Player Guide to Kyahida
This guide serves to help you create a character that meshes into the context of a Kyahidan adventure! I recommend at least skimming the first three sections, and reading the rest as is relevent to you.
The Campaign
The campaign I'm running will happen every other week on Wednesdays at 6:00pm at ReRoll Tavern. It's an open table game, and I'll have pre-gens available. Each session is designed to return the party back to a central location every evening: this makes it easy for absences and late campaign joiners to happen any session.
Player characters have been handpicked by their tribes of origin to be drafted by the King of Kyahida into an 'Erikander': an adventuring party chartered to perform a task in his service, to the benefit of civilization. They have been sent to shore up the troubled tribe of Chief Kyske after several severe setbacks in luck.
Six Big Facts about Kyahida
The World is an Island
The whole known world is an archipelago about the size of the state of Hawaii. Everything is, in principle, a day or two by boat. One political state can rule the whole of civilization, and the number of towns and settlements barely exceeds the dozens. Everything is local.
The Kyahidan Civilization is a Stone Age One
The people of Kyahida have clothing, tools, houses, and vessels more reminiscent of America in the 1200's than Europe in the 1200's. Heavy inspiration is drawn from the old days of the Aztec, Incan, Salish, and Mississippian cultures. Things are made of leather, stone, shell, horn, bone, and wood, with metal being restricted to expensive bits of copper. Llamas are the main domesticated animal.
Civilization is Under Perpetual Siege by Titanic Golems
Large tracts of Kyahida and its surrounding ocean are the domain of mechanized beings, some miles-long, who attack any concentration of people that grows too large. Think 'SIN' from Final Fantasy X. Golems shoot lasers and wrathful magic in devastating attacks that can light entire forests on fire. The few towns survive by forcing citizens to migrate regularly between alternate sites.
Magic is Narrowly Granted by the Gods
Magical spells, rituals, potions, and techniques are only effective insofar as it pleases the god sponsoring the magic. Most magic cast outside special sacred sites is invoked by way of Makka, the God of Death. Her domain is the preservation of people even beyond death and the destruction of Golems.
Necromancy is Pervasive
Kyahidans serve their nation, even in death, as soldiers. When a Kyahidan dies, their skeleton is removed and engraved by craftsmen called Bonesingers, who knit the bones into a puppet. This puppet is then annointed by its own heart by a Necromancer, who animates it into a servant to guard against Golems. These 'longmen' are posted as sentries and used en masse to defeat and drive off golems, and they are honored and ubiquitous in Kyahidan society.
Magic Weapons are Advanced Technology
The defeat of a Golem can yield intact artifacts of tremendous power. These can vary from laser rifles to force fields to nanobot medical machines. Kyahidans lack a reliable power source for most of these devices, but rare batteries can be recovered for them, and some are solar powered. Possession of these artifacts attracts Golems like sharks to blood, and so they are considered taboo until they are properly stockpiled away from the tribe by an Artificer.
Character Creation Rules
Here are the rules for character generation in this campaign.
- Create a human character using the Custom Lineage rule from Tasha's. Small size allowed.
- Start at level 2.
- Any classes are allowed.
- If you are a caster, make sure to read the 'Notes about Magic' section of this guide.
- If you are a divine caster, choose a god from the Kyahidan Pantheon: available gods are listed in this guide.
- Any background is allowed. Some backgrounds give languages: available ones are listed in this guide.
- Gain starting equipment as indicated in the PHB via your class and background.
- Available resources are the Player's Handbook, Xanathar's Guide, and Tasha's Cauldron.
Notes About Magic
Spellcasting in Kyahida is done through exhortation of a god to allow access to the Weave. Further, gods tend to only listen to such requests when standing on Hallowed ground dedicated to them (via the Hallow spell). This would greatly impede the adventuring spellcaster, except for the fact that Makka is incredibly liberal in sponsoring spellcasting anywhere in the world. Her main stipulation is that the magic provide aid in the crusade against Golems or secure the continued survival of Kyahidans, even unto undeath.
As a result, non-divine spellcasters (warlocks, sorcerors, wizards, and bards) tend to honor Makka as their chief patron. Primal spellcasters (druids, rangers) tend to serve Sidhya, who considers most deep forests hallowed ground. Clerics and paladins can serve any god, but if they serve a non-Makkan god tend to spend vast amounts of time in prayer in the village temple asking for supernatural intervention in the field: after sufficient supplication, Kicab will aid in acts of law, and Deshya in acts of crime.
Magic that would displease the god sponsoring the spell fizzles, and wastes a spellslot (if applicable).
Kyahidan Pantheon
Kyahidans are polytheistic, and acknowledge all the gods in this section.
- Makka: The Horned Lady of Kyahida. Neutral. Magic, Life & Death & Undeath, Golem slaying.
- Kicab: The Living King of Kyahida. Lawful Good. Justice, War, Agriculture, Writing.
- Sidhya: The Wild Bearwoman of the Forests. Neutral Good. Hunting, Medicine, Forests, Winter.
- Deshya: The Pierced Man of the Sea Mist. Chaotic Good. The Sea, Storms, Thieves, Secrets.
- Rael: The Grand Clouded Orb of the Sky. Lawful Neutral. The Sun, Darkness, The Sky, Time.
- Forest Spirits: The Host of Sidhya. Varied. Lesser spirits of particular natural locations or ancestral heroes.
Languages
These are the languages available to Kyahidans in this campaign.
- Common: Trade language of all Kyahidans of the coasts
- Jezali: Tongue of the people of the island of Jeze, the largest
- Ricabi: Tongue of the learned Ricabi tribes
- Sansibi: Tongue of the recently-civil Sansibi tribes
- Serabi: Tongue of the artful Serabi tribes
- Kicabi: Tongue of the warrior Kicabi tribes
- Druidic: Ritual tongue of shamen
- Cant: Secret tongue of outcasts
- Wilder: Tongue of the wild uncivilized tribes
- Golemic: Deciphered snippets of the writing on golems
- Taboo: Deciphered snippets of the writing in ruins
Classes
This section tries to give a succinct description of what a class might look like in Kyahida.
- Artificer: You study and secure taboo machinery recovered from golems & ruins, and are responsible for not drawing the attention of golems to inhabited settlements by them.
- Barbarian: You are a fierce warrior possessed by a berserker rage.
- Bard: You are a feastmaker and story teller, your place at the campfire always prominent.
- Cleric: You are a village shaman, dedicated to tending to the people of your tribe and their altars.
- Druid: You attend to a shrine of Sidya, and ensure the taboos of the wilderness are enforced on Kyahidans.
- Fighter: You are a brave of your tribe, skilled in all the domains of hunt, sport, and combat.
- Monk: You are an ascetic in the wilderness, and seek awareness through the control of your mind and body.
- Paladin: You are a a warrior cleric, fated to tend to the wounds of soldiers on pitched tribal battles.
- Ranger: You are a scout, vigilant to know the motion of beasts and golems in the forest, that you can forewarn the tribes.
- Rogue: You are a renegade who tends to outlive your welcome in a tribe, so you travel frequently.
- Sorceror: Your prayers fly particularly effortlessly to the gods' ears, granting you a close link to magic.
- Warlock: You have bled on one of the moonlit, writhing pillars, entering a pact with a dark Makkan shadow.
- Wizard: You are most likely a Necromancer, and have a broad mandate to maintain a coterie of engraved skeletons to guard the tribe.