13th Age: Villainous Icons in the Age of Strife

At last the villainous icons....of which Lingusia has a copious quantity of in the Age of Strife:

The  Crusader – Xauraun Vestillios (Villanous – CE)

Xauraun Vestillios is the immortal champion of chaos, who seeks to bring down the era of man and disembowel the worship of the pantheon of order. He commands ferocious armies of monsters and demons to this end, as well as the loyalty of the human subjects who seek to gain power in his era of rule. The Crusader is always interested in new agents and minions willing to sow strife among the lords of order.

If you serve the Crusader: You are one who is comfortable in the company of fiends, possible one of the Order of the Ten Circles (the Divinate, in its public guise) or even one of the league of assassins that seek out those who would oppose the Crusader to lay them low. You could be of orcish or demonic descent, feeling the compulsion to serve the immortal chaos lord, or you are a man or elf who desires power at any cost.

The Diabolist – Tyriandras Gonn Holivarnen (Villanous – LE)

The dark sorceress of Hyrkania is a shadowy entity, known by name only to her inner cabal. She has an obsessive and seemingly one-sided alliance with the Crusader Xauraun, and works her own schemes to bring Hyrkania to its knees. She believes that conquering the empire will be sufficient to catch Xauraun’s attention.

If you serve the Diabolist: you are a cutting-edge agent of evil and you can see the opportunity to both gain power in the Diabolist’s imagined future empire as well as ready yourself for the embrace of chaos.

The Betrayer King (Orc King) – King Makhorven (Villainous – NE)

Rumors that Makhorven has orcish blood in his lineage are true, and it explains his grim, bestial visage and complexion. Makhorven is a power even while imprisoned in the vast dungeon complex between the city of Hyrendan, for the Order of the Red Robes insures he remains carefully protected and fed, and his network of spies and agents functions throughout the land. The Emperor’s unwillingness to execute Makhorven is still a mystery to many (though there is an ugly rumor of some sort of familial relation) though just as many suspect that Makhorven’s followers would never allow his death to pass. Makhorven is allied with the cults of the chaos gods, but he plays by his own rules and for his own gain.

If you serve the Betrayer King: you work from the shadows, relying on physical force or magic as necessary to undo the empire from within. Though your liege suffered a great defeat, support is as strong as ever, just fluid like water so that the anvil of the empire cannot find you. You serve either the Black Circle, the Order of the Red Robes or the Divinate as an agent of chaos and change.

The Serpent – Saurpikan (Villanous – LE)

The Grant Imperator of the serpent men empire of Hazer-Phennis serves exclusively the will of the dark god Set and his devilish minions, who spread like a cancer throughout the underworld. The rumors that the serpent men walk among humans and elves in magical disguise to sow discord are likely entirely true.

If you serve The Serpent: few who do not have serpent blood serve The Serpent, but they exist. The Serpent is the embodiment of his people and his vile god, who seeks to subjugate the world to his rule. Following the Serpent means betraying your people for a piece of that pie, or it means being one of the pure-blooded, the humanoids who have a trace of ancient serpent ancestry within their veins.

The Wyrmlords (The Three) – the elder dragons lords of the Dragon Mother’s Brood (Villanous – CE)

The Wyrmlords of the brood follow the Green Mother as they refer to her, a great chromatic beast to the north who dwells in the heart of the Northern Wilderness, giving birth to a new generation of the great dragonflight. The Green Mother’s Brood consists of her hand-picked finest brothers, sisters and those males who court the Green Mother. She sends them out to do her bidding. Rumors are that the Green Mother has determined to awaken the sleeping Tiamat to restore dragonkind to greatness once more.

If you serve the Wyrmlords: there are many dragonborn who ally themselves with the Wyrmlords, and as many other races who envy the power of the dragons who know how to use it. The Wyrlmords are crafty manipulators and they seed their dark interests throughout the Middle Kingdoms and beyond, but they need even craftier agents to carry out their agenda of dragon superiority.

Next: more fun facts about the Age of Strife

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13th Age: Ambiguous Icons in the Age of Strife

Next up: the ambiguous icons in Lingusia's Age of Strife. There are more of these than heroic icons....hmmmm....

The Lich King – Laikhanamen (Ambiguous– TN)

The Lich King was once the greatest wizard of the realm but fell to the passions of the Unseelie Queen centuries ago, such that he was driven to seek out immortality that he would be “alive” for the time of her mortal return to the world. That time is now, and the Lich King is as much a pawn to the Unseelie Queen as he is an agent of his own necromantic self interest in the current era. The lich king has little interest in the current field of politics, but craves power and the expansion of his personal empire of undeath.

If you serve the Lich King: you are either obsessed with death or the darker passions of the soul and admire the Lich King for what he offers….or you are a poduct of necromancy, doomed to obey him forever more. 

The High Druid – Zama (Ambiguous TN)

Zama was an elder druid who became hierophant during the last great war against the Crusader a century earlier. The war devastated his homeland in the Niras Forest, and motivated the druids of Niras to grow wary of outsiders and the threats they pose. Today, Zama’s influence as grand hierophant of his order is to create a sense of seclusion and remoteness in the forestlands of his dominion, and he relies on his agents to insure that any threat to the wellspring of the forest, which is the very embodiment of the god Niras’s spirit, be protected from outsiders.

If you serve the High Druid: you are a druid yourself, or a simple elf, gnome or other denizen of the Niras Forest, who has felt the calling of the High Druid or the spirit of the woods and felt a need to protect the land from those who would ravage it. You might be a ranger or other agent of the Knights of Kom’Huandyr, a dedicated order of rangers in the woods who seek to defend the realm of the empire and specifically the province of Niras which encompasses all of the woods from outside invaders.

The Unseelie Queen – Corrigan (Ambiguous – CN)

Corrigan was believed to be destined for resurrection by her elite cabal of unseelie elven knights, but it was in fact the schemes of her paramour, the Lich King, that allowed her to be reborn. Corrigan walks the land again, a dangerous threat as she weaves her enchantments to lure dark elves and vile feykin into her web of control. She is barred from entry into the heart of the Weirding by the Court of Titania, and her unseelie agents are left deep in the mirelands and the briars of the outer Arboreal darkness, where the feywild touches the shadowfell.

If you serve the Unseelie Queen: you felt the call and your fey blood could not resist. If you are no fey, then you are attracted to what she stands for, the liberation of the spirit from the rules of the world. The unseelie queen is a mysterious force in the age of strife but she stands against both order and chaos.

The Elf Queen – Mithrielle (Ambiguous – NG)

Mithrielle rules Sylvias in the south and seeks to make her empire strong against the many forces of evil and chaos in the world. She is half-sister to the empress Phyxillus, but feels an unreasonable level of rivalry for her successful half-sister in the north. Under Mithrielle the elves have attained great power, but their enmity toward other lesser races is at an all time high. Actions in the name of the Elf Queen are to secure of the elven empire and its many outlying tribes and cities in the world, even at the expense of the lesser races.

If you serve the Elf Queen: you stand not only against the enemies of the elvish kingdom, but against those who would seek to destroy the venerable lineage of the world itself in the name of power. You are likely either a selenic knight in the elven courts, a preservationist working in secret in foreign lands against the enemies of elvenkind, or a huntsman knight on the frontiers of Sylvias defending the outlying cities and tribes of all elves, both silver and wood.

 The Great Gold Wyrm – Drakon Shaikor (Ambiguous – CG)

The great gold wyrm of this era is Drakon Shaikor, the most powerful of the gold dragons of the eastern clans. His influence is deep among dragonkind, and many say he has the ear of the Council of Wyrms itself, a secret society of the eldest dragons in the world who still remain free of the controlling machinations of the Wyrmlords. As may be expected, Shaikor and his allies revere Bahamut first and foremost.

If you serve the Great Gold Wyrm: dragons alone do not serve the Great Gold Wyrm. Wizened sages, sorcerers who envy the gold’s power, dragonborn who wish to ally themselves with the agents of Bahamut and others will readily offer fealty to the Great Gold Wyrm.

The Prince of Shadows – Wormie Vellsoth (Ambiguous – CG)

The enigmatic guild master of the Black Lotus gang and avatar of the the god Hermes is the undisputed shadow prince of the Age of Strife era. Wormie as his friends call him (because his enemies are all dead, as he says) is a wood elf of roughly two centuries in age who has become the master of secret lore and information in the land, and his agents are tasked with gathering such esoteric knowledge to greater purpose. Despite his nature as a thief and grafter, Wormie uses his agents to further the interests of the pantheons of order and death over chaos; there is no profit in chaos.

If you serve the Prince of Shadows: you are one of the thieves, burglars, scoundrels and grifters of the world with a heart of gold, looking to your local thieve’s guild or possibly even THE thieve’s guild of the Prince of Shadows himself, the legendary Black Lotus Guild. From there you have earned enough trust and cred to find your services as a gatherer of information and protector of the civilized world to be useful to your liege.

The Assassin - Celiobantes Astiriate (Ambiguous – NE)

In many ways Celiobantes Astiriate is like Wormie, though the two are unrelated. Clawing his way up through the ranks of the Fire Knives, Celiobantes is a master of assassins and chief high priest of the assassin god Haro. Like the Black Lotus, the Fire Knives still commit to a dedication to order, albeit through murder as a tool of conflict resolution. The Fire Knives are usually regarded as agents of chaos by most…and they have been known to side with cultists of chaos, which their dark god is ostensibly one of, but true scholars of Haro know that the god considers himself above the petty cliques of the pantheons.

If you serve the Assassin: a few independent operators exist who worship Haro, but universally if you serve the Assassin then you belong to the Fire Knives. The Fire Knives are expansive, with tendrils stretching across two continents and even into the Planar Realms, conducting murder in the name of their vile god. So if you hold this icon as your liege, then you must of necessity be proficient at murder most foul.

Next: the villaonous icons at last!

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13th Age: Heroic Icons in the Age of Strife Campaign

My 13th Age campaign jumps ahead a century and adds some new (and classic) icons to the mix. Here's a run-down on the Heroic Icons of Lingusia's Age of Strife:

The Archmage – Lord Warenis (Heroic – LG)

The immortal champion of order, Lord Warenis works behind the scenes in this era to thwart the machinations of Xauraun, the Crusader. Warenis recruits from the likely heroes of the land to send them out against the diabolical forces of his nemesis. Warenis’s aims are singular: if he stops the Crusader, you save the empire.

If you serve the Archmage: You are likely a scholar, mage or dedicate to lore who understands the true nature of the eternal conflict and why it is so important that the gods of chaos do not win. You may belong to the Esoteric Order of Hodon Systalien, one of the most dedicated servants to the archmage, or you may be an independent operator.

The Emperor – Anton Patraeus (Heroic – LN)

Anton Patraeus is a great leader of men who has struggled against the civil war that the War of Strife became, as well as the army of demons his enemies conjured up. He holds the empire together against great adversity and needs agents abroad to do his bidding.

If you serve the Emperor: You are either a vigilant solarian knight, a member of the Shadow Watch, an envoy or agent of the emperor who seeks out trouble in the land to quell it, or to hunt down the enemies of the empire.

The Priestess – The Sacrimori Setianne (Heroic – LG)

Setianne is the young, new high priestess of the Temple of Naril and the voice of all faith in the empire of Hyrkania. Setianne carries a great influence on the land, and is noted for her caring nature but her willingness to use the force of her two dedicated paladin orders (the Solarians and the Ebon Ankh) to enforce the will of Naril. She is singularly dedicated to stamping out all worship of the chaos gods.

If you serve the Priestess: you are a true champion of Naril and the empire, seeking to better humankind and his allies against the tide of chaos. You likely are a priest, scholar or advocate for the church, or a paladin or fighter who has taken up arms and joined the solarian knights. Inquisitors wield magic to root out evil and destroy the demons of chaos at the behest of the Priestess as well.

The Dwarf King – King Madragor, Iron King of the South (Heroic – LN)

Madragor is also a young king a dwarves go, for his father was slain during the War of Strife when the forces of the Black Tower invaded the Iron Mountain strongholds. Madragor has sworn an oath of allegiance to the Emperor, and there are stories of how Madragor adventured with the emperor many years ago. He also seems to be especially fond of the Elf Queen, though the favor is not returned. Madragor’s interests are in eliminating all threats to his people, though the Iron Dwarves of his land are friendlier to the human empire.

If you serve the Dwarf King: you look out for your sovereign allies, but the dwarves come first. From the Deep Company, dwarves who stand against the terrors of the lower depths, to the army of the Iron Fist, the greatest general in the mountains to serve the king you are all about dwarven superiority and the destruction of those races and faiths which stand against your people. If you are not a dwarf, you are a sympathizer or one who has become enamored with the dedicated passion of dwarvenkind and seek to aid them in any way you can.

More about the Icons

The world of Lingusia is too large to have just a baker ’s dozen icons…and as such, while some icons may cast a wide net of influence, many of them are localized to their region of the world. The icons of the east are another set entirely, and the icons of the north are an enigmatic lot who greatly dislike the icons of the Middle Kingdoms. Only a few tend to be universal….the Archmage and the Crusader are known across the world for their endless conflict, for example, as is the Great Gold Wyrm who seeks the unification of dragonkind against the machinations of the Wyrmlords, who manipulate the elder brood queen to produce more chromatic spawn.

Some icons of cosmic note are not present in this era. There is no orc king, for example, and the orcs are but beastly tribes serving whatever lord of chaos happens their way in this era; but the Betrayer King fits the role nicely, and happens to be a half-orc, too. The Prince of Shadows is the avatar Wormie Vellsoth, who has taken on the mantle unwittingly from the former icon Tanis of an older era. Wormie has much to contend with in the form of The Assassin, the Fire Knife Celiobantes Astiriate, who has risen to great power as the lord of the most formidable guild of assassins in the Middle Kingdoms, one which will one day come to be feared even by the gods themselves.

Next: the Ambiguous Icons.

13th Age: Icons and their influence on story

My weekly Wednesday game has been doing 13th Age for about two months now and we've been having a lot of fun, as you might expect. The group has pared down a bit with four actives and three occasional in-and-out players; we lost one player to a job move, too.

The campaign I've been running has been my adaptation of Realms of Chirak into 13th Age. This has been an easy fit because honestly it doesn't take much to run a setting prepped for D&D in 13th Age. I've done most conversions on an as-needed basis, and except for building up Chirak's unique icons I haven't had to add a lot in.

An interesting side effect of using the icons in 13th Age is that they create interesting "markers" for lack of a better word that tell the GM some specific story information....and depending on the scenario you are running it can lead to some creative ways of imagining how those 5s and 6s are going to affect the storyline in complicated or beneficial ways.

Since I'm using Chirak, and employing icons that are tailor made for my setting, it's proving to be especially interesting. For one thing the icons are an easy fit in any established game world because ultimately the icons aren't really a new rule at all: they're a codification of something that every good campaign already has. When you run a campaign setting you likely set up important figures and personas throughout your world, sometimes with the intent that the players could meet them, fight them, slay them or even replace them. Other times you set them up so that they're behind the scenes, influencing things in a way that will benefit or bedevil the adventurers, serving as a mystery in their own right to be solved.

Even traditional sandbox campaigns can do this, unless you run sandbox in an extremely static fashion (an that's certainly been done too). If you create the sandbox campaign in the closest literal sense then you are simply populating your world with static objects, events or individuals that rest in situ waiting for the adventurers to discover them and bring them to life. I think most people don't run the sandbox campaign this way anymore; it's evolved a lot since the early days (an ironic testament to the fact that what we regard as old school today has, itself, undergone its own path of evolution). But that said, if you run a sandbox in a dymanic environment then icons are a great concept to deploy. It lets the GM cluster "big names" in his setting and think about how these big names interact together...and with the PCs.

Icons basically create an interesting dynamic relationship in the storytelling process, as well. The icon rolls you engage in at the start of each session lead to complications, and those complications often mean the GM has to think on his/her feet. "Bert the rogue got a 5 on his relationship with Lady Poe and a 6 on his relationship with the lich king...." turns into a situation where Bert discovers a network of spies working for Lady Poe in the city who will help him....for a price. Meanwhile every undead enslaved to the lich king that Bert meets knows he's one of the fleshy living agents of the lich king for some reason....but they are happy to assist him in any way they can. These are not things that would necessarily ever have a chance of evolving in an ordinary D&D game without creating a deliberate framework; both examples above came about because of icon relationship roles in last night's game; if I had been running Pathfinder it's not clear Bert would have a chance at ever meeting or even caring who either Lady Poe or Malenkin the Lich King were in a conventional game.

Now, one could argue that the icon relationships basically create a preordained background of connections for players....and there's nothing wrong with that, and plenty of games (old school and new) have included the notion of contacts, allies and enemies as a feature of character design. But if it really does bother you, one way to make it more organic is to build the evolution of icon relationships into play. This is honestly how it's normally done....people meet important characters, and either work for, with or against them over time. A GM who used the icon structure to plot out 13 ways PCs could encounter and develop icon relations would basically have a huge amount of scenario potential preordained right there. That alone could be worth the hassle of starting everyone off as true "nobodies" and then letting them build from there.

Icons of Chirak in 13th Age

One of the more interesting and campaign-dependent features of 13th Age is the Icon system, which is a mostly role-play driven mechanic in which players pick up to three iconic entities of great power or influence and each game session you roll dice to see if there's a chance you interact with, gain benefit from (or advantage against) or otherwise influence or are influenced by that particular icon. The mechanic is really simple: roll a D6 per icon point. Each 5 is a "benefit with complications" and each 6 is a benefit without strings. You can have positive, conflicted and negative relationships with icons.

Icons as presented in the core rules are designed to conform to a specific template of fantasy and do so remarkably well; they map almost perfectly to key figures in my Ages of Lingusia campaign, for example. However in more exotic and detailed worlds you may need more specific icons, or even icons designed specifically for certain regions. What follows is an example of how I mapped out the Icons for the Realms of Chirak...

13^th Age Icons in the Realms of Chirak:

Lady Poe – The Dark Queen (ambiguous)

Lady Poe is the queen of Kasdalan, mother to more than a dozen magically gifted daughters, and nearly immortal. Her reach from the south is felt throughout the Sea of Chirak region. Thanks to Lady Poe the dark kingdom of Kasdalan has a great reach, and she relies on her loyal daughters to enforce that power. Though regarded as a sorceress of darkest power, Lady Poe is not inherently evil or even inimical to the world at large, and would prefer to keep the realms as they are, a  world for her to conquer and rule rather than let the forces of chaos…including her ex husband….gain any ground towards its destruction.

An iconic relationship with Lady Poe will almost always be complicated, but a dedicated servant can earn her trust in time. Lady Poe will not always crush enemies….but she takes exception for male sorcerers and wizards, who are despised in Kasdalan and killed by her orders on sight. A male sorcerer who has a complicated or negative relationship with Lady Poe is almost certainly one who has met one of her daughters and earned the queen’s ire for it.

Zam Redar  - The Diabolist (villainous)

Zam Redar is the most potent and conniving of the Thousandspawn, who most recently attempted to utilize the demiurge Apophis to change the past so that he may permanently create a future in which he ruled all. He is currently lying low in the north, near Maegar territories. Zam Redar was once the husband of Lady Poe, and his centuries of adventure and mischief have led him down the path of the conqueror and the destroyer on many an occasion. It is his close connection to his father-deity, Ga’Thon, which makes him most dangerous.

An iconic relationship with Zam Redar is always dangerous for both allies and enemies alike. Zam Redar sees those who would court him for power, knowledge or to benefit from his own machinations as tools, regardless of their outlook on the relationship. A negative relationship with Zam Redar is a very dangerous thing to have, for the thousandspawn has a wide reach and many resources to destroy you.

Marcus Darego – The High King (heroic)

The uniting king of Espanea, Marcus Darego has survived a great war and recovered his throne from the schemes of Minhaurous himself. Darego fosters knowledge and unity in the Sea of Chirak region wherever he can, and employs heroes of the land to get the job done.

Many heroes have strong affiliation with King Darego, and he also spends much effort to track and eliminate the enemies to his kingdom and the Sea of Chirak. A negative relationship with King Darego could be for any number of reasons, from being a bandit or pirate against Espanea to having the blood of the Old Sea Kings in your veins.

Mardieur Mardieux – The Prophet (heroic)

Mardieur Mardieux is the first new true avatar of this last century, though others are manifesting. He bears the weight of a unified Aquarius Stone, and is guided by the spirit of Akquinarios as well as the voice of Kalie’yana.

Mardieur Mardieux is a young avatar and his inspiration has led to the resurgence of cults dedicated to the memory of Akquinarios. He is careful in what allies he chooses, and equally involved in crushing his enemies.

Milina – The Daughter of Chaos (ambiguous)

Milina, daughter of Minhauros is a potent demiurge who travels the planes of existence as well as the physical world seeking relics of lost power and lore, while trying to recover the missing aspects of power that her father deposited across the many realms of existence. Her nature makes trust difficult; she means to do well, but finds the chaos in her soul often leads to betrayal.

Milina, like her father, is prone to using and discarding allies and enemies alike; she often works both with and against those who swear fealty to her, and her motives are never clear. Despite this, many seek to attain a portion of the power one can get from serving the daughter of chaos.

Kalie’Yana – The Maiden of Lore (heroic)

The demiurge of the seas has an active interest in thwarting the efforts of Piscrael in the Sea of Chirak region, and works actively with trustworthy heroes to aid them with divine lore whenever possible. She does all she can to steer the Sea of Chirak region toward betterment and greatness where she can, though she has only been on the path of the divine for six centuries.

A relationship with Kalie’Yana is usually one of trust, where she seeks to aid those who truly need it and do great deeds. She may on occasion see goodness where none is evident and set about a process of trying to reform an otherwise irredeemable villain, as well.

Piscrael – The Conqueror (villainous)

Piscrael is another potent demiurge who stole power from his predecessor Malib, and uses it to turn himself into a charnel beast of chaos. He has designs on enslaving all of the peoples of the Sea of Chirak to his will, and an army of demons from the aquatic Chaos Rift to do it.

Piscrael seeks out agents and allies to build a relationship with, and he seeks to destroy or harry those who would thwart him.

Kal Vassos – The Archmage (heroic)

Kal Vassos is a lord of the Tower of Kaledon as well as secret master of the Chronomancers from the Island outside of Time. He is the most portent near-immortal to achieve his power through the mastery of sorcery in the world and has worked across the centuries now to defeat enemies such as Piscrael and Tiamat that would complete the dark goals of the Betrayer Gods.

A relationship with Kal Vassos is one of comraderie and reliance; Kal depends heavily on his agents throughout the world to set aright the deviations put in place by the chaotic relics of the world. He also likes to keep close tabs on potential enemies.

Minhauros – The Vestige of Darkness (villainous)

The only relic of The Twelve known to exist (for Malib’s imprisonment in death is largely unknown) is Minhauros, and even then his vestigial spirit was believed to have been locked away, never to be released again. Only recently did this spirit escape by virtue of happenstance, and Minhauros’s dispossessed form once again roams free to determine how he will restore himself and fulfill his destiny as the destroyer of worlds.

A Relationship with Minhauros is fraught with danger for the one seeking some sort of allegiance or servitude. Minhauros uses allies as readily as he seeks to destroy enemies, and he is desperate to find a means of corporeal resurrection; his spirit can only be destroyed when someone at last integrates all parts of the Taurus Stone into one and makes it their own as a semiurge…until then, his mind seeks a means of at last fulfilling his destiny, and he will use his agents to any ends to do it.

The Demon Gods – The 113 (Villainous)

The demon gods are the one hundred and thirteen warlords of Perdition as well as other being, such as corrupt spirit lords, immortals, and thousandspawn who collectively amount to the old generals and support for the Betrayer Gods. In truth there are probably far less than 113 still active, alive or not imprisoned, but they are given strength by the worship of the Xoxtocharit and other cultures that revere them, and allow them to creep back into the mortal plane through planar gates.

A relationship with the 113 is a relationship of great peril whether it be positive, negative or ambiguous though some groups such as the Xoxtocharit revel in these connections. The specific demon gods which might take particular interest will vary, but the results will always be the same: chaos and suffering.

Malenkin – The Lich King (ambiguous)

The sorcerer who was Malenkin preserved his soul in undead centuries ago and bides his time in the Kraggit Mountains of Mercurious, working behind the scenes to attain more power and seek to gain advantage against all other icons. He has allied himself with Minhauros in the past but regrets it. He has entertained the idea of allying himself with other icons at different times, but his self-serving nature makes this difficult.

To have an iconic relationship with Malenkin is to be a mercenary for one who seeks to accumulate power and knowledge at the expense of all others. Malenkin is opposed to the chaos forces that would destroy the world only insofar as it would set him back on his own quest for sorcerous immortality and lore. Those who would thwart these goals are his sworn enemies.

Rovas, Kaos, Tyriath and Shadamas – The Wyrmlords  (ambiguous)

The Wyrmlords are the council of the dragons, the ancient dragon lords who still try and hold the diaspora of their kin together while they await the final resolution of Tiamat. These particular wyrmlords have determined that the manifest destiny of Tiamat is necessary, although it is opposed by Kaos, who is the immortal reincarnation of Bahamut, and it is regarded as a grim necessity by Rovas, the guardian of the goddess who is also the reincarnation of ancient Marduk. The wyrmlords operate under the principle that all dragons everywhere must be ready for the great rebirth, when Tiamat destroys the world and remakes it in the image of dragonkind….for better or worse.

Tiamat is a force of nature as much as anything, and she is currently loose in the planar realms, but her destiny seems to be to have her followers coax her back to Chirak to initiate the destruction of the material plane, allowing for its rebirth into the Next World, an idyllic paradise the dragons have foretold will happen when the world is unmade. This incarnation of Tiamat is conflicted, for her spirit is that of the draconian Von, who flinches at the power she wields even as it overwhelms her with power and lust.

Iconic relations with the wyrmlords means a generally better relationship with dragonkin in general, but it also means a grim acceptance of the manifest destiny of the dragon goddess….be that destiny one where she destroys the world now, or in some future incarnation. To stand in opposition to the wyrmlords is to stand against the manifest destiny of Tiamat.

Addeas Immortas – The 13^th Divinity (villainous, ambiguous or heroic…time will tell!)

Recently reborn, laboring under a curse in which his mere existence is forgotten by all, the being called Addeas Immortas possessed the mind of a common band named Madaran Sath it in the south while seeking to fulfill a vague destiny as the 13^th God. Forged from a shard of each of the twelve Zodiac Stones, the divine stone which Addeas Immortas holds contains an amalgamation of all other divine powers combined. His worth to those who would control him is immeasurable. His value to the other icons is unknown or suspect, but his own aims and goals are equally suspicious, for his last incarnation was not unifying as intended but instead sought to destroy the other gods entirely. He works now with his vampiric spouse Irtralia while avoiding the Razaphar, ancient seraphim charged with his containment…or destruction.

Those who have been contacted by the mind fo Addeas Immortas are sought for their singularly unique abilities and the need of the “god” to seek out their talents to aid him. Those he marks enemies are watched carefully that they may be contained or destroyed. His reach in the Sea of Chirak so far is limited, for he is a young unknown by the standards of the current era but he is also the oldest known being in existence right now upon the world.