Sojouner's Journal: Essence

Essence is the substance that binds everything to existance. It is in everything and nothing all at once. We living creatures, and by living I mean unliving (aka undead, living dead) too, are able to tap into our own Essence and alter reality around us.

Mortals can tap essence in different ways, invoking raw power to be shaped by rituals is difficult and takes practice to learn to channel it. This is called invocations and many mortals have learned to use hand gestures and various words to help them focus themselves and cause the changes. The often call this Magic. Some Mages have learned to invoke essence with no need of hand or word, they are often called psychics.

Finally you have those capable of calling forth power granted to them by a being far more powerful than they. These are your preists and cultists who worship immortal gods and demon princes. By committing to further the being cause they get enormous power in return.

There is another side of Essence called taint. Taint is twisted essence, wrought only from beings hailing from places outside our known precieved existence. Anything touched by taint is twisted and mutated to mimic that strange place beyond. Many scholars claim that taint replaces essence, or that they are not the same. But in my few dreaded experiences taint and essence affect each other openly.

Essence itself is neither good nor evil, it is a pure force and an energy without limit. However it is easily colored by the intentions of those who use it. A priest who calls down power to heal another out of kindness or a necromancer who binds a soul to animate a corpse both color essence with their desires. However taint is pure corruption, consuming everything it encounters.

On Terris there are three ways to use Essence. Invocations, both magical and psychic, Miracles called down by the prayers of priests, and Necromancy, the power to communicate and manipulate life and death.

If you ever choose to follow the path of the gifted, those able to tap into essence, be cautious to prejudge, and be wary of the path you tread.

Sojourners Journal: Terris

We live in a world ripe with mystery and power a tiny jewel of life drifting in a black sea, circling a tiny ball of fire. However this is also a crossroad for other dimensional realms. It is a place of limitless wonder beaconing to be discovered. From the great powers that created and shaped Terris, to the lowly mortal toiling away on the fields to bring food into existence.

In my travels throughout the dimensions I am always amazed when I see Terris again. Who and I you ask? Not as great a person as you may think, but I’ve seen much, and could speak volumes of it, but no…I am here to tell of my experiences here.

First a little history, most of which is born of Myth and Legend about the ancient times, and like all legends of world creation this one begins a god. The god of Terris, for there is one god and then there are his children the Angels and Demons.

Between the realms of heaven and hell is said to be the battle grounds of the angels of heaven and the demons of hell. It was in this thin fabric that Terris was born, as result of divine power mixing in daunting ways. It took eons for the planet to form and life to grow but it did happen, and as a result the one God forced his children to tend to the new life.

It was hear the powers took on roles and created the mortal races.

What people believe is that Terris is one world…but that is both right and wrong, Terris in reality is one world the sprawls over several different existences at the same time. You have the Mortal Realm, which is referred to as Terris this is where the Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and Goblins live, Midgard home of the Sidhe, fey, and birth place of the Elves, and finally the Underworld where spirits of the dead reside. Beyond the mortal realm lie Heaven and Hell, but those places cannot be reached beyond acceptance from powers I personally have never seen or heard more than of which I write to you now.

I will speak more of these realms in future entries…

Plans in the works

Well it’s been a longtime since I’ve written on this blog. Basically we created a forum for this campaign and started posting the game logs there, follow the forum link and check out the Terris Game log.

But what this Blog is truly about is what I have planned for my simple little campaign setting. The end of the campaign ushered in a new ear on Terris where the planet was swept into a Galactic Empire ruled by dragon-kind. Many things have changed because of this and going further is a definite possibility, and the PCs may have their hands full with getting the outland planet recognized for simple protection from those who’d exploit the technological inexperience.
Terris however has a long interesting history that I wish to exploit, as well as shift it to allow for both d20 rules and Unisystem rules. Doing this I hope to play two different sorts of games. One is the game that brings Terris into the Galactic Empire. The second is a historical campaign that takes place sometime around the Scorcher invasion.