Many faiths have the idea of a judge in the afterlife. A mortal dies and the spirit goes to a place of adjudication. If found worthy, the spirit moves on to a nice place; if found wanting, the spirit is sent to a place of punishment. And then there is …
Centuries ago Kao Tsen was a warrior-poet and champion of the Kao Dynasty. He served several emperors, in fact many emperors, to the point it is thought his sense of duty prevented him from dying. In the cycle of time the dynasty ended and the empire diminished, becoming little more …
Jenatep is the patron of librarians, those who gather and preserve information. When summoned, he manifests as a great tome, and communicates by flipping pages to display text and images with his responses. He is obsessed with gathering information and sharing it with those who would learn… with little discrimination. …
Ilassa is ever-changing, staying in step with the turn of the seasons… and would see civilization crumble, the people returning to live with nature. She manifests as the wild skirling of bagpipes and seasonal winds that shift to match her mood. She exists to support the Llyr Mi Lann tribes, …
… sometimes, the A-Z Challenge leads to strange titles. I normally wouldn’t use ‘invent’ in this situation, but here we are. Creating a patron is not so difficult, and gets easier the more entities you have defined in your campaign. If I don’t have a particular patron in mind, I’ll …
This post was originally titled ‘Hopes of a Patron’, but that really doesn’t go far enough. Patrons don’t just have a preference for certain events or outcomes. Patrons are driven to achieve their goals, to the point of being defined in part by their objectives. Each patron has three goals, …
Nothing for nothing, of course… so just how do you gain a patron’s favor? The short answer is “help advance the patron’s goals”. This is grand adventure fodder. The patron has goals and objectives, and needs agents to help achieve them. If you want to curry favor with a patron, …
There are two reasons a character might choose to take a patron. The character could of course choose a patron because the character shares the patron’s goals and objectives, and wants to help achieve them. More likely, though, they’re into it for the power that comes from taking a patron: …
Important figures in a setting should have a name, of course. Even more, many should have an epithet, a descriptive word or phrase that illustrates some element of the figure. When an epithet is distinctive enough and specific enough, it can take the place of the name itself in common …
Having a patron can give a character benefits and abilities otherwise not available. Having a patron also has drawbacks. First, all patrons have goals and objectives. A vassal is expected to work toward these goals and objectives; working against them can reduce a patron’s favor and lead to other problems. …
