, rescue their daughter from trolls, you name it.
11 - It was mentioned that swords are weapons for the nobility – how strict are the weapon laws in Belswick? Is it rare for people to carry any weapon from day to day, do most people carry some small way to defend themselves, or is anyone carrying a weapon a professional with a license?
I was too strict there. Anyone can carry a weapon (most often a knife or club). Although you're expected to leave them at the door or guard house when you go into a dwelling. Dito with heavy armor-piercing crossbows - why are you wearing that to market day?
Swords used to be hard to make, which made them expensive and almost automatically limited to noble owners. But with better smithing, and higher prosperity, they've become a soldier's tool as well. A sword with exquisite workmanship is still suspect for a yokel to have, so maybe arrange for the local lord to publicly gift it to you after you cleared a dungeon on his lands?
12 - Is the calendar comparable to our own? 365 days in a year, 7 day weeks, 12 months, 1 day in the week somewhat devoted to worship, many celebrations devoted to the changing of the seasons and saints?
That's it. I'll go for the classical 12 months of January etc, each of 4 weeks of 7 days, Sundays for worship, with a one-week summer feast and winter feast starting 1 January and 1 July. So 48+2 = 50 weeks in total. Easy to remember. Pretty much every day is dedicated to some saint or other, but they're mostly minor worthies. I'll break out a chart for Major Saint's Days when I think of it.
13 - How much of the land is populated, or at least well explored?Are there vast swathes of untamed wilderness, cursed or unknown ruins of ancient civilisations spread about, regions under control of one or more species of monsters? Or is the country cultivated and controlled by one or more of the political powers in the land, and are the dangers Beyond the Borders?
People will live anywhere they can survive. Check out the map: green areas are wilderness, orange is more cultivated and civilized. So there's a lot of untamed or unwanted terrain.
Cursed or forgotten ruins: YES they're there. Either known (don't go to beacon hill when the marsh lights burn!) or unknown (say, that stone is suspiciously well-dressed for a random cave wall). I hate to say it, but...grease the local bard and pick his brain for lore about hidden treasure.
Monster controlled? Assuredly not! All lands are protected by the King and his nobles. How dare you.
...
Well, truth be told, the following beasties make the land unsafe:
- the Giant Wolfstan of the Blue in the Snake Mountains
- the Hound of Bodmin Hills between Badlesmere, Belswick and Cromney
- the Bone Witch of the Eldermarsh in Valbonnais
- the Unicorn Abyss in Corsewall forest
- the wolf packs in the Old Fulwood
- rumors of a werewolf in the Ozillac forest
- a persistent plague in the isolated village of Tilmarsh, barronetcy Martin
- faerie goblins haunt Walden forest
- deep lights below the waves and wreckings on Lake Ful
- the Sea Serpent in the Bay of Denbigh
- the behir Fulmas on Mount Grey
- the hydra Coruscon of the Corsewall hills
- the First Basilisk should still be alive and growing in the depths of the earth
In addition, when the moon is right and the Old Ways have not been properly kept, faerie can ride into our lands where the world is thin. That could be a pack of (Un)Seelie knights. Or maybe a band of Svart Alfar [Goblins] or their Orc war leaders. We're not talking tinkerbell here. We're talking the Fair Folk.
Like Terry Pratchett taught us:
“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.”
- Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies
It is as the old song goes: if you go out in the woods today, pack cold iron. Or purchase an iron filing-laced incendiary from the Fraternity of the Comet. Show those faeries who's boss.
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| The Fair Folk by Taissia Abdoullina. Illustration done for Mythbook3, 2018. |
14 - What is the drink of choice in Belswick?Do most people go for a flagon of ale after a hard days’ work, or does every region produce wine? Is safe drinking water easy to come by, or are tea and fruit juice available to all?
Common folk around Belswick will drink ale (watered for breakfast and lunch), with stronger brews for feast days. Nobles will enjoy a good wine as well. In the former Arraynian provinces in southern Belswick, wine is the drink of choice for everyone.
Safe drinking water: if you're nature wise, that shouldn't be a problem. Or just use the village well?
15 - How common are adventurers in society?
Are they just mercenaries doing specialist work, working to survive day to day like everybody else – or are they deviants with danger lurking just around the corner whenever they show up? Do people go on quests at the drop of a hat, or the mutterings of any soothsayer – or are they as organised as any guild or Order?
Very good question. How do we get ourselves to an adventure?
There are no adventurer guilds. Quests are for besotten nobles.
Adventurers are decidedly rare. Weird folk, half Outlaw already: they stepped away from their appointed job or position and travel to where there's trouble brewing. So yes, mercenaries to some, trouble-bringers to others, poachers even if you've got a stickler for law running the fief. Best to keep an ear out for jobs and approach the local lord to see if they'll delegate it to you for a share.
Normal people don't drop their work to go on dangerous adventures to fight with (sorry, against) supernatural monsters. People might be contracted to solve a problem by a ruler, guild master or high mage. This may start low key, like when a sherriff organizes a posse of people to smoke out an outlaw. If you can handle yourself and grease the right pockets, people will find you to do other, harder jobs.
16 - Warlocks are a thing in Belswick. How common a threat are they?Is their existence well known to all, with stories of their mischief arriving from every corner of the land every week – or are they rare and mysterious? Have there been regular witch hunts, and if so is the public invited to participate or should it be left to the pros? Is there a penalty for falsely accusing someone for being a warlock, or does the Church prefer certainty above doubt?
Everyone knows that witches and warlocks exist. But the majority of people go their entire life without seeing actual witchcraft in action. There's actual quite a lot of witches - say, 2% of the population has some minor deal with a warlock patron. Most of them get scared after the one task they have to fulfill for their patron and stick to these minor magics to help them through life. Some like the taste of forbidden power. Those are the ones that make it into the stories.
Witch hunts are called sparsely, against either large cults or covens or against archwarlocks of great power. A posse can certainly be called against a coven of minor warlocks: maybe five times a year in the entire duchy. Against an archwitch and her demons, only the brave and devout have a chance. (Of course songs never talk about the many servants of those pious and noble heroes...) These kind of quests are rare - once every five or ten years maybe. (It's been twelve...)
The penalty for a false witch hunt is a fine for targeting a peasant to a great weregild or even corporal punishment and incarceration for accusing a high ranking noble or cleric. (I'll use the Indulgence chart.)
17 - Is there a lot of widespread and open racism towards non-humans?
After all, Dwarves are rumoured to be digging towards Hell, and mistrusted for that reason. Elves and halflings a rare, or at least a lot less prevalent than in most worlds – and other races even more so. How about the animal headed folk?
There are actually more animal folk ("people") and elves+halflings+dwarves ("half fae people") than humans ("people"). It's just that each individual type of animal person is pretty rare. Mistrust and racism is not as wide-spread as you'd think. The other that people fear and hate is the unknown: the other Estates, those from Far Away (sometimes that means the other side of the world, sometimes another country, sometimes another barony).
This said, there's a lot of stereotyping. Foxlings are liars, swanlings are cursed, toadlings are diseased, mouselings (do NOT call them ratlings there is no such thing as ratlings and they do NOT call themselves Skaven!) are...of the tactical withdrawal persuasion, houndlings are dumb thugs, spiderlings have weird blooddrinking rites and their own deity (what?!) that they're allowed to keep.
And humans are bald weirdo freaks that must descend from something vile and more fertile than rabbitlings. (A theory never spoken aloud is that souls get second and third chances at heaven, and that the better they did in their previous life, the higher up in the animal folk chain they incarnate. Humans in this view rank lowest of the low.)
18 - Who is the most popular public figure in the region? The King, a devout priest, or a talented bard perhaps?
That is a great question. I've no answer yet, and I'll let the people decide: expect this to be a question to the group during the first session.
19 - Who is the least popular public figure, either openly or hush hush?
Hard choice. In terms of sheer dread it's a tie between:
- Hector of Caerleon, the Mouseling Archbishop of the Church of the Authority, Master of the Domesbury Cathedral and Archprelate of the Kurelda Order, and
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- Sir Ulric of the Broken Spear, the Dread Knight in his forsaken castle on Mount Gale, bearer of the Hellfire Standard, arch heretic, slayer of thousands, who was slain thrice by Saint Cascarrion and has slain him three times in return.
I might start the campaign in the foothills of Mt. Gale.
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20 - Tired of me yet? ;)Since I was also the bozo that dropped the language question let me clarify, I don’t expect whole posts on any of these. Couple of sweet sarcastic sentences will do me fine – though I would be delighted if anything sparks more posts, naturally.
Never.
I think we're moving into the part of the campaign where the lore is decided at the table, but happy to write some more here about Belswick. Useful questions!
