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From Fax Encyclopedicus

==Journey and Destination== ''I want to be...'' '''In Short:''' This chapter is intended for players researching character backgrounds, and moderators creating settings or stories. It contains information on regions, eras of play, rules for creating environments or special structures, and the primary section on player gear options. Recommendations for construction of stories and adventures, and advice regarding player management are also included. Regions are places where characters start, and places they move through on their road to glory. Each region contains a brief description of its culture and history, as well as two more focused sections: one of quirks, behaviors or details of appearance that can be integrated into a character, and one of hooks, the places, people, and events that form the seeds of adventure. Quirks can functions simply as guidelines to hero creation, or as habits and constant behaviors you perform even when not explicitly stated. If regions are where a story happens, an Era is the just-as-important when. Each Era is described first in terms of a basic description of events within it- what happens, in short. Following this historical summary, a section of themes addresses the kind of story the Era is intended to tell. Moving from the philosophical and general to the specific, this chapter also contains rules for creating environments, ranging from enchanted forests and bustling cities to volcanic calderas and deep-sea trenches. Also included are suggestions for special structures- headquarters for villainous criminal gangs and moonlit mountaintop stone circles. Acquisitive players will find descriptions of fearsome, fascinating, and useful tools, weapons, gewgaws and gadgets in the tables in this chapter, organized by era and function. Last but not least, the chapter closes with advice for players and moderators on telling stories and running and playing the game- advice intended, like everything else in this chapter, as a toolkit for heroism, villainy, drama, and fun. ====Regions==== The world of Horizons contains four default regions: the mysterious Orange Empire, the verdant Northern Confederacies, the opulent cities of the Kantus Peninsula, and the varied Sinnate Kingdoms. After the descriptions of these regions, moderators can find advice on creating their own. ==The Orange Empire== ''Within the empire there is little that is withheld, but that is only because the same hand that grants can always take away.'' -R. Sandu, Researcher, University of Arkantus ''We built an empire of the sugar cane; of course all our poisons are sweet.'' -Empress Thrimga, The Pirate Queen, Act I Scene III =====Overview===== ''Excerpt from the introduction to "Orange Sun: On the Origin, Rise, and Collapse of Imperial Power", by Saphon Manx'' Around the world, the Orange Empire is looked on with a mixture of patrician disdain and simmering envy; an archipelago born in volcanic fire, weaned on plenty, and educated by the stern hand of secrecy and deception. Its people are dismissed as dissipated libertines, admired as shrewd bargainers, and, almost always, denied the glories they feel are their due. To be a citizen of the Orange Empire is to be born into the ritual and worship of ancestors uncounted; but it is, as well, to be heir to the freedom of the heart, of the mind, and of the waves. That the Orange Empire has a reputation for immodesty is not surprising; a climate ranging from temperate to blistering to monsoonal has little need for excessive clothing, though it well understands the virtues of ornament. Thats its romantic mores are equally open is, to the casual observer, obvious, and to the careful watcher a transparent falsehood. Though Imperials are indeed wont to indulge themselves with considerable abandon at home and abroad, under scrutiny these wild affairs resolve themselves. The hiring of a courtesan is a deliberate slight to an amorous rival; a dance denied or granted indicates a position regarding the host's political views: the passions of the imperial heart are balanced and shaped, tools and weapons. A child of the archipelago grows up surrounded by such maneuvers, and takes their names at first speech, adulthood, and marriage surrounded, by ancient custom, by not only friends but deadly rivals. Though the governance of the island empire is nominally democratic, and famed for the rectitude of its justice in dealing with foreigners, the silent majority of the unquiet dead is always present. Old grudges and unrequited wants are as much a feature of the imperial religious tradition as the solemn, loving ceremonies and ablutions outsiders are permitted to witness. The ancestors are advocates and accomplices, as well as objects of worship. it is this duality that allows us to see the first of the two stout legs with which the Imperial colossus once bestrode the world; its armies are replete with shadow warriors, its cities and its families stern keepers of a secret law all too easy for one without knowledge and perspicacity to transgress. In a sense, secret society is the only society remaining to the Empire itself- its bureaucratic remnants, scattered throughout the world, file and grant and deny with the knowledge of their hidden, ever-sharp knives; its mercenaries march and serve and die knowing the flags they walk beneath can be torn upon the moment for the one they carry in their heart. Knowledge is power, diluted when shared. What is most remarkable about this cultural fixation is its longevity in the face of the Empire's collapse, dealt from just that secret heart. A culture so dependent upon sea routes could not but be devastated when the spirits of waves and tide rose against it- but swiftly recovered, the animistic traditions of the place forging alliances far more quickly than in Kantus' golden halls. The Imperium granted by this mastery of the sea might have allowed the elders of the Imperial Heartland to endure forever- had not they turned on one another in the schismatic chaos that ended the Spiritus War. Deception destroyed the Empire, but many of its citizens believe that deception sustains it, even as they consign the bodies of friends and enemies to the deeps. It is in this funereal tenderness, an enfolding by the waves, that we see the roots of the second leg of the colossus- the cross-ocean trade. While Kantus grubbed for gold and the northern folk were still mired in blood, the people under the orange sun took as their chief concern the wealth of the seas, pearl and fish alike, and the wealth of the land- sugar and maize, lumber and anthracite. The early stages of the seige of Arkantus would not have been possible without the mines of the greatest of the Orange islands to supply the rebel cannon- and the days after the sack were an ironic fulfillment of the Kantic maxim that 'the artist is nothing without paints': while shrewdness in trade and well-timed piracy (ill-disguised in these latter days as 'privateering' on behalf of any of a number of straw potentates) were certainly of assistance, it was the abundance of raw material held tightly by the Empire that allowed them to win out over their supposedly more sophisticated rivals, such that today they are considered paragons of sophistication themselves.... ''The journal of Neroni Jaghi, Firstmonth I'' Today we offload our cargoes in the harbor of these pigs of the cities, and I marvel once more at the slender grace of my beloved; her tendrils twined about my staff-of-order, her shell of ivory surmounting it. From her, these past months, I have felt the caress of calm and just thoughts like the coolness of the tide, as gradual and as welcome; but also like the wave on the shore, sudden and shocking, her amusement. I have slept in the glitter of her ruby eye, and I am at peace. It pleases the pigs of the cities to call us pirates, and deceivers, and I will not deny that sometimes it is so. But I am an honest trader, and they will not give me a fair price for fish and rum until their backs are welted and their eyes are blacked. They see my eyes, hard within their wrappings, and upon my staff the spirit men of the sea call cruel tendrils, and they reconsider. I am a proud captain, and who among my crew does not know me so, tender though they whisper I am to the soft boys of the harbors (whom no few mistreat); proud enough to keep at bay their eyes, and few enough among them even brave enough to think of biting at my breasts, or tangling the sheets in my great cabin. They fear my staff and they love my pride, and they whisper among themselves that my husband is dead of honest age, to reassure. It is the truth; and if I have hated my father and cursed his bones where they lie among the stones of the bay, still, that poison is drawn in the sheen of a ruby eye. And for true, it was age, and drink, and the pleasures of leaf and powder, that stole that lummox from between my legs. I have buried him in the bay alongside my father's bones, and I spoke him well, for he loved me true. If the waves should claim me, my cruel tendril has promised to bear these pages to the shore, that it should be known. I want an honest name, when I die. For today we are at harbor, and I will black the eyes and scar the backs of those who would cheat me, and those who deal me fair I will leave with my name on their ledgers and the scent of my hair in their shops, of oil and pine and sweet rum. And tomorrow we will sail, and I will feel the wind and the salt, and I will be free- in each day's light, forever. Such is the promise of my ruby eye. '''Quirks''' ''Play a character from the Orange Empire, an Imperial, if you want to...'' * Play a character with a background in seafaring: a trader, a traveler, or even a pirate * Have a hidden past or a secret- ominous or innocent * Be a member of a secret society: a spy, a ninja, or a cultist * Perform mysterious rituals or ceremonies * Display verve, sophistication, and social panache * Create a scandal wherever you go, then smooth it over- or not ''Some behaviors typical of Imperials are...'' * Always carry the tools of your trade- whether that's a pocket ledger, a stiletto, or a lockpick * Never sit with your back to a door- or a window, if you can help it * Don't pass up an opportunity to gain a favor owed * Always dress to impress, and don't spare the silks * Swashbuckle at every opportunity ''Some common threads in Imperial appearance are...'' * Tanned skin, ranging from olive to chocolate * Scars and tattoos, intentional or otherwise * Ornamentation and jewelry * Ostentation- or simple elegance <table> <th>Sidebar: Quirks and Subversion</th> <td>Quirks are intended as an aid to roleplaying; however, they should never, but ever, be taken as anything more than guidelines. Quirks are just as effective when subverted as when played straight: an Imperial with a habit of perfect honesty, or a disdain for the foppish ways of their brethren, could well be an extremely effective choice. Consider the roots and implications of a Quirk before taking it on- and think about whether you want to play it straight, or subvert it, and why.</td> </table> '''Hooks''' ''Within the Orange Empire, some common adventure sites are...'' * Within the caldera of a volcano * On the deck of a ship during a storm * In a seemingly idyllic village * An airy sea-side metropolis * The shrine of a revered ancestor * The hunting-lodge of a rival in love ''Figures who might spur adventure within the Empire include...'' * A corrupt or misguided member of an Elder Council, working against the party for his own ends. * A member of a rival family determined to exact revenge on one of the players, last scion of their hated foes. * A mercenary who cares only for coin- and the fate of his family, back home in the Islands. * A seductive noblewoman with her eye on one of the players, for purposes that may not be as transparent as they appear. * A family member in trouble, in debt, or both. ''Some events that could draw players into an adventure are...'' * A mysterious tide leaves spirits and animals alike dead on the beaches. * A military coup leaves a large portion of the archipelago under the control of a ruthless dictator. * Mythical beasts, unlike any spiritual being ever encountered, begin plaguing a village. * Assassins seek the life of an apparently innocent countess. [[category: encyclopedicus lucidius]]

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