Undead in 1070 – have things changed since 1024?

A few additional replies to events from the past campaign:

The attempted reconciliation between the Mother Church and the Dark Triumverate has almost certainly collapsed. Felician wanted it to fight off his vision of the destruction of the Coryani Empire. Calcestus wanted it to tip the balance of power in his favor to win the civil war. At the start of the last campaign Hegrish had been “assassinated” and there were internal and external threats to Canceri, so an alliance with Coryan could have given them security.

But that’s all gone now. Felician & Calcestus are gone. And Hegrish is back and presumably secure. In the aftermath of the 6th Crusade the threat of invasion to Canceri is really low. And Matriarch Elandre is a hard liner when it comes to living a virtuous life honoring the goods. Its hard to see how that could ever be squared with the principles of the Dark Triumvirate: that the world is wicked and one must wallow in evil so the soul may finally sicken of the material world and go to join the Paradise of the Gods. I suspect she and Arch-prelate Shaitan val’Mordane have an “interesting” relationship. Especially since she isn’t aging and he can’t just out-wait her policies.

Milandir broke away from the Mother Church and former the Milandesian Orthodox Church under Primarch Sabinius (formerly the Arch-prelate aka the Fat Coryani). The MOC now insists that Neroth, Nier & Sarish are “minor deities” compared to the other 9 and should only be supplicated to the extent necessary of averting their malevent influence. Sabinius died in the Crusade Arc in the A:RPG campaign. It remains to be seen how much of his agenda remains under the “new Pope” of the Milandesian church.

Milandesian influence (and its church’s) is on the rise. The Eastmarch of Milandir touches on the Hinterlands. (no need to go through Canceri) And no surprise, the influence is rising fastest in the there. Mil Takara is now a Milandesian town/city ruled by val’Ossans. Viceroy Felix val’Ossan is on the ruling council of Censure. Also Milandir is pushing into the Blessed Lands. A Bishop (Faustus) has also been sent to represent the MOC in the First City.

Did you honestly think that things would get BETTER? In ARCANIS!

The vast majority of people on Onara are antagonistic against undead, though not uniformly so across the world.

In Canceri, they are viewed as honoured ancestors who have been blessed by the ultimate gift of Neroth.

In Milandir, most people would view you as a Cancerese abomination aiming to eat their children and may possibly start riots. Even in more populous centres you’ll see a lot of pushback because in the minds of many undead = Canceri = evil.

In Coryan, there hasn’t been much stated but I’ve never seen a Coryani intelligent undead wandering about. However, the Mother Church tends to be reasonably tolerant to most practices (despite the Inquisition, the MCoC usually aims to absorb rather than destroy) which to me suggest that any Undead in the Empire keep to themselves. As Eric suggested, they would probably cover up when out in public, but otherwise would keep to their crypts.

In the ‘wild lands’ of the Hinterlands and Blessed Lands, you’ll probably get a less-than-warm view of undead as necromancy is generally tied to ‘evil shamans’. Hell, you might be viewed as an unintelligent monster as the shaman spells in ARG raise things like zombies rather than liches.

In the other ‘civilized’ nations of Onara, you’ll probably get a position between Coryan and Milandir. There are not a lot of Nerothians in Altheria, the Hinterlands, and the League of Princes so you’ll probably get more intolerance there. There used to be way more Nerothians (under the guise of Mahamemnon (sp?)) in Abessios, so there you’d probably get a more positive view. The Black Talons would probably view you as the Milandisians, the Ashen Hides as Canceri, and the Ghost Scales as ‘wild lands’.

The elorii, likely, would view you as the ultimate affront to Belisarda, and would probably want to destroy you on sight.

I should also point out that for roleplaying, undead have the slight problem that when they are created, their soul is DESTROYED. Like an elorii consuming their soul to power a Kurenthe’, the soul is the catalyst which allows for the creation of an undead who retains their intelligence. However, while they are intelligent, they are no longer human. They immediately lose their emotions, and become creatures of pure intellect. They will continue to ‘act’ human for an undefined period of time as they still remember how to BE human, and what emotions feel like, but after a while after not having their humanity, they will become detached, callous, and even cruel. This is one reason why undead in Arcanis tend to be evil, as they are seeking pursuits of the intellect without care for the feelings of their victims. As a counter to this, you get groups like the Bardic Order of the Blackchanters, who’s music is so beautiful (if haunting) that it can bring forth even forgotten memories of what it is like to feel in the undead.

If you’d like an example of how an undead detaches, a good ‘shorthand’ would be Dr. Manhattan in “Watchmen”. He is desperately trying to remain human even though he no longer is one. He separates from his loved ones, focuses on his intellectual pursuits, and feels increasingly isolated. He has only been in that form for a couple of decades, however, so he still retains some level of his humanity, but as seen in his relationships those ties are fading.

Oh did I mention he’s a lacky for the Silence?

LOL.

PCs have made lots of impacts on the unfolding of the campaign’s history. Elebac isn’t a lich. Tultipet got ravaged by a dragon. The Warlord of the Black Talons became the King’s Champion. Psionic Black Talons! “Altheremas!” (and the subsequent war between Altherian and Seremas) Sabanius was assassinated (shhh…OOC that’s one of the last things Osric and others secretly engineered). And Post “Night of 1000 Screams”, Altheria is collaborating again with Seremas, but this time it’s in the drivers seat to provide that city with extra naval security. Our finger prints are all over the timeline of Arcanis.

But to my knowledge our PCs haven’t launched a social change in a major country. The uneducated still blame “sorcerers” for the Time of Terror. All ancient grievances continue to be prosecuted by NPCs no matter how dumb or irrelevant they seem to me in a modern context. You wouldn’t believe how long the undead of the Legion of the Black Sun can carry a grudge … or as an Arcaniac maybe you could.

And undead are still predominantly seen as monsters. Which to be fair … mostly they are.

Still I think it’s important also to understand that while fear and loathing are the predominant responses, there are exceptions too. And Judges also have a job to make it possible for undead PCs to take part in modules (even if most NPCs react poorly when they understand what an NPC is). We don’t want every NPC reacting with lethal force even in Milandir. I’ve played two adventures with an undead PC. That added a certain extra dimension that I enjoyed. The player mostly keeps his PCs status secret through magic.

Probably that’s a wise choice.

I think your background sounds interesting. And I like the idea of a mask as your useful item. I would go deceit but diplomacy is also a good choice.

Background question: If a bard trained by a BlackChanter were to want to keep an undead on an even-kilter and generally behaving as they did when they were mortal (or at least close to), then how often would that bard need to play for their undead companion? Once a night, three times a day, more often, less? I’m not asking about giving bardic inspiration or any mechanical benefit – just about keeping an undead a bit less disconnected and behaving more like a human than a monster. (And yes, the similarity to a drug-dealer/junkie relationship isn’t lost on me – everything in Arcanis has a price after all.)

I’m asking because I’m working on better crafting a backstory, and I’ve become taken with the idea of the tragic, compelling story of being a creature whom – after going for decades without feeling anything – is suddenly reminded of how to feel and finds herself inspired to try to be the hero she once was, but also knows that ultimately she won’t be able to hang on to it and is destined to again forget her ideals and become an unfeeling, uncaring monster. To me, that’s a great deal more compelling than a creature that is just going through the motions of a former life until it finds some other distraction. Like one of you said above: most undead become evil or just don’t care – and therefore they’d have little reason to become heroes – ergo PC undead are the exception and need to have something about them in their background that keeps them heroic. IE: their time as an unfeeling monster is behind and ahead of them, but in the now of the campaign something has happened to help them rise above their nature and become heroes.

A few things in case people feel compelled to talk mechanics in response to a background question:
1; I am well aware that most blackchanters are from Canceri, and that Canceri is not a legal PC nation
2; I am likewise aware that currently in 5e any bard can affect any creature with bardic inspiration – but that lore-wise a bard should either voluntarily not have their songs affect undead party-members or should have some sort of IC explanation for having BC training (such as having been tutored by a Cancerese expatriate in the Pirate Isles, or having been a former slave, or some other such explanation)
3; If I go this route with my background, either my character’s interaction with a blackchanter will be back-story only, I’d take the Vassals alternative Noble Background feature to have a non-combatant blackchanter vassal (never participates in combat – ever – as per the PHB rules), or my wife would play a bard with BC-training (she’s tentatively agreed, but we haven’t asked the Stat-Monkey if its an allowed thing yet… we want to check the background before even thinking about character stats)
3; Again, just want to know the background of the above – not asking about mechanics since its silly to ask about the mechanics when we all know that there are no mechanics written yet other than the SRD.

Yeah, like I said – it could easily spiral into an addiction and a drug-dealer / junkie type of relationship. My thoughts were that – since BC music is generally creepy to the living and it would be a secret that a PC was undead – they’d likely play for her while everyone else was sleeping and they were ‘on-watch’ as it were.

Also RE: Knight-Protector of Ashvan… Osric was a smart man and probably took pains to make sure his vassal didn’t devolve – such as sending BCs to Ashvan. Also, there is a big difference between feeling an emotion and acting as if you feel an emotion because you know those around you expect/need to see you having emotion or you may be executed out of fear and ignorance.

People keep referencing Dry Rain, and I’d love to read it for more world-lore even if I can’t play it (not 5e, and is/is being retired)… but it doesn’t seem to be available anywhere.