Fri Nov 24 '23 Announcement
10 months ago
– Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 04:37:04 AM
Happy Bleak Friday, Gravediggers!
Time for your Bleak Exaltation! Because we've got the next section of our draft manuscript, containing the rules for Character Creation!
But before we get to today's section from the draft manuscript, I just want to post two quick reminders.
UPDATE #3 - if you've recently pledged, or are thinking about pledging, please go to the campaign page and ready Update #3 to ensure you havent accidentally overpaid or left a tip that you weren't expecting.
SHIPPING CHARGES will be collected in the PLEDGE MANAGER after the campaign –
The best we can do at this point is to plan carefully, advise everyone up front that international shipping will likely be expensive (see our projections on the main page) and only charge what it costs us when the time comes. We’ll be charging for shipping in the Pledge Manager once the books are being printed and we can deal with the actual shipping charges rather than using our best-guesses this far out. If you live outside the US and aren't sure you want the hardcover or other physical items, you can pledge to the PDF tier now and upgrade your pledge in the Pledge Manager once we know the final shipping costs.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS
Draft Manuscript Previews will be made available in update posts during the campaign. My current plan is have a new section of the manuscript posted every 4 days during this campaign.
Breaking the manuscript into sections and spreading them out over 4 weeks helps guide and focus the conversation, and helps the development team keep on top of the feedback while these manuscripts go through their final development and editing stages.
In fact, if you want to provide feedback directly to the development team, Onyx Path has created a special Feedback Form just for Abyssals: Sworn to the Grave! You can access that here: https://forms.gle/iWbzZDwuRGJxUSnf6
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS
In today’s preview, we’ve got Chapters 4 and 5.
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Chapter Four: Character Creation provides rules for creating Abyssal player characters.
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Chapter Five: Traits details the Abyssal Castes and provides rules for the Great Curse and the chivalry of death.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT DOWNLOAD LINKS
The comment section is for all members of this community – united by our shared desire to see this project fund and develop – to cheerlead the project and figure out how best to spread the word about what we’re building here. If you’ve started a thread on whatever social media platform exists today or a Discord conversation about the game or this campaign – let me know about it so we can share that info. If you’ve discussed the game on a blog or podcast, let’s hear about it! If you’ve got funny ideas for social media hashtags, well we can do those too!
If you've got questions about the rules or setting, or just want to discuss this game with other fans (as well as the Onyx Path writers and developers!), you can check out these Onyx Path discussion zones:
On Sunday, we're gonna get our first sneak peek at a trio of Charms; the next section of our fiction will come on Monday, and then Tuesday will have the first section of our massive Charms chapter available for review! It'll be all Charms for the middle of the campaign, and it's gonna be awesome!
#AbyssalExalted
Wed Nov 22 '23 Announcement
10 months ago
– Wed, Nov 22, 2023 at 11:12:59 AM
Hello Gravediggers,
I'm gonna get right to a sneak peek from our next manuscript section today. We'll have the full text on Friday, but there's some fun here to whet our appetites.
Dusk Caste
Dusk heralds the coming night, the darkness that sweeps across Creation as the sun dies. One day, it will never rise again. Such is the grim promise of the Dusk Caste. They are the right hand of death, the Swords of the Abyss, butchering armies and laying waste to nations. When the Peacebringers ride to war, they leave naught but corpses and silence in their wake. They exult in slaughter, in the forsaken hymns of their victim’s screams and the sound of soulsteel cutting flesh.
The Children of Ash count peerless killers, brilliant tacticians, morbid warrior-poets, and merciless warlords among their ranks. They uphold death’s chivalry through martial prowess and strength of arms, granting the gift of peace with the edge of a blade. They serve their Deathlords as generals, bodyguards, tacticians, and front-line champions, leading armies of the damned against their masters’ foes. It is rare that the Deathlords deploy the full force of their might, but that may soon change now that the Dusk Caste command their legions.
Most Deathlords prefer to choose Peacebringers from those already skilled in violence and warfare, whether it’s a young hero cut down on the battlefield or a seasoned veteran who’s reached the end of her years. Others are chosen for their murderous potential, given the power to act on the hatred, bloodlust, or avarice that festers within their hearts. Some Deathlords enjoy choosing Dusk Castes from those who died violently, savoring their poetic justice of a Peacebringer avenging their own death.
Renegade Dusk Castes wield their deadly prowess to their own ends. They might roam the Underworld as sellswords or wandering heroes, championing ghostly armies and waging the wars of the dead. Others turn their blades against the wicked, whether otherworldly fiends or all-too-human monsters, protecting those they hold dear by cutting down that which threatens them. Peacebringers who hold positions of command may convince their soldiers to defect with them, forging elite mercenary companies — and occasionally lending aid to their Deathlords’ foes.
Caste Mark: Peacebringer’s Caste Marks are a dark mirror of the Dawn Caste’s: eight-pointed starbursts of darkness bleeding from their edges.
Anima Banner: A Dusk Caste’s anima banners are pitch black, occasionally edged with gray or tinged with dark reds or purples. It’s sometimes accompanied by screams of terror, a sound like an endless death rattle, or the scent of blood, ash, or rust.
Iconic Anima: A storm that rains blood and offal; a vast spectral figure of a ferocious nocturnal predator or slavering carrion-eater; a black-mailed fist descending from the sky to strike the earth; a legion of phantom knights marching behind her; etc.
Anima Effects: Dusk Castes’ anima effects enhance their battle prowess, making them terrifying champions of death.
Caste Abilities: As unparalleled masters of violence and warfare, Dusk Castes choose Caste Abilities from Archery, Athletics, Brawl, Melee, Resistance, Ride, Thrown, and War.
Associations: Death by violence, the season of spring, the color white, the Eastern direction, the full moon.
Sobriquets: Peacebringers, Children of Ash, Swords of the Abyss, They Who Sing Forsaken Hymns.
Concepts: Aristocratic duelist, avenger of the dead, chivalrous warrior-poet, Deathlord’s general, foul-mouthed cavalier, gladiator set free in death, killer for hire, slayer of the wicked, veteran legionnaire, war-necromancer.
Dusk Anima Effects
Death is Inevitable (Permanent): At bonfire anima, the Peacebringer adds (Essence/2, rounded up) to her base Initiative when she resets to base Initiative after a decisive attack.
Fear Made Flesh (Permanent) The Peacebringer adds (Essence/2, rounded up) non-Charm dice on threaten rolls and other fear-based influence, and can affect characters who’re normally immune to fear, like zombies and automatons. This doesn’t overcome magical immunity to fear.
Walking Apocalypse (10m; Reflexive; Instant): The Peacebringer resets all Charms related to combat and movement. Once per day.
Daybreak Caste
As the hated sun rises to drive back the dark, its light banishes the last lingering mysteries, lest these blasphemous truths be discovered by the living. But there is no secret that can be kept from the Daybreak Caste, no forbidden lore that lies beyond their grasp. The Bleak Exaltation has given them all eternity to master the world’s mysteries and hone their unclean arts, achieving a perfection denied to mortal scholars. Relentless in their pursuit of knowledge, the Pyrekeepers seek out ancient libraries of long-dead civilizations, pore over forbidden tomes of deathly lore, and conduct gruesome experiments on corpses and souls.
The Children of Bone seek knowledge of all kinds, from lost texts of long-dead civilizations to the research notes of an alchemist’s apprentice on the verge of a breakthrough. Some jealously hoard their learning, burning libraries, murdering scholars, and defacing monuments to keep their secrets out of others’ hands. The Deathlords prize the knowledge their Pyrekeepers can offer, along with their skill as necromancers, artificers, and delvers of the Underworld’s depths. Some ply the Sea of Shadows, carrying out voyages of exploration or retrieving ancient secrets from far corners of the sunless realm.
The Deathlords seek insight, cunning, and ambition in their Daybreaks. The Pyrekeepers’ ranks include the likes of savants, physicians, and learned elders, but also those who’ve dirtied their hands in pursuit of knowledge, like scavenger princes, grave robbers, and inquisitors. Mortal necromancers are especially prized, gifted pupils eager for their masters’ dark knowledge. Those whose curiosity proves their undoing are especially appealing as Daybreaks to some Deathlords.
Renegade Daybreak Castes are still driven by the pursuit of knowledge — indeed, some defect so that they may dedicate themselves wholly to the study of the Underworld’s secrets. Some hoard whatever knowledge they find for themselves, while others profit off secrets, acting as intelligence brokers to princes, merchants, and even other Deathlords. Some errant Pyrekeepers turn their wisdom to compassionate ends, tending to the sick or building marvels of engineering, though the gruesome nature of their work may disquiet the living.
Caste Mark: Pyrekeepers’ Caste Marks resemble those of the Twilight Caste: black circles with only the top half filled, dripping with blood that weeps from its edges.
Anima Banner: A Daybreak Caste’s anima banner is typically a black mingled with greys, purples, dark greens, bruise-blues, and dark reds. It’s sometimes accompanied by the sounds of twisting muscle and splintering bone, or the smell of rotting parchment, charnel smoke, or embalmed corpses.
Iconic Anima: Labyrinthine patterns of impossible geometries; an ever-watching eye that shines with baleful light; countless tomes set ablaze in an inferno of pyreflame; a withered tree whose boughs bear gruesome fruit; etc.
Anima Effects: Pyrekeepers’ anima effects let them draw power from dark inspiration grant insight into supernatural forces, and let them vanish and reappear in places steeped in death.
Caste Abilities: Scholars of the forbidden and masters of death’s mysteries, Daybreak Castes choose Caste Abilities from Awareness, Bureaucracy, Craft, Investigation, Lore, Medicine, Occult, and Sail.
Associations: Death by pestilence, the season of autumn, the color orange, the Western direction, the crescent moon.
Sobriquets: Pyrekeepers, Children of Bone, Eyes of the Abyss, They Who Work Unclean Arts.
Concepts: Artisan of undead horrors, battlefield chirurgeon, calculating strategist, Deathlord’s artificer, explorer of the Underworld, historian of a bygone era, necromantic prodigy, obsessive magistrate, scavenger prince, scholar of forbidden knowledge.
Daybreak Anima Effects
Chthonic Gateway (10m, 1wp; Reflexive; Instant): The Pyrekeeper can use this power on her turn to vanish into her anima’s darkness. This isn’t immediate — if she moves or suffers forced movement or knockdown before her next turn, this power is negated. Otherwise, once her next turn begins, she disappears. She reappears at the next sunrise at a location associated with death that’s somewhere within ten miles. She might appear in a shadowland, an Abyssal manse, a great mausoleum, the tomb-palace of a ghostly prince, or the like.
Essence-Flensing Insight (5m; Simple; Instant): The Daybreak rolls ([Perception or Intelligence] + [Awareness, Investigation, Lore, or Occult]) against the Guile of a supernatural being to discern a useful detail about his magical power. This might reveal that a Zenith Caste with numerous Integrity Charms will be difficult to persuade or that a Dragon-Blood’s daiklave can smite creatures of darkness. She must already be aware a character is supernatural to use this power on him. This power’s cost is waived at bonfire anima.
Twisted Genius Inspiration (—; Reflexive; Instant): While at burning anima or higher, the Pyrekeeper can either gain one Willpower, add (Essence + highest Mental Attribute) necromantic motes to a spell she’s shaping, or add a free full Excellency on any mental action, other than Join Battle. (The Excellency counts as a Charm bonus). Once per day.
#AbyssalsSwornToTheGrave
Tue Nov 21 '23 Announcement
10 months ago
– Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 09:17:53 AM
Hello Gravediggers,
I've got some more fiction to share with you today, but first some facts! We've crushed some more Stretch Goals and it's time to set up our next batch of targets!
ACHIEVED! - At $90,000 in Funding - Abyssal QCs
ACHIEVED! - At $95,000 in Funding - Abyssals T-shirt on Redbubble
ACHIEVED! - At $100,000 in Funding - Abyssal Storytelling Section
At $105,000 in Funding - Digital Wallpaper
Amazing Abyssals artwork will be used to create a wallpaper for your computer desktop. This digital wallpaper will be added to the rewards list of all backers supporting this project.
At $110,000 in Funding - Deathlord QCs
Two Deathlords will be written up with Quick Character stats and added to the Companion PDF.
The storm threatened apocalypse, dividing the sky with pikes of bright fire. It was the end of all upon the sea. But at the Siren's Call, there were no worries, no yellow whispers. Ships would scuttle or float on; they would all perish or survive to morning. What could they do? What did it matter? The air was heavy, the atmosphere manic, the tavern overstuffed with grotesques and goons.
The Kingeater grinned at her partners, her dice-hand smooth in charcoal leather, her overturned tricorn hat heavy with silver bits.
"You wanna cheat so much, you buy the next round." Aft the Mast bared rows of razor teeth, a sharkfolk’s signature smile.
“I never cheat,” the Kingeater swore, Essence prickling her fingertips. She pocketed the silver and swept the tricorn over her head — the better to hide her welling caste mark.
"I don't want another round," the ghost of Fair Armando protested. "It tastes like piss and I can't feel it no more anyway—"
The typhoon crested, shaking the graffiti'd walls, shattering a window of rotted glass. A tavern's-worth of monstrous freebooters paused dicing and drinking, moving as one to throw a table against the breach.
"Get us a different round," Fair Armando suggested. "The song."
"Oh, aye!" Aft the Mast bellowed. "That Old Song!"
"I couldn't," the Kingeater played at modesty, but she was already atop the table, her long black frock coat slipping from her shoulders and the lyrics surfacing in her mind.
One by one the revelers fell silent: spirits, beastfolk, and folks yet queerer all listening on in awe. Their stares and the storm ignited a spreading sting in her heart, like a waking limb gone to pins and needles. Death itself wailed out of reach and yet she stood, she sang. That Old Song flowed from her, lyrics in a haunting language she didn’t understand.
A stranger with dark eyes shining sprang to his heels.
She remembered all keen and sudden like a painting. They played That Old Song at her wedding, and she wore the summer sky for him — him, all handsome-fine in a cloud of feathers, giving her the moon to wear on her finger.
The stranger was singing That Old Song, his beautiful black eyes soft and fond.
Essence itched under her skin. A spectral dread seized her throat and left her sputtering, shocked. The Kingeater, her sword-hand furious in charcoal leather, drew Lucrèce and ran him through.
The Siren's Call exploded with the gleeful rage of thirty-some scoundrels. Aft the Mast threw himself snarling after the stranger’s crew. Fair Armando pulled his spectral knife and vanished.
Laughing amidst the abrupt chaos and violence, the stranger grabbed the fellsting’s blade and withdrew it from his bare chest. The Kingeater wrenched Lucrèce free and struck him in the jaw, her fist a blinding blue.
"Who are you?" she demanded, aflame with waking agony. "How do you know that song?"
He rubbed his jaw, the bold tattoos roving his arms a lively, dazzling silver. "I wanted to ask you the same things." The stranger's voice was a hearth fire she abandoned when she left home. It was a light at the top of a tower, and her soul wailed out of reach.
She threw her fist again. He caught it in his palm, his grip cracking her knuckles, radiant silver Essence bleeding into her void-blue anima. Those lovely dark eyes hardened with fresh suspicion. “…But what are you?”
She shuddered as if struck. The Kingeater twisted away from his grasp, crashed through the brawl, through the doors, into the cataclysmal storm. She fled the stranger like a ghost before gravehounds, anguished without knowing why, aghast at what else he might ask her.
***
Prince Yhata — Revered Protector of the Jackdaw Throne, keeper of the eight sacred scrolls, wielder of the pearl-handled dagger named Truth, and ruler of the Kingdom of Sable — sat in his great hall with the Walker in Darkness as his guest. The prince’s retainers were gone, his guards dismissed. He sat alone with the Deathlord, on a plain wooden chair where the petitioners normally gathered. The Jackdaw Throne, its feathers carved into the black marble so perfectly they seemed freshly molted, loomed empty on the dais.
Yhata was a man in his middle age, the victor of a hundred battles. He’d led his people through times of riches and famine, and defended Sable with honor when the kingdom’s riches drew neighboring powers’ greedy eyes. But beneath his princely demeanor ran a grief as deep as the Sea of Shadows.
The Walker didn’t need his informants’ reports to know it was there. Yhata wore it in the tightness around his eyes and the set of his shoulders, as heavy as any crown — the childhood loss of his older sister Ralaya in a raid, Sable’s true prince. What heights might the kingdom have reached with her guidance? Under her rule, they might have rivaled Rake, or swept across the Hundred Kingdoms and built an empire great enough to give Vaneha pause.
But Yhata was cautious where she’d been bold, and had spent his life in the shadow of what might have been. Perhaps, if she’d been alive when the Company of Martial Sinners made camp outside of Sable’s walls, she’d have mustered a resistance, no matter how doomed. She might have sent the Walker’s messenger, with his message stating I can give you what you need, back to the Ebon Spires missing his head. Prince Ralaya might have let her people die rather than cede Sable to the Deathlord and his mercenaries, but Yhata was not Ralaya. He’d received the messenger as an honored guest, and invited the Walker in Darkness to dine with him.
“Even now,” said the Walker, “Vaneha prepares for conquest. Their generals will set their sights on your kingdom, and your people will die. If they don’t crush you, Thorns will finish what they started.”
“And you’re not here to do the same?”
“What need do I have of that, if we’re allies? You’re weary of war. Of the loneliness that comes with a throne. I’m asking very little of you, and in return, I can give you that which you want the most.”
The dagger Truth — forged by the goddess Ninegala herself a thousand years before — lay unsheathed on the table between them, resting atop a large bejeweled case. It was said that its blade would cut false words from the air if they passed over it. It remained inert.
“I want nothing more than for my people to be safe,” said Yhata. Now the blade chimed softly, and a fine ash fell to the table. The prince gasped, and tried again. “What I want, no one can give me.”
“Even now, she makes her way here,” said the Walker. “Your sister, returned from the land of the dead to rule beside you.” He ran a pale blue finger over the case. “Surely that’s worth sharing the wisdom in your sacred scrolls?”
For a moment, the prince seemed like he might balk. What was written on them was for Sable’s rulers alone. His predecessors had guarded their secrets proudly. Ralaya had made him swear to do the same, preventing anyone from attaining the dangerous knowledge within. But then Yhata unclasped the case with shaking fingers and, one by one, unfurled the scrolls.
The Walker smiled as he read them; he hadn’t expected negotiations to go this easily. Ralaya was no longer the woman Yhata had known; she was a warrior-ghost, a black-masked Sainted Sinner, loyal to the Walker through and through. But the eager prince had made his bargain, and the time for questions and clarifications was past.
***
Waves lapped gently at the sands as the Mariner of the Final Shore pulled their skiff ashore. They’d sensed this place from afar, and directed the crew of their ship, the Stonefish, to sail toward it, but the Mariner had known as soon as they saw the mists shrouding the island that they needed to explore it alone.
It was a tug they felt sometimes, like a strong current pulling them toward a forgotten sea. Thus far, it hadn’t pulled them under.
Above, the sky was full of cold blue stars. The Mariner had known Creation’s fixed constellations since they were a child, and had wondered at the inconsistent firmament of the Underworld when they sailed through misty shadowlands. Later, they’d learned other methods of navigation from ghost sailors when they took work on ships, but the Mariner sometimes still looked for those stars they’d named the Shining Lady, the Cat’s Eye, or the Beacon.
The Mariner trudged through fine black sand toward the tree line, following the tracks of some great beast that had dragged its belly and tail along the beach to bask a while before returning to the sea. As they passed through clusters of spindly trees, they startled a flock of azure-winged birds that were feasting on the carcass of a deer. The birds took to the skies croaking the names of the Mariner’s dead loved ones.
As they walked, the Mariner kept expecting to encounter the island’s ghosts. Who dwelled here, among the streams filled with sweet water and the forest flush with game? The animals here were both those native to Creation and creatures of the Underworld. Wild boar rooted through the underbrush, while a pack of barghests roamed close by. Rations snatched mice in their razor-sharp beaks. The Abyssal wondered if this was a place like their home, drifting from one world to another. Perhaps its living inhabitants had grown weary of the uncertainty and set sail for firmer shores.
The Underworld had certainly asserted itself here. Black vines snaked along the ground and twined around the trees, choking them like garrotes. Bright purple flowers dripped from them, releasing the heady scent of blood and rot. Some had eyes that watched the Mariner as they passed. Others had needle-sharp teeth, and strained towards them, eager for a taste of flesh. When the wind sighed through the forest, its voice was near-human, and it carried the sounds of a funeral dirge the Mariner half remembered.
They followed the stream to a place where the forest ended and a sheer rocky cliff gave them a view of a ruin below. It stretched out for miles, the remains of a sprawling city. Its walls had long since fallen, the rubble marking the city’s boundaries now overgrown with those brilliant purple blooms. Carrion birds nested in the towers that still stood, and along the wide boulevard where once there must have been grand festivals, a pack of phantom horses roamed.
It was then the Mariner realized that they’d been wrong about the presence of ghosts. The island was the ghost. Now that they knew it, they felt it surrounding them, felt its ancient death, and the weight of its former vitality. That sense of being pulled on a current came back. In another life, they’d been present for its demise. Had they done this? Had they been the one to wrench it from the world, or had they been its protector and failed in their duty as a Lawgiver? The star they thought of as the Beacon — a star they hadn’t seen since childhood — shone bright over a building with its marble dome still mostly intact. Perhaps they’d find answers within.
Heart aching with another lifetime’s loss, the Mariner sought a way down.
On Friday, we'll have our next manuscript section, which contains rules for Character Creation and Traits. Tomorrow we'll get a preview with a peek at some of the Caste sections!
A note to new backers - be sure to check out previous updates, especially Update #3 which deals with pledging to the campaign, and Update #6 which has our most recent manuscript preview section.
#AbyssalsSwornToTheGrave
Mon Nov 20 '23 Announcement
10 months ago
– Mon, Nov 20, 2023 at 04:31:35 AM
Hello Gravediggers,
Are you ready for a trip to the Undeworld? Because I've got your handy guide right here...
But before we get to today's section from the draft manuscript, I just want to post two quick reminders.
UPDATE #3 - if you've recently pledged, or are thinking about pledging, please go to the campaign page and ready Update #3 to ensure you havent accidentally overpaid or left a tip that you weren't expecting.
SHIPPING CHARGES will be collected in the PLEDGE MANAGER after the campaign –
The best we can do at this point is to plan carefully, advise everyone up front that international shipping will likely be expensive (see our projections on the main page) and only charge what it costs us when the time comes. We’ll be charging for shipping in the Pledge Manager once the books are being printed and we can deal with the actual shipping charges rather than using our best-guesses this far out. If you live outside the US and aren't sure you want the hardcover or other physical items, you can pledge to the PDF tier now and upgrade your pledge in the Pledge Manager once we know the final shipping costs.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS
Draft Manuscript Previews will be made available in update posts during the campaign. My current plan is have a new section of the manuscript posted every 4 days during this campaign.
Breaking the manuscript into sections and spreading them out over 4 weeks helps guide and focus the conversation, and helps the development team keep on top of the feedback while these manuscripts go through their final development and editing stages.
In fact, if you want to provide feedback directly to the development team, Onyx Path has created a special Feedback Form just for Abyssals: Sworn to the Grave! You can access that here: https://forms.gle/iWbzZDwuRGJxUSnf6
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT PREVIEWS
In today’s preview, we’ve got the Introduction and Chapters 3.
Chapter Three: The Underworld explores the grim land of the dead and the ghosts who inhabit it, providing strange vistas both harrowing and hallowed.
DRAFT MANUSCRIPT DOWNLOAD LINKS
- Abyssals Draft Manuscript Preivew 1 – Intro, Chapters 1-2
- Abyssals Draft Manuscript Preivew 2 – Chapter 3
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Abyssals Draft Manuscript Preivew 3 – Chapters 4-5– coming Nov 24
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Abyssals Draft Manuscript Preivew 4 – Charms: Archery to Investigation – coming Nov 28
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Abyssals Draft Manuscript Preivew 5 – Charms: Larceny to Presence – coming Dec 2
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Abyssals Draft Manuscript Preivew 6 – Charms: Resistance to War– coming Dec 6
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Abyssals Draft Manuscript Preivew 7 – Chapters 7-8 – coming Dec 10
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Abyssals Draft Manuscript Preivew 8 – Chapter 9 – coming Dec 13
The comment section is for all members of this community – united by our shared desire to see this project fund and develop – to cheerlead the project and figure out how best to spread the word about what we’re building here. If you’ve started a thread on whatever social media platform exists today or a Discord conversation about the game or this campaign – let me know about it so we can share that info. If you’ve discussed the game on a blog or podcast, let’s hear about it! If you’ve got funny ideas for social media hashtags, well we can do those too!
If you've got questions about the rules or setting, or just want to discuss this game with other fans (as well as the Onyx Path writers and developers!), you can check out these Onyx Path discussion zones:
I'll have the next chapter in our ongoing Abyssals Fiction tomorrow, and then we'll get a sneak peek at an upcoming manuscript section on Wednesday. Do you want a peek at Friday's manuscript section covering Chapters 4+5, or do you want to sneak a peek at a couple of Charms instead? (I think I know the answer!)
#AbyssalExalted
Sat Nov 18 '23 Announcement
10 months ago
– Sat, Nov 18, 2023 at 06:56:28 AM
Hello Gravediggers,
I've got a fun bit of Abyssal geography for you today! But I won't just give you an overview of Stygia and send you on your way - I've also got some podcasts to check out while you make your trip to the Underworld!
Epic Exalted developer Chazz Kellner has been making the rounds, talking about Abyssals and the work that's gone into this book. I'm a huge fan of the Exalted developers - I can only dream about being only half as creative and inspiring as they are on an off day - and getting a peek into the processes and thoughts behind the Exalted Third Edition lore is always a treat.
First up, Chaz is joined by Elliott Freeman for the latest episode of the Onyx Pathcast! Give this a listen for some fun Abyssals bits.
Next up, Chazz talks to Kim from The Story Told RPG podcast to discuss all things Abyssal!
And finally for today, Chazz joins Mike and Chigg from Darker Days Radio and provides a primer for Exalted and a dive into our Abyssals book, with some talk about new Charms that we'll see in upcoming chapters!
Seriously, take some time over the weekend to give these podcasts a listen. I love listening to the developers talk about their work, and there are some neat insights and fun discussions about the Abyssals and the world of Exalted.
Now, before I get to our preview from the upcoming Underworld chapter, I just want to once again underline a few key updates that are available from our campaign page. If you click on the UPDATES tab at the top of our campaign info, you can find:
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UPDATE #1, which contains the link to the first section from our draft manuscript
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UPDATE #3, which contains important information about your pledge and how much you're paying.
Please make sure you read update #3 so you haven't accidentally overpaid for your pledge. And remember that Indiegogo operates in US funds, so if you're an international backer (like me!), you'll want to make sure you've got your pledge correct because you may lose a bit if you have to keep cancelling and re-pledging if exchange rates fluctuate. Just a tip!
STRETCH GOALS
Oh yeah, one more bit to share before we get to today's sneak peek. Since we last noted our progress on Update #3, we've unlocked a few more Stretch Goals, and we've got another one *just* around the corner!
So, let's see what we've unlocked and added to our Stretch Goal additional content supplement, and what we've got lined up after that...
ACHIEVED! - At $70,000 in Funding - More Necromancy
ACHIEVED! - At $80,000 in Funding - Expanded Section on Ghosts
At $90,000 in Funding - Abyssal QCs
Additional Abyssal characters will receive Quick Character write-ups in the Companion supplement PDF.
At $95,000 in Funding - Abyssals T-shirt on Redbubble
An Abyssals-themed Indiegogo Backer shirt will be hosted on Onyx Path’s Redbubble store for a limited time. Only backers will be notified when the shirt becomes available for purchase.
At $100,000 in Funding - Abyssal Storytelling Section
A new section with Storytelling guidance and rules for dealing with Abyssal Exalts will be added to the supplemental Companion PDF.
So we're just about to unlock additional Abyssal QCs for our supplemental PDF, and then we'll have a T-Shirt diversion before adding some Storytelling advice to our companion book. Please continue to spread the word and let other Exalted fans know they can come and read the manuscript and join in to have these additional rewards automatically added to their rewards list - and remind them to read Update #3 before they make their pledge!
And now, a trip to the Underworld. I do suggest reading this on the site, it looks so much better than the formatting on your e-mail! It may also be that my deathknight visor is covering my eyes, but that's an issue for another day...
Stygia, the Midnight Jewel
At the Underworld’s heart, ancient beyond measure, stands the immortal metropolis of Stygia. It’s founded upon the Old Laws, its hierarchies bound up in timeless rituals. But the city is also endlessly rebuilt and renewed, home to a constant influx of ghosts seeking power, wealth, art, knowledge, pleasure, spirituality, or refuge. Even conquered by the occupying armies of the Thirteen Signatories of the Stygian Pact, it remains the richest, most cultured, and most populous of all Underworld cities.
Blessed by the power of the Dual Monarchs, the city glows with prayer from millions of ghosts. But this holy city has a rotten heart. The Signatories scheme endlessly for greater power; meanwhile, specters worm their way through the populace, trickling up the Veinous Stair that spirals from the city’s center into the Labyrinth.
Most residents, however, are neither influential wraith-magnates nor dread specter-kings. They are ordinary ghosts who, like the living, struggle to get by. The sculptor apprenticed to a centuries-old grandmaster, honing her craft so that her carvings might appeal to the city’s jaded dead; the Tengese widow and the Whitewall orphan, taking one another as mother and son to satisfy an aching need for kinship; the beggar curled shivering in a back alley, forever starving yet unable to die a second death. These ghosts, and millions more, populate the immortal city.
History
When those ancients who became the Neverborn perished, they crashed through the center of the Underworld and plunged into its depths. Coming to rest in the bowels of the Labyrinth, they withdrew into themselves, their endlessly tormented corpses forming their own tombs.
Ghosts of those who died sudden, unexpected deaths have been drawn to this place since the Underworld’s earliest days. They raised petty citadels on islands at the River Styx’s mouth, and feuded for control of the region while banding together to fight off mortwights and nightmare-beasts that rose from the pit. Such ghosts — now gathered into patrician enclaves called Mansions — remain proud of this ancient heritage.
Centuries later, Stygia proper was founded by ghosts seeking to build a place of their own. Gathered by demagogues and prophets from across the Underworld, they found both common ground and ritual significance. The wisest and most learned among them — later dubbed the Seven Divine Counselors — plumbed the Old Laws to codify the rites and ceremonies by which Stygia became a place of power.
As their magnum opus, the capstone of the great work that was Stygia, they either discovered or created the Dual Monarchs — the Monarchs do not speak of their origins, and those few contemporaries who still exist report wildly contradictory accounts with genuine conviction. Four beings in two bodies, the Monarchs embodied the power and mystery of the Old Laws. Spreading their mantle across the immortal city, the Monarchs performed numerous miracles, from invoking a tempest to drown the Fallen Spear Imperium’s invading armada to constructing the Calendar of Setesh that defines time throughout the Underworld.
Stygia’s priesthoods — the far-wandering gondoliers and the sanctuary-guarding custodes — spread outward as evangelists of the Dual Monarchs. Soon, ghosts throughout the Underworld were praying to the Monarchs, empowering them further and strengthening the Old Laws, fueling the city’s grand mausoleums with reverence. Though Stygia still knew its share of conflicts, such as the revolt of the great artistic collegia against the Dual Monarchy, it was nonetheless a time of peace unparalleled in Underworld history.
This peace unraveled as the Usurpation and the Shogunate’s wars flooded the Underworld with renewed storms and armies of militant ghosts. Then came the Grand Tempest, as the Contagion’s death toll shook the pillars of the Underworld and cracked the Calendar of Setesh. Vast typhoons of shadow and dark lightning swept across the lands of the dead, their winds laden with ravening specters led by terrible nephwrack-princes. The Veinous Stair vomited forth horrors at the heart of Stygia itself, ravaging the immortal city.
Outsiders saw opportunity in Stygia’s struggle for survival. These warlords, courtiers, and necromancers turned their eye toward the Underworld’s capital and assembled their forces for conquest. Converging on the mouth of the Styx, they chose to cooperate rather than fighting one another, signing the Stygian Pact by which they’d divide the city between them.
In the centuries since, Stygian life has been defined by endless intrigues. Each Signatory seeks greater control over the immortal city and its influx of prayer; the Deathlords among them aim to spread the influence of the chivalry of death and suppress the Dual Monarchs’ philosophy; the Mansions feud with artisans’ guilds, district leaders, and merchant princes for scraps of power and influence. The common dead often find themselves caught up in aristocratic scheming, revolutionary fervor, day-to-day grifting, or simple familial strife.
Today, the immortal city buzzes with tension. New ghosts flood in ever faster amid the rising death toll of the Time of Tumult; the coming Realm civil war threatens a new tempest. The Deathlords, following the Mask of Winters’s lead, are on the move. And now the newly appearing Abyssal Exalted tread Stygia’s streets like colossi, spreading awe and terror in their wake.
Geography
Stygia sprawls across dozens of rocky islands on the River Styx delta, ringed by great cliffs as dark and gleaming as the waters. The islands themselves have all but vanished beneath millennia of construction; structures pile upon one another, with piers and bridges and towers forming a three-dimensional maze around a web of canals. Seven great hills rise among the islets. The Mansions once claimed them as their seats of power. Even today they remain prized real estate, though the Signatories now squabble for control of their heights.
The Sixteen Districts
Stygia has been divided into 16 districts since time immemorial, their nature bound by the Old Laws. Originally identical in size and shape, the districts have shifted radically over the ages as their regents schemed for ascendancy over their neighbors.
Each district’s boundaries are reinforced on the first day of each year with a ceremonial procession. The regent must touch each of the district’s ancient boundary-stones, and shifting those stones as part of the rite allows one district to expand at another’s expense. Whoever completes the procession is the regent; regents surround themselves with bodyguards to prevent coups during that vulnerable time.
Once, each regent took a share of the district’s Essence and conveyed the rest to the Dual Monarchs. Since the conquest, most regents also pay tribute to one or more Signatories.
Monarch’s Way holds the prayer-lit palace of the Dual Monarchs, bureaucratic offices, temples, manors, and strange silent gardens. Night Winds, the city’s other political center, caters to the needs of the Cimmerian Council and the Signatories.
Iron Hill resounds with hammering from foundries and smithies, and clash of arms from martial schools and military barracks. Thunder Hill’s elegant shops and deathly temples cater to the Mansions’ proud ghosts.
Merchanters and Stygian Navy vessels dock at Seawall, its streets teeming with drunken ghost-sailors on eternal shore leave. Elegant stone facades glisten along Onyx Point’s main avenues, gentrified by the Silver Prince. Blood streams from temples of ancient sanguinary cults in Water Runs Red.
Garrison fortresses in Sunborn’s Last Stand echo with the Legion Sanguinary’s bootsteps. In The Quarter Magnificent, musicians and artists sustain an endless festival atmosphere. Merchants, scholars, and aesthetes alike flock to Golden Tears for the thrill of haggling and to obtain rare goods.
V’igea draws ghosts to Stygia as a cultural afterlife. Passionately cosmopolitan ghosts meet and mingle in its teahouses; back streets hide conservative dead immersing themselves in their peoples’ old ways. Those who enter the alien forest of Indigo Grove face strange spirits and prophetic visions.
Ghosts visit Bittersweet Remembrance to mourn — or to bask in mourners’ aura of sorrow. Pleasure-seekers frequent Bone Lanterns to partake in theater, cuisine, liquor, drugs, gambling, sex, and other ghostly pastimes.
Whispering Streets, still damaged from the Grand Tempest, is home to indigents, misfits, criminals, and largely harmless specters. In the bleak temples of Where Shadows Walk, nephwrack-priests preach an end to all things.
The Sewers
Shadow-water from bathhouses, kitchens, laundries, and the like flows into a maddening maze of tunnels beneath the immortal city. Vagrant ghosts form hushed communities here in the dark, protecting themselves as best they can from slavers, press gangs, animal ghosts gone rogue, marauding mortwights crawling in where the sewers meet the Labyrinth, and weirder things from beneath the Underworld’s soil.
Stygian gossipmongers speak of Suspire, the monstrous pauper-lord of the sewers, who centuries ago led an army of downtrodden ghosts in a failed rebellion against the Signatories. Some call him a specter; others say he’s allied with the gondoliers. Another figure is only named in whispers — the Last Counselor, allegedly the sole survivor of the Seven Divine Counselors. Rumor says she’s an oracle, a priest of the Dual Monarchs with unrivaled knowledge and wisdom.
The Veinous Stair
The hole at Stygia’s center is the Veinous Stair, where the Neverborn once plunged through the Underworld into the Labyrinth. A single rivulet of the Styx cascades into the pit, carrying offerings and the occasional execution victim; from below rise mortwights’ groans and nephwracks’ hymns. Luxurious Signatorial palazzos encircle the cyclopean pit, and the Noctuary Spire, a jagged obsidian tower where the Cimmerian Council (p. XX) meets, leans crookedly outward over the abyss.
A single eponymous stairway runs down along the pit’s edge, countless side corridors leading to played-out soulsteel-ore mines and ancient chambers of dubious purpose. Farther down, throbbing passages wend into the Labyrinth; here the specters come and go, drawn by the whispers of oblivion. Stygia’s rift-divers probe these vaults at great risk to find lost treasures, battle specters, and seek intelligence on nephwrack activities that might threaten the immortal city. Deeper still lie the tomb-bodies of the Neverborn, where Deathlords and Abyssals commune with their dark masters.
If the Stair has a bottom, no one has ever found it.
I'll be back with another update on Monday, when we'll get the full draft version of Chapter 3, where we'll learn more about Stygia and much much more about other areas in the Underworld.
#Abyssals
