Campaign Related Questions

22) There were references to “Orc” nations both in Uggur and among those who (according to the Altherians) lead the siege of Khafre’ prior to it floating to the Altherian Plateau. Were these ‘orc’ armies Gar, are they now humans, or something else entirely (to be revealed at a later date)? At least in the case of Uggur, I think there are a few Kio players who may be interested in knowing.

I would refer to two modules from the 3.5 rule set that mention the Gar in varying degrees.

First is Beyond the Threshold of Never from Year 5. In the Adventure Summary and Background there is this quote.

For instance the Elder who first offered the idea of allowing humanity into the Elorii city, Meliros, has a dirty secret. He has always kept a close alliance with the non humans of Uggur. Meanwhile, the Uggur attack merchant caravans and traveling humans with impunity. Even now Meliros has gone to Uggur to find out the cause of the increasing amount of raids on trade routes.

This shows that the non-humans of Uggur have a secret alliance with Entaris not a widely known one. But they are still a threat to all nations near their boarder.

The second module is The Warload of Quagga from Year 2 of the Invisible Kings of Metra.

The Adventure Background provide this information.

However the Uggur (not the land, but what the Gar are collectively known as) are active and Ig’s standing army is tied up defending the Western Lands’ borders currently from incursion.
Gar is the term that the people of Uggur, and the Ssethregoran Empire, use to describe themselves. To men and others of their association they have become known as Orcs; a derogatory term that translates to beastmen or half-man. The Gar themselves refuse to make use of this term and find it offensive.

Also while questioning Ig the players can learn much about the history of Uggur.
On the history of Uggur, past and present:
• The Ugguruk Empire was flourishing around 4,100 BIC. It was mainly a nocturnal civilization largely confined to what is now Uggur and the League states. They warred against the Sseth with a passion.
• They worship the Other (Oyi), and used wild servitor races as slaves-kobolds, trogloydytes and Ss’ressen. Two ancient forts still bear Ugguruk names-Tyroch and Rhyudoch.
• The Uggurruk Empire faded into decline later when the Lhyllifen and the Mhyrician Kio/Undir Alliances destroyed their Empire centuries later.
• Currently hordes of Uggur are massing and beginning to raid with renewed vigor. They wield strange scythe like weapons adapted to their great strength. He can show the player characters a massive bladed arm guard with a wicked curved blade that extends like a punch dagger, as well as a large two bladed weapon sword like on each side, curved scimitar like.
• They use dark magics gifted by their dark god, and practice human sacrifices. They train griffon’s and wyverns as winged mounts as well. If left unguarded, they will pour into the Western Lands and invade the League of Princes through underground tunnels that riddle the mountains.
• They have a limited level of technology, but some of their war machines are quite advanced. In addition, they have developed great ballistae’s that can mount on their Wyverns and be fired by riders from the sky which are most devastating to ground troops, as they keep out of range of ground ranged attacks. The Warlord of Quagga has next to no magical or divine powers in his camp at this time.

My understanding of the Gar as they are now was that with the change over from 3.5 all previous races have been removed, and the Gar represent a more generic monstrous humanoid background, like Gnolls, bugbears, and orcs and their respective half-breeds. Basically they have all been merged into one race.
But with both Uggur and Gar being used interchangeably it is difficult to distinguish between them.

I hope that answers your question Nierite.

One major consideration for the Ugguruk Empire: it goes against st the few things we know about the Gar. For example, the original reference for the Gar Ormal (repeated in the new BL history chapter) is that they worshipped nature and the spirits as shamans, not the Other. Even the most recent bestiary seems to show them as a tribal, barbaric peoples. It gives no evidence that they had at any point unified into a large and powerful body like Uggur in the Western Lands. This doesn’t mean that they didn’t, as anything is possible, but it doesn’t match with canon in the ARPG timeline.

Additionally, that adventure has them worshiping Oyi as The Other/Umor. While this sounds intriguing, I point you to the list of deities thread in the Spoilers board. When listing Oyi, Henry claimed ignorance of that beings existence. Either he’s trying to pull a fast one on us, or such a being isn’t part of his official canon.

Either are possible, however.

Thanks for the clarifications! It makes attempting to parse your cryptic conspiracies and half-truths in universe a little easier. . . until you give us new ones which completely destroy our previous conceptions of reality

23) This is less of a universe question than possibly a player question: Were did the name “val’Sosi” come from? Was the name of that family chosen by the campaign staff, or the players who became members of that family? Is there a history or significance to the word “Sosi” within the universe?
I can provide a partial answer, though others could complete the answer. I spoke with the players of the val’Sosi team. The players did not choose the name. One of them told me that they were told the name, but I don’t recall whether they were told that name in-game by the dying Serenity of Beltine or merely out-of-character by Henry Lopez.

I inferred , that there may have been prior val’Sosis. Alternatively, “Sosi” could be a word with meaning in some language or could be related to the name of the Serenity of Beltine.

I didn’t think I was inferring that there were previous val’Sosi’s in the world before this crop arrived, though if that WERE the case it would raise many more questions! The biggest one would be “how did the val’Sosi’s come to power before?” as the Serenity of Beltine wouldn’t have been around at the time of the creation of the Vals as (s)he was trapped in a flask in Arkosia when Illiir commanded the creation of the Vals.
Good point about the Serenity of Beltine’s having been captured back during the Godswar and thereby unable to produce any progeny.

The addendum of the val’Sosi: Do the common people even know that this family exists?
I’ve met quite a few players who don’t know the val’Sosi exist. I’m going out on a limb here, but they are so rare, it is likely that only those commoners who have met them (or in close proximity) would have any chance of knowing about that specific family.

I know that there have been other conversations on the forums regarding literacy and the dissemination of information on Onara. No need to rehash that, but I would think that people in the cities would have better access to information (and hence know more about the val), while there would end up being remote, rural areas where the populations are isolated and generally lacking in knowledge about anything distant.

I doubt there would be any populations on Onara who are entirely unaware that vals exist (although it seems like there might be a module plot in there somewhere), and it is likely that in some places all they would know are a couple of the local names. I would expect that information on bloodline powers and mentagi would be held fairly close to the chest by the val.

How much you know about the world (in character) is a combination of mechanics and story choices. I don’t think there are hard and fast rules. I think all people (and most dogs) know that the Val’s have grey eyes, magical powers from “the divine” and that they were appointed as the guardians of mankind. On a more pragmatic level I think everyone knows the vals tend to be “haves” and you don’t want to anger one anymore than you would a noble (often the same thing).

Can every peasant rattle off all the major families? Maybe not. But they can certainly rattle off the ones that are important to thier country.

If your education involved books then I would think you would need to know all the major and regionally important minor names as part of cultural literacy.

26) All the ul famillies we have their names (and sometimes, stats) for all bear asian names (Zheng, Tang, Tai, Jaya, etc). Are there (to a Coryani POV) any obviously non-asian Khitani? For example, would a Milandisian be surprised to see a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Khitani merchant passing through on their way to Censure as something very strange?
Along these lines, I’ve wondered whether the ul’Wei (of Althares) have the dark brown skin common to val’Abebi and other Altherians.