Empire of the Gleaming Banner
FAQ
March, 1999
I've only got issues here that the playtesters have posed. . . please eTrump me with your questions.
What exactly do you mean by Djinni, Kith and Pix races?
Djinni are an old humanoid race that are natural elemental spellcasters. Dark skinned with complex culture. These people have magic at birth. IOW, everyone has at least one or two spells of certain types. They looooooove magic. They loooove making complicated artifacts and spells. They have a fairly civilized society. Vassal House Attolia comes from this race.
Pix are an ancient racial foe of the Djinn. Fair skinned with simple culture and strong community. The true bloodline is a humanoid race of about 30 inches in height. They are extremely good with sorcery and have some quirks of their own. Physically frail, they live by their wits and are very environmentally quiet. They tend to be folksy and are not so great with strangers.
KIth are a younger race that is hard to pin down. They don't really excel at but one thing, they get along with everybody. Sometimes so well, that they drift from their own culture, city, countries, and never return. In other words, they are the exotic strangers of Shadow. The gypsies of my design. Or should I say that all gypsies are Shadow reflections of the Kith? :-)
The Gates that lead to Shadow. . . do you have to go through them to get to these other states? And it may say somewhere and I'm just not seeing it. . . How easy are they to get to. . . are they guarded, that sort of thing.
The answer lies in the layout of the Empire itself. The Imperial Highway is a huge construct crossing East to West through the length of the Empire's attendant states. At the edge of Darrheabarr, you find the Sunset Gate to the west, the Sunrise Gate to the East.
So going West or East you do go through these 60 foot high portals. Going North or South out of Darrheabarr is across water, and the Shadow paths must be navigated exactly. In these days of Peace, the Gates are not guarded. They are monuments to another time. Once thru the Sunrise or Sunset Gate, you can strike off in other directions, leaving the Imperial Highway for parts unknown. This for example is the route of the great trade caravans in and out of Darrheabarr. If you do not enter by ship and water, you must enter by one of the two gates.
Actually, like many tropical or high heat environs, Darrheabarr is a collection of pale tone backgrounds on high color foregrounds.
As such, many buildings are white or near white with colorful trimmings and roofs. Tile details or mosaics begin at entrances and carry into interiors.
The deepest and most vivid colors are the most expensive. So very well appointed hostels or guesting quarters may be outfitted better than surrounding background.
Darrheabarr is not a classes society. The poor, or lower class make do without much color in their surroundings. The more wealthy copy the colors of various gemstones or tropical birds.
Clothes
Clothes follow a subtle but definite trend that mimics other aspects of Art and Architecture.
The poor, or lower class make do without much color in their clothing, reserving their best 'festival clothes' for the simple floral colors of block printed cotton. It is not unusual to see the children under 5 years old, chasing thru neighborhoods in the nude. Typical clothing for all ages in this social rank is the ubiquitous pleated kilt and open weave blouse. Jewelry might be shells, colored common stones, or quartz.
Middle class folks typically only wear white for heavy labor or military service. Floral patterns, bird patterns, or sea life patterns in the pale pastels of modest dyes are extremely common in this social rank. 'Festival clothes' will have potent dyes and be trimmed with semi-precious stone jewelry, if available. While sometimes elaborate, the typical kilt and blouse is used by this class.
Upper class people never have to resort to plain white clothing, not even for lounge wear. Geometric patterns are admired highly. Solid colors are considered bold, or vulgar. The range of clothing styles broadens, with sari, sarong, tunics, and any other cool style of robes being common.
Noble class people are the only ones normally allowed to use metallic colors since copper, silver, gold, brass are colors that are reminiscent of the Gleaming. Patterns are still the rule, avoiding solid colors and vulgar displays. The dyes for metallic colors are so expensive that often metallic threads are used instead, (light touches preferred). Quite often there is no difference between the clothing styles of the Nobles and the styles of the upper class.
Beach Clothes
Some people say that the sugar colored beaches of Darrheabarr are the great equalizers of social rank, and for the most part this is true.
Basic modern water wear is white briefs with a 12" pleated overkilt for men and women. Colored variations are less seen.
Sometimes a light tunic is worn over, especially for travel back and forth from the beach.
Called 'scandal fashions', some young rebels have taken designs of intimate wear, and brought them to the beach. These fall into to types, the Vee's and Tee's (Briefs without the covering overkilt). Vee's are hip slung high on the waist, Tee's are basically thongs.
Stats Guide the GM
When your PC's actions are to speak loudly, I will look to your writeups
first, your Stats second. Hopefully, your Stats will have been edited to
follow your writeup summary. That's the plan, anyhow.
This should mean two things, if you bring along an established character, you know how he/she plays so rebalance the Stats to suit. Easy enough.
If you are designing specifically to the Empire of the Gleaming Banner background. . . . which is probably a good idea. . . . then you have a clean slate. But it is not so easy to Stat a character you have never played. The PC may surprise you, the plot may bring out another quality you did not anticipate. I will try to adjust for the Character you want to play, as opposed to the Stats you pass me (within limits.)
Mechanics of the Stats are thus:
Shadowfolk are most often negatively ranged under -25 points. Competant people have -25. Powers affecting purely Shadow therefore work on Stats that do not exceed -25. A Shadow person who has studied the rapier his entire life, and has a Warfare of -20, cannot have his Warfare overcome by Shadow manipulation tricks.
Most adventurous figures of Shadow are competant or highly competant.
Chaosians are negatively ranged around -10 points. This roughly translates to two times the competancy of -25. The Master of the rapier in the example above would have little chance against the average Chaosian with -10. And if the Master brought two students with him (at -25 each) the GM would still expect the Chaosian to win the contest.
In this campaign, the noble families of Amber, the best of the Golden Circle, the Empire of the Gleaming Banner and their competition should be approximately at this Chaosian level.
Amberites are ranged around 0 points. This roughly translates to two times the competancy of -10. The Master of the rapier in the example above would have no chance against this average Amberite. If he brought four students with him, he would still likely lose. Imagine how quickly every mistake that was made would be turned into a fatal one by someone fighting for his life when that person was almost four times better than you.
Shadowfolk are as children by comparison.
Just for the sake of completeness, you may further presume, that a PC with 30 points is roughly two times more competant than the average Amberite.
Questions? Look at this chart.
Trump, not your normal style . . .
All players have a working knowledge of Trump. The Empire style is a little different. Art is regarded highly in the Empire. Trump is viewed as one of the most noble expressions of Art. But the people are pragmatic, too. Trump has only been practiced widely in the Empire for 300 years.
Commercial Trump
The vast mercantile wheels of the Empire have taken Trump as their own and made it a cost of doing complex business. This is the average level of Trump use. A thousand artists struggle to keep important merchants and services supplied with Trump 'calling cards'. Quality is only fair, they work poorly across Shadow. These are small, 1.5" x 3" cards with written information about a person or service. Using a 'calling card' puts you in oral touch with the service. Calling cards are blank white on the reverse. Always oral only contact.
Trump
Important, noble, or very wealthy families use Trump as an advantage every day. More or less like the Trump use of the Courts, they work well across Shadow. Three score (60) artists work at this level. These are small, 1.5" x 3" cards with pictures of a person or place. Quality is good. Cards are white on the reverse, with a heraldic device or cartel name. Usually oral contact, high psyche can get visual or mental contact with effort.
Imperial Trump
This level of Trump is what is normal for Amber. Excellent quality, vivid likenesses. Perhaps ten artists work at this level outside of the Imperial Family. Most of the Imperial Family and noble Houses are not Trump Artists, so outside artists are used. Cards are similar to last category but for quality and size. Size is 2.5" x 5" on average. Cards are white on the reverse, with a heraldic device or House name. Oral and visual contact except for Trump Artists or Chaosian and above psyche, which can make mental contact.
Gleaming Trump
Rare. Trump Artist with the Gleaming combines the Gleaming's potency with the Trump quality of the previous category. Cards are Gleaming on the reverse, with no imposed design. No contact type limits except as modified by Trump Artists or high psyche.
Oral contact? No mental Trumping?
All PC's in the Empire probably have at least Chaos level stats, so mental Trumping is possible on the better quality cards. Hostile Trump moves are possible too, of course. Hostile Trump moves are limited by the lesser 'calling cards'. Most Trumping is oral because that is the easiest way to do things. No mental touching is necessary if the contact is spoken. Accepting a Trump call opens the 'possibility' of mental contact, as does shaking hands.
What is heard and seen in Trump contact usually means using my own "Cone of Trump" practice.
Cone of Trump refers to the card facing the sender, and an imaginary card facing the receiver. If you picture a geometric cone of focus, or a frame that expands outward from the card to the speaker, you have the idea. Sound or picture inside this cone/frame is observable by the senses of both people in the contact. The exception is when a Trump Artist manipulates this cone. That's right, with practice a Trump Artist can change the cone, widen it, narrow it, cause it to close completely or distort a particular sense. Such special effects are Psyche driven and divide the will of the Artist from whatever else he/she may be doing.
Amber is a known backdrop for this game. Similar to Courts of Chaos in a normal Amber scenario and more the province of the GM. Try to work a PC around the Empire point of view, even if you decide that you have Blood of Amber.
The Empress has not normalized relations with Amber and seems to have no plans to do so.
I have shown the barest sketch of Imperial Family. You may assume that there is more than one generation below Dane, Liotus, Canthraal, Sandmorel, and Delwin. In other words, you can play children of these characters (age range of present to 200 yrs), or children of the children of these characters (age range of present to 50 yrs). Write it up and I will respond with suggestions.
As someone has already commented, with 60 pts for a startup character, you may wish to be very young, as opposed to an older character who is just discovering "who they are going to be". Works both ways for me.
Imperial Family vs. Public knowledge . . . or how about an interview, your Lordship?
For centuries, the Imperial Family has been the darling pride of the public. The lifestyles of these powerful nobles had been grist for fiction, plays, and daily gazettes. Over three centuries ago, all that changed with the assassination of Lord Roland, the extremely popular and charismatic heir to the Empress.
Lord Roland's estates were undergoing repairs and renovations to the gardens, a fact of public knowledge and interest. The project was getting quite some attention, because of the project's scale and because everything that Roland did was news. Then Lord Roland was killed during an inspection of the work, by a man impersonating one of the gardeners. The assassin had entered with a public tour of the grounds. The shock to the social consciousness was huge. Since that time, the love of the Imperial Family has not dimmed, but their privacy is considered to be a priority. Therefore, it is the Empress who is the focus of public attention, and not the Family.
Assassins are common? What's going on?
Politics in the Empire is not vicious. But the scale of everything is even greater than the Courts. The fringe elements of political ambition are frustrated in the Empire because of their lack of success. To put it simply, 99% of the people are so well off, that a 1% faction of extremists has become more desperate with how little chance they have of affecting things. Some heinous crimes have resulted, most against the ruling family.
Imperial Family . . . what is the flavor on the personal side?
In any new campaign background, this is a weak point and needs expansion, and hence my project. Amber has personality galore via the novels. My thought here is that you must pass questions to me regarding the background of your character. You may suggest a blood connection to the Imperial Family based on the sketches below and I will try to deliver. Final approval of all characters is the province of the GM. I've been to Ambercon and I think character design will make or break this scenario I'm planning.
:-) Below is a sketch of persons listed in the scenario outline.
Lora- 67", 120 lbs., ruddy tan skin, former blonde, hair now pure white with age, black penetrating eyes
Every bit the Empress. Picture a noble profile (similar to an American Indian blended with a Polynesian), a face lined with care and hard choices, a steely glance that seems to see things others do not. She has outlived two husbands, two consorts, three children, and some grandchildren. She has eclipsed the legend of the Formidable Emperor of the Second Cycle, who lived to be 533 yrs. Her health and vigor are considered miraculous, and a matter of some interest to scholars. Truth within the Family is that her health is waning and she is not doing as well as she did 20 or 30 years ago. So far, she is permitting doctors and scholars to monitor her ongoing health, but she is not happy about it. She is firm and strong in her rule. She is not contradicted lightly. She has proven better as a Grandmama, than a mother. She says it is "easier".
Dane- 66", 160 lbs., ruddy tan skin, black hair, green eyes
Not your typical warrior. Dane is below average height but heavily muscled. His reputation is a hard working, no nonsense Commander. Family members know him to be a little softer than his public image, a little more introspective. Married to Tylanna of Imperial House Inthir. (PC's apply here) Acknowledged as a great uncle and a devoted father. (maybe grandfather?)
Liotus- 70", 180 lbs., dark burnt almond skin, brown hair, green eyes that dance in candlelight
Liotus seems to be the war god in the family. He is extremely personable but quite absorbed with his duties as Commodore of Fleets. Public image is important to him. Likes the athletic events and always has a favorite team in soccer competitions. Doesn't mind betting on things and sometimes takes chances, since he is lucky. He has a mistress at present. He has never married, but has acknowledged kids that he likes. (PC's apply here) (maybe grandkids?)
Canthraal- 65", 120 lbs., almond skin, coal black hair, amber eyes with copper flecks
Canthraal is the bright and brainy one. She seems to be energy incarnate. While even she admits that she has too much to do right now, it is typical that if something needs to be done, Canthraal is often there with a suggestion. This means she in not the most attentive mother. She has outlived her first husband and not remarried. She definitely has two grandchildren (PC's already submitted) and one teen daughter (out of wedlock PC already submitted). She also has two older children from her marriage, both daughters, the eldest is dead (assassination) and the second daughter is a scholar in Shadow. Neither of these daughters is an easy subject with Canthraal.
Sandmorel- 68", 135 lbs., mahogany skin, blonde streaked hair, green eyes
Don't call her Sand unless she tells you to, it is a pet name Oberon used. Sandmorel is quietly competent at most things. Her schedule is very busy, but she has many personal friends and projects. She regularly takes time each day for sports and is a great athlete . . . . though she does not compete. She is the confidant of the Empress, and the only person who regularly disagrees with her Mother. Since Delwin's disappearance, she has done the work of Loyal Opposition politically, while Canthraal has picked up the administrative chores of the missing Advocate. Sandmorel has never married, though her interest in marriage has not waned. Her first son, Nacol, was killed 80 years ago when kidnap demands for the political secession of Halla Hara from the Empire were denied. She does have more offspring. (PC's apply here)
Delwin- 74", 210 lbs., almond skin, blonde hair, black eyes that absorb light
Amiable and energetic. Perceptive and quirky. Delwin is friends with
everyone who wants to see more and do more. Outgoing and very interested
in the hard sciences, as well as the esoteric arts followed in the Empire.
Historically, he was the only viable link back to Amber, as Sand was determined
never to return there (an attitude that followed Lora's). Delwin has been
missing now for over 100 years, lost when he did not check back in after
a scientific conference in Shadow. This is a strain on things at the Palace.
Discussions about declaring him dead do not happen within earshot of the
Empress, as he was something of a favorite. Never married. Some imposters
have claimed blood kin with the missing Advocate. They are now in Imperial
prisons. Could be kids somewhere. (PC's apply here)
hey! wanna see what's up with the Players who are pitching in with the ideas for this Con Game:
By Bridgette: Jubilation, daughter of Canthraal . . . has already posted some things about character creation . . . PC building with the "lid off". You really ought to check this out.
By Bonnie: Rakhi, daughter of Dristi, grandchild of Canthraal Bonnie has pulled the Rakhi material from her site. General site, no EGB material.
By Paul: Archard, son of Dristi, grandchild of Canthraal. . . some clever vignettes already done . . . Paul did the EmeraldTimbers, too
By Rob: Rafael, unrecognized son of Delwin and House Lian General site, no EGB material.
