The Knights of Rhodes

The Knights Hospitaller (Latin: Fraternitas Hospitalaria) were one of the most prestigious True Faith military orders during the Crusades, when they distinguished themselves in battle against the Crescent Moon. However, at the end of the 16th century, the order is but the shadow of its former self. The disputes between New Wayers and Old Wayers have rendered the presence of religiously-minded knights in battle utterly obsolete, since most battles of the day are now between Europeans.

After the fall of the Crusader states, the order had to relocate to Rhodes, and then finally to Malta in 1530. The order is now mostly known as the Knights of Rhodes after their earlier home.

Dispossessed of their lands in the Levant, rendered idle by the internecine conflicts in Europe, the Knights of Rhodes now resort to piracy against Crescent Moon ships in the Mediterranean, or have become sellswords at the service of the various European powers, and in particular of the Iberian powers, who are the only ones still actively fighting against the Way of the Crescent Moon in distant lands.

The original statutes of the order contemplated the service of the sick pilgrims to the Holy Land, and the defence of the Crusader states. Their habit is a red surcoat with a white Maltese cross emblazoned on it.

The order of the Knights Hospitaller as a role-playing clerical cult: 
Temple traits: Protect True Faith pilgrims, Wage war against the Crescent Moon
Worshippers' Alignment: any non-Evil/Worshippers' Allegiance: Old Way of True Faith
Temple Weapon: Sword
Spheres of Activity: Cure, Protect, Shelter the Faithful.
Powers:

• all Knights of Rhodes have the Tenacious trait (from the Aperita Arcana supplement)
• Lawful Good Knights of Rhodes may choose advancements from the Paladin Traits pool on p18 of the M&M core book, replacing 'Evil' with 'Crescent Moon'

Holy Symbol: Maltese Cross.
Spells: Combat, Guardian, Healing, Protection.

13th Age in Csachticz − Detailed Icons, No.2: The Alchemist

The Alchemist is the name given to the Archmage in 13C. The title 'Alchemist' definitely sounds more "early modern" than 'Archmage', which smacks of high fantasy. The Alchemist is the embodiment of the intelligence, of the spirit of research, and of the enlightenment of the age: in the 16th century, mathematics, physics and alchemy are not deemed incompatible — it is actually quite the contrary.

There have been many Alchemists in the history of the Empire of the One Faith, but none of them have been as influential as the current one, whose amity with the Emperor and with most learned men of Europe has put him at the exact centre of European alchemical and hermetic studies. If a major endeavour in any of these fields is under way anywhere in Europe, the Alchemist definitely knows about it — he might even be actively involved.

USUAL LOCATION

At his tower on top of Alchemist's Hill near the city of Brüx, approximately 50 miles northwest of Burgstadt along the River Biela.

COMMON KNOWLEDGE

Despite his being a well-known public figure, and despite his many appearances at court, little is actually known about the Alchemist. It is rumoured that he was born about 40 years ago in Albion. He is supposed to have worked as an apothecary at the court of Queen Gloriana, where he quickly rose through the ranks but fell out of favour just as quickly, finding then refuge on the Continent; first at Wittingau, then at Brüx, always enjoying the patronage of the Emperor.

The Alchemist has a huge laboratory in his tower that is rumoured to extend well beneath it into Alchemist's Hill, and even under the city of Brüx. This laboratory~dungeon is equipped with all manner of paraphernalia retrieved by the Alchemist's agents from all the corners of the Empire of the One Faith, and beyond. It is said that each section of the labyrinthine laboratory is devoted to a given art, e.g., one to optics, one to divination, one to summoning, etc.

ADVENTURERS & THE ICON

As per the standard 13th Age core book under Archmage (p14)— the Alchemist hires adventurers to retrieve strange implements, to test new spells, and to volunteer for participating in his séances. Pay is high, but so are the hazards.

ALLIES

The Alchemist has sworn total fealty to the Emperor. Despite the Alchemist's incredible supernatural powers, the oaths he has taken are apparently even stronger.
The Alchemists professes respect for the tenets of True Faith, and in particular for those of the Old Way, but he and the Pope have never been know to actively co-operate. On the other hand, rumour has it that the Alchemist and the Superintendent have worked together to prevent the Sultan from locating certain magic items buried deep in the mountains of the Oriental Range.

ENEMIES

There is an ongoing rivalry between the Alchemist and the Occultist, but it has never escalated into open warfare between their agents.
The Alchemist wants to bend nature under humanity's will; as a result, he has deeply hurt the Erlking and Frau Perchta, who are now openly opposing him.

HISTORY

There has always been an Alchemist working for the Emperor, despite the uneasiness his presence has always brought at court, and the whiff of heresy surrounding his works. Some were grand, some were petty; the current Alchemist is probably the grandest of them all.

THE TRUE DANGER

Danger lies with the Alchemist's various experiments, and in particular his summonings of strange extra-planar creatures. He calls them 'Angels' — but are they?

13th Age in Csachticz − Detailed Icons, No.1: The Emperor

The Emperor is the ruler of the Empire of the One Faith, Europe's greatest kingdom, which covers Central Europe and much of the Romance-speaking areas of Southern Europe. He's also the head of many secular chivalric orders.

The capital of the empire does not have a fixed location; each new emperor chooses an imperial seat. The current capital is Burgstadt, which lies to the north-west of the Fair Kingdom.

USUAL LOCATION

In his castle at Burgstadt, the capital city of the Empire of the One Faith.

COMMON KNOWLEDGE

The current emperor, Rudolf II, was born in Wien in 1552, and has been ruling since 1576, i.e., for approximately 20 years (depending on when exactly the campaign is set), so he's well-established and his rule is unquestioned. He has never married and is rumoured to be bisexual. Even though he stalwartly supports True Faith, this may be more for political than religious reasons, as the Emperor is well-known for his interest in the occult arts and for his patronage of the Alchemist. He is also unusually tolerant of New Wayers. The Emperor, however, is a staunch opponent of the Sultan, and, at the time of the campaign, he is trying to set up a new Crusade.

The Emperor is a great protector of the arts, and there are numerous artists at his court. He also keeps a menagerie of exotic animals, botanical gardens, and Europe's most extensive "cabinet of curiosities", arranged in an encyclopaedic fashion.

ADVENTURERS & THE ICON

Rudolf is distrustful of the Imperial bureaucracy and is often hiring adventurers for his missions. Because of his passion for the occult and for curios, these missions may have a wide range of purposes.

ALLIES

13C being a dark fantasy setting, Icons seldom have true allies; they rather have other Icons with whom they co-operate. The Emperor's patronage of the Alchemist has already been mentioned. The Emperor has also been known to associate with the Occultist. Given Rudolf's tolerance of New Wayers, the Emperor has closely worked with the Superintendent.
The Pope has an ancient relationship with the Emperor, as they both protect and promote the Old Way of True Faith, but this relationship is currently quite strained.

ENEMIES

The Sultan is obviously the Emperor's main (and also oldest) antagonist; he's been conquering imperial lands for centuries, slowly moving northwards the boundary between the two great empires. The Great Boyar, on the other hand, is a new enemy, and the real clash hasn't actually happened yet.

The Emperor's brother, Archduke Matthias, is constantly scheming for the throne, helped by his right-hand man, György Thurzó. Matthias will eventually obtain the throne in 1612 after having held Rudolf prisoner in his castle in Burgstadt. Should the GM decide to use the rivalry among the two brothers as an important element of his campaign, Matthias should be 'elevated' to Icon status.

HISTORY

The Empire of the One Faith has been existing for centuries, almost for one millennium. It has shaped the arts, the language, the religion, the architecture of much of Europe. The Emperor is arguably the single most important Icon.

THE TRUE DANGER

Whether they like the current incarnation of the Emperor or not, everybody recognise his authority and strive to support his rule, for the fall of the Emperor would be the fall of civilisation. This shan't happen, lest the Sultan and the Great Boyar should invade Europe's heartlands unopposed.

13th Age in Csachticz − Icon Relationships

In an earlier post, I have presented a tentative set of 13th Age icons for a weird early modern Central European fantasy role-playing setting. Let's call it simply “13th Age in Csachticz” or even 13C [Csachticz was the name of the Blood Countess' home castle].

Now these icons must be classified as Heroic, Ambiguous or Villainous to be properly used with the Icon Relationships mechanism of 13th Age. Since 13C has been greatly inspired by Lamentations of the Flame Princess and its dark and gloomy setting, in which adventurers are hardly 'heroic', most icons in 13C will be on the 'Ambiguous' side. Feel free to modify this as suits your style of play (in the original 13th Age game, there are 4 Heroic icons, 5 Ambiguous icons, and 4 Villainous ones).

13C Icon	Type
The Alchemist	Heroic
The Dracul	Villainous
The Emperor	Ambiguous
The Erlking	Ambiguous
Frau Perchta	Heroic
The Great Boyar	Villainous
The Occultist	Ambiguous
The Pope	Ambiguous
The Sultan	Villainous
The Superintendent	Ambiguous
The Trickster	Ambiguous
The Turul	Heroic
The Warlord	Ambiguous

First Preview of Aperita Arcana

The good folks at Ebon Gryphon Games, who have already brought us the fantastically useful Collectanea Creaturae bestiary for the Monsters & Magic frp game are up to a second supplement for M&M.

Aperita Arcana adds a lot of new character classes and sub-classes to the main ones from the core M&M book.

The nice thing about Monsters & Magic is that character classes are not simply a bland collection of die modifiers, hit dice, allowed armour/weapons, or numbers of spells per level. In M&M, each character class is fleshed out by a series of traits and advancements that it may use but, again, not as mere 'plus sometings' but as narrative tools to enliven your role-playing experience (and kick ass — that's the magic of the Effect Engine).

Anyway, as a backer of the Collectanea Creaturae Kickstarter, I have received my preview PDF copy of Aperita Arcana, and I am simply astonished at the quality. I was expecting a number of new character classes and sub-classes (see my previous post), but there's much much more in Aperita Arcana:

• Chapter 1, which is 62 pages long without the art, does detail the new classes and sub-classes, followed by
• Chapter 2 with new races, and with new twists for the already-existing ones, but there's more:
• Chapter 3 with lots of new spot rules and advanced rules for the Effect Engine,
• Chapter 4 with equipment,
• Chapter 5, new rules and variants,
• Chapter 6, sample cults, examples of religious organisations...
• Chapter 7, a lengthy discussion about the magical tropes in fantasy,
• Chapter 8, Magic Items,
• Chapter 9, Spells.

It thus appears that Aperita Arcana, which had initially been advertised as a small add-on to the Bestiary, has eventually become a kind of big "PHB+DMG+DDG" supplement — to use classic fantasy parlance.

Much like I believe that Collectanea Creaturae, because of the way it gives examples of monsters' motivations etc., is a must-buy supplement for any classic fantasy GM, I also believe that Aperita Arcana is a must-buy for any GM who wants to spruce up their classic fantasy adventures.

Elizabethan Weird Fantasy

The aim of this blog is to slowly build, disparate element by disparate element, a Central European-flavoured early modern setting for weird fantasy role-playing.

The idea is to remain rules-agnostic, even though a certain number of rule sets are put forward on this blog, namely: Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP), Renaissance, Monsters & Magic (M&M) or 13th Age. Please refer to the sidebar for the relevant links.

LotFP, whose default setting is Central Europe during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) is the most obvious candidate because it shares the same geographical location as Lamentations of the Blood Countess (Central Europe), and almost the same time-frame — I tend towards the turn of the 17th century myself.

Well, if you'd rather you'd be playing brave Englishmen, I direct you to Jeremy Duncan's O Brave New World, a free PDF supplement to LotFP. The premise is as follows:

The year is 1589. PCs are English sailors, soldiers, gentlemen, and their hangers-on. A sudden TEMPEST struck whilst engaged with the galleon La Visitación de Nuestra Señora, and all hands lost beneath the waves. By the grace of GOD, you awake to find yourself and several comrades washed safely ashore on an unfamiliar beach.

Enjoy.

Hermannstadt

Hermannstadt is a large, bustling city at the far south-eastern end of the Fair Kingdom. Many of its burghers hail from the Empire of the One Faith but have become New Wayers. The city is full of artisans, merchants, craftsmen, and all kinds of traders, happy to deal with both empires as long as money keeps flowing in.

Hermannstadt city centre

The city holds one of the largest markets in south-eastern Europe. The adventurers are sure to find all kinds of supplies here. It's actually two markets: one at the Grosser Ring, one at the Kleiner Ring (see map).