Bileplate
| Bileplate | |
|---|---|
| |
| Culture Level | Savage (0)[1] |
| Ecology | Sparse[2] |
| Climate & Terrain | Desert Crater[3] |
| Year Formed | 684 BC [4]
|
| Population | Unknown and Ever Changing[1] |
| Races (%) | 98%Human 2%Other[1] |
| Languages | Vaasi, Balok, Darkonese, and many others.[1] |
| Religions | None |
| Government | Anarchy |
| Ruler(s) | Lorenth Fyrirenn[2] |
| Darklord(s) | Lorenth Fyrirenn[2] |
| Nationality | None |
| Analog | Hellraiser |
| Related Categories | |
| Locations in Bileplate | |
| Transportation in Bileplate | |
| Inhabitants of Bileplate | |
| Former Inhabitants of Bileplate | |
| Flora of Bileplate | |
| Fauna of Bileplate | |
| Native Monsters of Bileplate | |
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This section contains netbook-canon info from netbooks |
Bileplate was a domain in the southern Core [4] formed by Lorenth Fyrirenn[2], once a human high priest of a deity of wine and earthly pleasures. When Lorenth tired of the pleasures of women and drink and those of love and art, he began a descent into morbid and forbidden pleasures. He would torture people and even use self-mutilation to give him new delights. Soon he and those of his followers who did not turn on him started to preach that the temple should include the other, and to them more truthfully pleasurable, pursuits of agony and madness. Soon the whole kingdom was but a mad gallery of Lorenth’s sick idea of the true pleasures and delights. When the curiosities stopped holding his interest, he demanded his god let him experience the pleasures in a more fulfilling way. He became cursed to only dully feel through his minions. This lets him feel their pleasures, both those of joy and pain, but he is never satisfied, always craving more, becoming more of a monster as he loses knowledge of his past, unable to discern his original thoughts from those of what he has become.
His temple and city was drawn into the Demiplane of Dread, resting in a crater in a domain that is as chaotic and insane as his mind. His domain has split realities: the physical plane that feels as stale and used up as the pleasures he discarded, and The Otherworld, the mental reality that is his
insane paradise of the perverse, where he can create new levels of pleasure through agony and madness and feel them through those that suffer them. Lorenth feels that he is a god himself now and with his powers many would agree. He has the need to be always self-conscious, needing to explain that what
he does is not insane, but exploring the truth of the world, pleasures and emotions, and the mind. How would you understand the pleasures if you do
feel them all?
This small domain once bordered the Nightmare Lands and Bluetspur appeared684 BC[4]. What stands out about Bileplate is that it consists of two overlapping realities that are far different from our own: The Wastes (physical reality based) and Otherworld (mental reality based) which can only be entered by those afflicted by madness. The objective of the denizens is to drive people insane so as to draw them into Otherworld to feed the Darklord’s appetite. Both realities look somewhat similar; both are deserts within a huge crater and both realities are unnatural. Otherworld is a chaotic and dark, its city is full of strange life. The Wastes is quiet and carries the air of emptiness under a never-setting sun.
The domain's physical reality, "The Wastes", is a windswept desert within a huge rocky crater, which has a ruined city in its heart. The sand swirls with color, mostly red, blues and purples, and moves on its own accord rather than be stirred by wind. Rocks are orange, with specks of color that change randomly. The sky is green, with blue clouds drifting by at a fast pace, even in the absence of wind. A purple sun erratically moves across the sky, but never sets. This reality is unnaturally quiet and feels like something is swallowing the sounds; this makes Move Silently checks gain a +10 bonus. Everything tastes and
smells stale, even stuff brought into the domain. Those newly arriving must adjust to the air of Bileplate as if it was high altitude air with low oxygen.
Water can be found in caverns or the stone buildings built on the sides of the cliff, which are called the Stone Galleries, and can also be found in
shadowed spots in the city ruins. All of these sources replenish to stay at a certain amount of water by unknown means, for it rarely rains. Rain in The
Wastes is rumored to drive those caught in it insane by its touch. The cliffs have old stone staircases leading to the depths of the crater, where the ruins and desert lie. The stairs are chiseled out of the stone of the cliff itself, though some are safer to traverse than others. Cacti can be found at the base of the cliffs, which also contain life-sustaining water. There is not much native life, but most of the present life consists of those travelers that are
trapped here; most seek shelter in the city ruins or the caverns in the cliffs.
The ruins in the crater are the remains of a city whose buildings come from various culture levels, mostly reduced to rubble or buried under sand. The area is littered with the bleached bones of those who got trapped in the other reality while their physical body starved. In the heart of the ruins lies a white stone temple with classical architecture, dedicated to an unnamed god of wine and pleasures, with painted murals of love, wine and joy. This temple is the only original building of this land.
Most people are brought to Bileplate either through the misty border or drawn into the domain by the sight of extreme madness. The possibility of whole buildings drawn in with their inhabitants is not so uncommon. The building gradually fades into existence in the ruined city of The Wastes, but as soon as it appears, it starts to sink into the sands like the other buildings that rest in the city.
Any reflective surface can be used to see into Otherworld and even enter it, though usually they cannot be used to exit it. Those who view Otherworld in this way must make a Madness check (DC15) or be pulled in by the madness created by the check. A successful save allows them to escape before being drawn in. On a failure, they suffer a painful transition, for example being sucked through a small mirror or drowned in a reflective pool. When drawn in, their physical body left behind is but a empty shell, which continues to wander the wasteland of the physical reality aimlessly.
The character's physical self's eyes turn inky black and he or she just babbles when talking. They mimic the movements of what they do in the Otherworld reality half the time, and otherwise stand trance-like. They slowly dehydrate; instead of the usual subdual damage by starvation, they take 1d3 Wisdom damage on a failed Will save, this Wisdom point lost will affect their Constitution in the other reality. They start to waste away in the Otherworld, and when brought to zero Wisdom, they fade from existence when the physical body dies. Damage done in Otherworld does subdual damage on the bodies in physical reality. The sight of this can cause a horror check for those viewing such attacks
In the Otherworld, it is always night and cloudy and the city inside the crater is intact and no longer in ruins. Most of the buildings are Renaissance style. Victims entering Otherworld from The Wastes will usually appear in a similar position to where they disappeared in the other reality. The sands above the crater are crimson and black, and flow into the crater. Fighting against the flow causes victims to sink into it. Those falling off the edge of the crater do not take any damage if traveling with the sand but must escape quickly before getting buried under the rushing sand. The sand volume in the crater never increases, despite the falling sands from above. Winds above the crater also push victims in, as if the crater is drawing a breath. These winds cannot be controlled or resisted.
The survivors trapped in Otherworld fight against the abominations of the Darklord in the city. If they escape Otherworld, they will have their madness cured. Survivors group together for mutual safety and spend most the time fortifying against the horrors. In the middle of the city, there is an immense black stone temple that connects to the Labyrinth beneath the city. The temple is dedicated to LorenthFyrirenn, and contains painted murals of torture, blood and painful agony.
Under the city is a great labyrinth that can change at the will of the Darklord and has few exits to the surface. The Labyrinth’s core is the lair of the Darklord of Bileplate, Lorenth Fryirenn himself, though he is free to roam anywhere in Otherworld. Rooms in the Labyrinth usually contain elements of a type of madness or suffering. Any rumored way to escape from Otherworld likely lies in the Labyrinth’s ever-changing halls.
The population are all those who traveled here, or were drawn into and got stuck in Bileplate. Many are already possessed; the rest usually have gone insane and been taken to Otherworld. Those still in the physical world with intact minds seek shelter in the cliffs, trying to root out the possessed and scavenge for food. They make small groups for mutual survival and hope to escape the domain or save a loved one from Otherworld. The city in the Otherworld reality, is just a hunting ground for the creatures to prey on those who have been recently trapped, but also a place for those who have accepted their madness and the Darklord's rule. These twisted souls are allowed to leave the Labyrinth and try to create a mimicry of life for themselves, in exchange for servitude. They plot and plan an escape from Bileplate, but will not disobey the Darklord unless he and his minions are not in sight. They are by far the most dangerous of those that can be found in the city. Detect alignment always detects everything and everybody as chaotic, even the caster themselves.
Biology
Flora
Cacti Velvet mold
Fauna
[Vermin]
[Scorpion]
[Snake]
Native Horrors
Dust Devil
Mumurshade
Mind Wight
Cactus Dryad
The Possessed
Fetch(Otherworld)
Allips
Pyre Elemental
Gibbering Mouther
The Attendant
Otherworld's Binder
Otherworld Sculptor
Twisted Soul
Otherworld Juggernaut
The Contorted
Living Column
Vargouille(Otherworld)
Crimson Bones(Otherworld)
Elemental(Otherworld)
Stitched(Otherworld)
Geography
Weather
The wastes carry erratic temperatures from hot to cold, windstorms that come out of nowhere and very rare but deadly rain. Outherworld is bearable cool temperature with no changes in the weather.
Terrain
Both realities look somewhat similar; both are deserts within a huge crater and both realities are unnatural. Otherworld is chaotic and dark, its city is full of strange life. The Wastes is quiet and carries the air of emptiness under a never-setting sun.
The domain's physical reality, "The Wastes", is a windswept desert within a huge rocky crater, which has a ruined city in its heart. The sand swirls with color, mostly red, blues and purples, and moves on its own accord rather than be stirred by wind. Rocks are orange, with specks of color that change randomly. The sky is green, with blue clouds drifting by at a fast pace, even in the absence of wind. A purple sun erratically moves across the sky, but never sets. This reality is unnaturally quiet and feels like something is swallowing the sounds; this makes Move Silently checks gain a +10 bonus. Everything tastes and smells stale, even stuff brought into the domain. Those newly arriving must adjust to the air of Bileplate as if it was high altitude air with low oxygen.
In the Otherworld, it is always night and cloudy, the city inside the crater is intact and no longer in ruins.
Mountains & Hills
Bileplate is a crater with caves along its cliffs.
Landmarks
Cactus Patch
Stone Galleries
Waste Ruins
Central Temple
Otherworld City
Labyrinth
Communication
Waters
Water can be found in caverns or the stone buildings built on the sides of the cliff, which are called the Stone Galleries, and can also be found in shadowed spots in the city ruins. Cacti can be found at the base of the cliffs, which also contain life-sustaining water. All of these sources replenish to stay at a certain amount of water by unknown means, for it rarely rains. Rain in The Wastes is rumored to drive those caught in it insane by its touch.
Frontiers
The Great Upheaval
When the Grand Conjunction (or Great Upheaval) finished, Bileplate vanished. It might be now an Island of Terror or a Pocket Domain in the Nightmare Lands.[3]
Population Distribution
Villages
- Waste ruins - home of human scavengers.
- Stone Galleries - Home of small groups together for mutual survival and hope to escape the domain or save a loved one from Otherworld.
- Outworld City - Refuge of those trapped in the Otherworld.
- Labyrinth - Maze under the city crawling with monsters under the command of the dark lord.
Authority
Darklord
Lorenth Fyrirenn rules the Otherworld corrupting souls trapped there.
Government
No formal government. Those trapped form mutual protection agreements, though the chances of betrayal is often high. Those possessed or having their souls twisted serve the Darklord of Bileplate's will.
Chronology
- 684 BC -Bileplate appears.[4]
- 740 BC - The Great Upheaval causes the domain to vanish. [2]
References
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Neither Man Nor Beast - p.47, QtR22 - p.132-148
