B/X D&D Month II: The Gods of Pergerron

Part II of the Basic/Expert/RC Dungeons & Dragons Special for April: this is the second part of the introduction to the world of Pergerron, on which all subsequent entries this month will hang. You could use Pergerron for almost any edition of D&D at its core, but the intent here is to make this special to the unique flavor and allowances of classic B/X style D&D, with some RC edition enhancements thrown in. Now for the gods of Pergerron....

The Pantheon of the Enkanneth

There are many Enkanneth, which are formally described in the Sacred Codex of Enamoratu as the First Men of the world. There are two conflicting myth-tales about the origins of the First Men. One is that they were dwellers in the stars (said to have come from the planet Surdat, farthest and most peculiar o the sky-wanderers). A second tale that is less popular but embodies the Cult of the Risen Kings states that the First Men were an accident of creation, formed in error by the Primordials, destined to rise up and destroy their masters.

Regardless of the origin of the First Men, both sects agree that they rose to power, saw the Primordials for the formless and evil entities they were, and stole the divine secret of godhood from them. With this power they destroyed the primordials or drove them into the dark recesses of the world, and elevated their own people to the dominant kindred of the world over beast and monster alike.

The Temples of the Enkanneth can be found throughout the River Kingdoms, and you must journey to the remote lands of Asparta, Vothrace, Esmonar and Mesutin before finding significantly different deities and methods of worship. The people of the River Kingdoms tend to assume that these other foreign gods are just more Enkanneth, but worshipped in foreign lands…except, of course, when they see evidence of primordial worship. Such worship must be stamped out, destroyed, no matter the cost.

In the Kingdoms of Anansis there are nine prominent Enkanneth and several dozen lesser Enkanneth that are worshipped. The nine principle deities and associated spouses are:

Katas – The god of kings, said to have been the deity who led the charge against the Primordials, and to have slain its greatest leader, Sarpoxas.  His contribution to the land is the fabled Rule of Law, which is etched upon the sacred stones at the entrance to Katas’ temple in the capitol of Ulimpor.

Suliversa – the goddess of lore and wife to Katas, sometimes also seen as the mother of all men and women. Suliversa is the patron goddess of the Temple of Lorein Ulimpor and other cities, and is said to have taught mankind the principles of civilization.

Vornen – the god of sustenance and the hunt, who taught man how to craft spear and blade and bring down the beasts and monsters of the wild. He is also believed to be the god of the elves, having imparted to them his special gifts of sight and understanding, and that the elves disdain civilization as men see it to honor their creator. His wife is Medrea, who is regarded by the elves as a principle fertility goddess and given more import than her husband.

Sakhar – The god of metal, forges, and smiths. Sakuar is regarded as the progenitor of such lore, and it was with his teachings that mankind mastered the crafting of copper, brass and bronze implements and weapons. Sakhar is also regarded as the creator of dwarves, along with his wife Indraka.

Tekastei – God of the harvest. Tekastei is seen as the one who created the seasons, to allow mankind to grow food and predict the weather; the elements are seen as a creation of the primordials, but it is Tekastei who forces the elements to behave (sometimes). In myth Tekastei is seen as a stout Halfling, sometimes remiss in his duties, thus explaining the problem of actually predicting the weather. Tekastei is seen as the creator of Halflings, too, along with his less divine wife Immerta.

Skuurn – The tamer of beasts and lord of shepherds. Skuurn sought to teach man how to tame the beasts of the wild, and also sought to make such beasts friendlier to humanity. Though he failed against those beings too monstrous, his contribution is normally regarded as pivotal to the mastery of pastoral living in civilized lands. Skuurn is regarded as the creator of boar-kin, centaurs and minotaurs though those races may dispute this as a “human thing.”

Velos – God of war, Velos is the patron of warriors everywhere. His aspect is battle and it is said he forged the armies which marched behind Katas against the forces of the primordials, smiting them all. Velos is said tohave once married Tartessa, the goddess of death, and it is from the souls of the dead that he harvests new warriors for his armies in the sky. Most commoners look to the sky and believe the stars reflect the campfires of the soldiers of Velos, standing fast against the primordials that lurk in the Darkness beyond the dome of the sky. Velos is also said to be married to Marnica, goddess of tranquility and beauty. The dichotomy is deliberate, and Marnica’s temples are just as prominent as those of Velos, and usually maintained by a dedicated crowd of priestess artisans.

Tokandros – Among the gods it is said that Tokandros is the mischief-maker, the one who betrayed them or will betray them, through whose actions the primordial will rise again. He is said to be half-brother to Katas, and that he is half-primordial, his mother being the terrifying dragon goddess Druusa herself. Tokandros as outcast god has been regarded as an important foil and reflection on the hubris of the other gods, while officially being the god of opposites; when Velos offers mercy, Tokandros will offer none. When Katas offers justice, Tokandros offers none. As such, he has officially become patron god to criminals and thieves in the land. His cult, which remains secretive, believes that Tokandros is married to his sister, Abeitha, the spiteful Queen of Gorgons who is one of the Ten.

Abia – The goddess of Light and destiny. Abia is said to have been the one that awoke the First Men to the realities of the Primordials, and showed Katas the secret gate to the power of divinity. Abia’s aspects are a dichotomy, being secret knowledge contrasted with blinding, inescapable light. Her cult is small but dedicated, and her priests are renowned as great seers and oracles. She is unmarried, though it is said that she still bore children in the form of the first rakasta and some other more enigmatic immortal races. There is a secret elvish cult that believes Abia is the true mother of the elves, though they decry the notion that she at some point lay with Sahambla and birthed the rakasta.

Tartessa – the powerful goddess of the dead, Tartessa is supreme ruler of Zhol’Dran, and the harvester of souls. Her designs are enigmatic, and she pays a toll in potent souls to her former husband, Velos. Tartessa is said to have a keen hatred for the living, and openly despises the other gods, biding her time until the primordials return so that she may reap the harvest of souls that such an apocalypse will entail.

The Primordials

The ancient primordials are a mystery. A modern anthropologist might see this ancient pantheon as a fallen religion, trampled and absorbed by a younger usurper culture into their own myths, but the people of Pergerron know better, for the fabulous, mysterious and deadly ruins of the old era of the primordials dot the wilderness, tempting adventurers with treasure and doom. Old temples to these gods still abound, and the monsters of the world still seek to worship these lost gods. Even the current religion of the River Kingdoms acknowledges the power of the primordials, attributing the creation of the world and the elements to them.

There were ten great primordials and a host of unknown lesser primordials, but today all that exists to indicate their lost power outside of relics and ruins are the Servants of the Ten, a host of monstrous entities who claim to have been the last true children of the old gods, and who were destined to ascend to divinity before the Enkanneth stole the power away from them.

 There is little known of the old primordials, but their names are recorded as:

Sarpoxas – the god of chaos and lord of primordial. Depicted as a great red dragon with seven heads in most old images.

Druunas – the queen of all dragons and creator of the night sky. Depicted as a many colored dragoness with five heads. Certain ancient texts call her “Tiamat” by her primordial name.

Verethax – lord of fire. Depicted as an infernal giant wreathed in flame.

Sambador – creator of earth. Depicted as a greath earthen mass made of soil, worm and bone.

Vos Kar – the primordial of air and wind. Depicted as a great tornado filled with gargoyles that form an immense humanoid shape.

Yoka Vataras – goddess of the quintessence of magic, depicted as a being of pure darkness.

Trigaril – goddess of the waters of creation. Depicted as a great leviathan of the sea who sometimes manifests as a beautiful woman to lure sailors to their doom.

Pulsagral – old god of the dead, the lord of Hazata. Depicted as a pulsing mass of undead flesh that shifts form constantly.

Hox Nagor – the god of the ophidians and serpents, depicted as an immense snake, larger than the river Anansis itself.

Sahambla  – the destroyer, the reaver of all. Depicted as a storm of blades with two burning eyes.

The Servants of the Ten

Each of the servants are a beastly incarnate of their kind, powerful beyond measure and very nearly immortal, or so the stories claim. These are paragons of their species and noteworthy for being the driving force behind the hatred of humanity by monstrous kind. Whether or not some of these beings are truly sons and daughters of the primordials as they claim is an unverified belief, but what matters in the end is that their monstrous followers believe it to be true. Some of them, such as Sekulos and Palagor Harad, are clear that they are either direct or spiritual successors, the latest in a long line of the Servants of the Ten, elected or chosen by a means unknown to hold their station.

Abeitha – queen of the gorgons, daughter of Yoka Varatas

Samadar Phorain – lord of the minotaurs, successor to Vos Kar

Sekulos the Cunning – lord of goblins, successor to Verethrax

Palagor Harad – king of orcs, successor to Sambador

Sibitsen Muukol – king of the nagpa, successor to Sarpoxas

Skag – King of the manticores, successor to Verethrax

Kalabar Drethos – king of dragonkin, son of Druunas

Shuutol – king of the bargda, successor to Pulsagral

Astrea Vespis – queen of the ophidians, gatormen and lizardmen, daughter or Hox Nagor

Habatar Kasgardan – king of the beastkin and rakasta, son of Sahambla and Abia

B/X D&D Month I: Pergerron and the River Kingdoms of Anansis

To kick off my April full of D&D I'm laying out the ground rules and setting: everything is going to tie to a new realm, called Pergerron, which I'll detail in the first few days and then use as a springboard for everything else to come. Without further adieu, I introduce the world of Pergerron, land of the River Kingdoms of Anansis...(note one pic below is a bit NSFW).

Here's how it's going to work: today is a brief overview of the land and its history. Next will be a summary of the gods and mythology of the world. On day three there will be a map and brief gazetteer or the region. Then, each day thereafter I will pick one or two regions on the map (which will be divided into sectors) and discuss the adventures, encounters, NPCs and monsters that can be found within. I'll see how many of these I can get in for April....I thought I'd manage one a day, but the truth is that sounds tough to pull off, so we'll see....

Now...it's time for an old fashioned hexcrawl! And to do a hexcrawl, we need a place to visit...

The Lands of Pergerron – The River Kingdoms

Background

The world of Pergerron revolves around a civilized region called the River Kingdoms  (sometimes also called the Kingdoms of Anansis), a collection of polities and city-states that rely on the seasonal flood waters of the River Anansis, a bountiful region which has allowed human civilization to flourish. Pergerron is a largely barbaric land outside of the civilized center of the world, though the people of the kingdoms have found trade partners with other pockets of civilization to the distant eat in the Kingdom of Asparta, and far to the west in the Isles of Esmonar. The southlands, called Vothrace, are a vast an untamed wilderness though some hearty explorers claim to have found a vast empire known as Mesutin beyond its untamable reaches, where ancient sorcerer kings rule.

Pergerron exists in a time shortly after the dawn of creation, and monstrosities are a product of the Primordials, a race of ancient god-like beings which were cast down by the First Men, called the Enkanneth, who in turn took the power of the primordials themselves and became gods as well. The Enkanneth are the principle pantheon of the Fertile Kingdoms, and worship of the old Primordials is regarded as a profane heresy.

Pergerron is dominated by more than humans, however, for it is a land of many ancient and mystical races as well as many cursed beings and monsters. Many of the monsters and cursed races are part of the old kindred, the beings which ruled the world and were created by the primordials before the Enkanneth came and shattered their dominion. Other races were born in the likeness of the Enkanneth, made after their patron gods to carry on as their servants in the world. Such races include humanity, the elves, dwarves, Halflings, gnomes hutaakan, lupins, chameleon men, tortles, pachydermions, and centaurs. Other races which remain prolific mark their creation from the time before, at the hands of the primordials. These races are regarded as cursed, and include the goblinkin, giantkin, orcs, ophidians, nagpa, kobolds, manscorpions, bargda, lizard men, gatormen, gorgons, minotaurs, harpies, gnolls, rakasta, chaos-kin, dragons and more. The races of old and the races of new rarely live in peace. Furthermore, this distinction of “old and new” races is somewhat arbitrary; hutaakans, for example, are regarded as one of the oldest races even though they are regarded as friendly and trustworthy by men. In the end, the distinction is best considered a reflection of those races who are inimical or hateful toward mankind, and those who are not.

Pergerron’s principle population in the River Kingdoms is mankind, though halflings and other races can be found in fair numbers in certain areas. The wilderlands beyond the safe harbor of the river kingdoms are rife with nonhumans and monsters, so travel through this rough and often uninhabited lands is always done with guard and escort. The ancient ruins of the primordial cities dot the landscape, as do the occasional monuments and landmarks that indicate where a great battle took place or a god fell in battle.

Outside of the roads and fortress towns between the major points of civilization, occasional temples will arise in the wilderness at the dictate of the enigmatic Enkanneth, those who were once men then stole divinity from the gods. Those who forge deep into no-man’s land will on occasion come across temples to the old primordials, sustained by the worship of foul monsters. Such locations, when found, are usually targeted for eradication by the templars of the Enkanneth.

Guiding Principles of Pergerron

Pergerron has the following ten key concepts and themes built in to it:

Dawn of Civlization – Pergerron is a young world, although the primordials crafted a long and ancient history that can be found in the mysterious and inhuman ruins of the wilderness. Mankind and the sister races are young, having been formed from the clay of the River Anansis by the Enkanneth less than five thousand years ago, and taught the principles of civilization by the great teacher, the goddess named Suliversa.

Bastions of Civilization in a Sea of Wilderness and barbarism – Pergerron is mostly a world of uninhabited wilderland punctuated by moments of civilization. Outside of the River Kingdoms there isn’t much call for warfare in this day and age amongst the human kingdoms, for they are separated by a remote vastness. Populations are small; a large city rarely has more than 15-20,000 citizens, and most communities are much smaller. When war comes, it is with the barbarian tribes and monsters of the wilderness.

Bronze Age Technology – The technology of Pergerron is akin to that of the middle bronze age of Sumeria circa 1700 B.C.; copper is still in use though bronze has superseded it as a more reliable metal. Iron and steel are still largely unknown and relic weapons of the primordial era are the only reliable source of such ancient metals at this time. Science and technology is in its infancy, and most civilizations fret about the basics of commerce and agriculture, the foundation of language and the rule of law.

No Divine Intervention – The gods exist, or so any native would assert, and they work in mysterious ways. The reality is that the gods do not manifest or intervene in any way easily identifiable to any other than the priests, but the miracles granted to priests are more than sufficient to prove the existence of the divine to most people. Cult members can experience profound visions revealing the secrets of the Enkanneth, but outside of these hallucinogenically induced visions the gods only work in ways akin to nature. The primordials are likewise absent, though their handiwork can be seen in the mysterious relics, monstrous kin and ancient ruins of the wilderness.

Man is the Driving Force of Pergerron – The men of Pergerron, amongst humanity and the other races, is the force behind change, for better or worse. No divinities manifest to make change, though a leader might swear that his god speak to him in dreams.

Magic is Real but Largely Mysterious – Magic exists, yes, but it is a mysterious tool at best, and there is currently no industry built up around it, nor any regular resource for the production and sale of goods or services based on magic outside of the most elemental fundamentals. Most mages are hucksters and charlatans; real magic is feared and readily misunderstood, as well as coveted by those who do not have talent for it. Most artifacts and magical devices are actually ancient relics from the primordial era, and often the use of such is regarded as heresy by the cults of the Enkanneth. 

Other Realms Exist but are Misunderstood – There are other domains into which mages can tap, and these are the realms from which spirits and entities such as demons and seraph may come, but little is understood about these realms. Hazata is the term used to describe the hellish realm of the demons; Harisku is the domain of the spirits, and Nezumei is the domain of the seraph. These are understood by some practitioners to be other worlds, though whether they are planets in the sky (and indeed all three are identified as planetary bodies) or simply convenient place names for something else entirely is unknown.

The Afterworld is Called Zhol’Dran – and it is a feared dominion, where all of the dead assemble to await a time when the Enkanneth will call upon the fallen warriors of many ages to once again strike down the primordials. The myths of the dead in Pergerron speak of a time when the primordials will rise again, and it is the harvest of human and humanoid souls by the Enkanneth that breeds the army that will defend the world from this next incursion. Or so the legend goes. Mages and priests of the land know only that sufficient strength of will can allow for a spell which restores life to the dead (and can also create undead), but such resurrections always require a heavy toll to the one who benefits….a life for a life.

Major Foes Are the Servants of the Ten – it is said that there were ten great primordials and a host of lesser primordials when they were destroyed by the Enkanneth. The primordials each had a destined successor, and these were called the Servants of the Ten. The Ten were each great and powerful beings from the time before man, who survived the fall of their creators but were stripped of divinity by the Enkanneth who stole the force of godhood from the primordials. The Servants of the Ten are still believed to exist in the deep, unexplored regions of the world plotting their revenge against the new, young gods.

Ancient Mysteries – Everything described as myth, legend and history as above is filtered through the eyes of men who struggle to learn about their past and their world. All of it could very well be false, but it is the record of ancient legends carried down through the ages by the priests and loremasters of Pergerron that assert some validity to these tales, as well as the existence of monsters and mysterious ruins of old. 

Core Rules Assumptions:

This setting will use the B/X D&D rules, with the following additional rules from the D&D Rules Cylcopedia:

1. Demihuman classes use the optional leveling rules in the RC (they don't cap).

2. The RC skill system will be assumed in stat blocks.

3. Optional combat rules from the RC (such as two weapon fighting) are in place. I'll be using individual initiative rules from the Basic book as a default for whatever I run, but obviously that's personal choice.

4. Any racial classes you have access to which allow one to play hutaakans or other demihuman races are allowed.

5. Again my preference but I let everyone start with max HP at level 1.

Tomorrow: The gods of Pergerron