This is part of my ongoing series on the Shattered World setting, which contains pieces you can drop into your own game. In this post, I’ll introduce another of the three major factions of the Shattered World, and several NPCs.

The Silver Shield League

Several dwarf tribes organized the Silver Shield League about fifty years ago, supposedly to defend humanoids from the many monsters that seemed to be breeding like spiders. However, I have collected a number of manuscripts from that time, and a strong strain of fear against dragons runs through their notes and manuscripts. They appeared to fear a return of the dragons.

They organized hunting raids against various monsters, which were effective enough to attract other races to join the League, expanding it into a full-fledged empire representing the three major humanoid races. The League (technically, the Silver Shield League is the empire’s name and the Silver Shields are the legions within it) prizes resilience and strength of arms. The Shields maintain the authority to organize into warbands as needed to combat foes of its empire, without authorization from the Platinum Emperor.

The League controls several dozen islands southwest of Iziz and the Great Caldera. The Emperor lives in Tel Estaria, the City of Bridges, but a new capital is currently under construction at Vigil.

The Legions of the Shield

Organized as a full-fledged army, the Shields are divided into three legions.

Tharvur is the general of the Amber Legion. Famous for his anger, he seems most happy when killing monsters, which is appropriate given that the Amber Legion is sent out to fight monsters more than the other Legions. A dark-complexioned dwarf, he is power-hungry and violent.

Worse, he is a schemer, guilty of black deeds. I have recovered scrolls that indicate [here the text has been rubbed out--Ed]

Farrel leads the Blood Legion. Unusually for any of the Silver Shields, Farrel was born a noble. When he was still a young child, a rival family orchestrated an attack that killed all his blood relatives. A few retainers managed to spirit him away and raised him in isolation on a remote island. He was eventually discovered, and returned to civilization to avenge his family’s death. He then joined the Silver Shields and rose quickly through ranks.

Despite his dark past, Farrel is a remarkably simple man, wanting no more than friends around a fire and a job to do. He is a well-loved and effective leader, noted for friendliness and determination. This will all change once he learns that his father is still alive.

Maechenebon leads the Metal Legion. A mysterious elf always half-hidden in a large hooded cloak, his past is the stuff of legend: raised in slavery as the tortured lab rat of the notorious sorcerer Zakhar, he tricked his tormentor, killed him, and escaped…minus his left arm. He then mastered a sword style that uses his unique body to keep his foes off-balance. He rarely speaks and rarely fights, but when he does so, he is nearly unstoppable.

For all his aloofness, Maechenebon must be worried about something. He has been visiting soothsayers recently, and inquiring into predictions of the future.

This is part of my ongoing series on the Shattered World setting, which contains pieces you can drop into your own game. In this post, I’ll introduce one of the three major factions of the Shattered World, and a sample NPC belonging to that faction.

The Empire of Shadow

Over a century ago, a council of wizards formed a loose confederacy on the coast of the continent of Iziz. Their original intent was merely to prevent outsiders from interfering with their individual projects, by collaborating on defenses and intelligence. Their lands, castles, and influence grew larger by the year, until their Empire of Shadow engulfed the inhabited half of Iziz.

The High Wizards care nothing for administration, so daily life in their Empire is quite libertarian. It’s a good place to run a business. However, misshapen lieutenants of the High Wizards—the Legates—occasionally snatch people from the streets for strange experiments, and anyone who complains disappears as well. Petty crime abounds, but large-scale crime and revolts are quickly eliminated by the feared secret police, the Wolves of Shadow.

The Wolves maintain their own network of several hundred independent adventurers. Each adventurer in this network receives a magical ring that calls when the Wolves have a need. The Wolves hand-assemble parties of adventurers at their imposing headquarters, the Towers of Pain, to deal with threats that are too small or undefined for the Wolves themselves.

Macario, a Wolf of Shadow

Archetype: Tired war veteran

Behaviors: Stand straight, brook no nonsense, purse your lips

Need for Adventurers: Macario has plenty of unsavory jobs that call for adventurers who will handle unusual assignments, no questions asked. For example, an experimental undead super-soldier escaped from a laboratory and is headed for the city of Hallowdeep.

Agenda: Hide evidence of the High Wizards’ more nasty experiments

Secrets: Macario stands in an uncomfortable position within the Wolves. He often gets the “dirty work,” the messes caused by the High Wizards that are too unpleasant for the other Wolves. He needs adventurers who will carry out assignments—even morally questionable ones—without too many moral qualms.

This is part of my ongoing series on the Shattered World setting, which contains pieces you can drop into your own game. Time for a different take on the legendary D&D monster, the Illithid/Mind Flayer. What if Mind Flayers were all working for somebody?

Brain Squid

Physical Description

A brain squid is a semi-intelligent humanoid that stands about five feet tall, with a bald-head, pupil-less eyes, and tentacles for a mouth. Unless they are badly hurt, they can change their entire appearance at will to look like any humanoid of the same height and basic body shape.

Personality

A brain squid can talk and behave like a normal person, typically by mimicking a humanoid that the brain squid has eaten. However, the greater the distance between a brain squid and its ashoka master, the more erratic its behavior, and the more likely it can be broken from its master’s control. A broken brain squid is an exceedingly dangerous and exceedingly valuable thing.

Brain squids feed off of mental anguish, which tastes sweetest from a brain being devoured whole and alive. This is the brain squid’s favorite pastime: sending thralls to capture a humaoind—particularly a child—and slicing open its skull so the squid can feast off the living brain.

Social Structure

Brain squids normally act alone, with a handful of thralls as support. A brain squid may spend months on the surface world, maintaining only a tenuous mental link back to its master. During this time, the brain squid will manipulate people and events towards its mater’s ends.

Mating and Young

Brain squids are created by ashoka in horrid, roiling vats deep beneath the ocean’s surface. The brain squids leave these vats full-formed, though they need about a month to physically and mentally “set.” This is the period in which they form their connection to their ashoka master, and always stay within sight of the ashoka.

Apparently, ashoka have never completely stabilized brain squids’ physical bodies. If a brain squid spends more than a year away from its ashoka master, it will begin to decompose, turning into a mindless slime monster. Even the best-maintained brain squid will only last twenty years or so. Its ashoka master quickly retracts its telepathic link from such decomposing brain squids, creating more gelatinous slimes.

This is part of my ongoing series on the Shattered World setting, which contains pieces you can drop into your own game. Here is a zombie-like thrall of an ashoka.

TCP Zombie 2 by Jeff Preston

Ashoka Thrall

Introduction

Any intelligent creatures brought close to an ashoka become thralls within a few seconds. This usually occurs during a ceremony in which a brain squid brings captured humanoids in a temporary bubble of air down to the ashoka’s lair. The brain squid then takes its new thralls back into the world to carry out its plans.

Physical Description

A thrall is a dumb, weak creature whose only notable feature is its extreme loyalty to its brain squid master and the ashoka directing them. Thralls lose all conscious will, retaining basic automatic habits of breathing and sleeping, but will forego anything if directed by a brain squid or ashoka. A brain squid can order a thrall to hold its breath until it dies, and the thrall will do so.

Because of thralls’ need for detailed direction, they are usually kept close to their brain squid master to attend to its needs. There are rumors of thralls returned to their normal lives as “sleeper agents,” who act with perfect normality as they wait for the mental command of a brain squid. If true, then likely only one or two ashoka are capable of creating brain squids with this power.

Stats

This is part of my ongoing series on the Shattered World setting, which contains pieces you can drop into your own game. This post introduces the ashoka (a version of the aboleth).

Ashoka by Kaitlynn Peavler

Ashoka

Introduction

Few people believe in the existence of ashoka. The very idea of giant, millennia-old, squid-like creatures floating placidly deep beneath the waves, commanding secret armies of brain-eating slaves can normally only be believed by small children.

But it is all true.

Physical Description

An ashoka’s gray body is about fifty yards long, with four fangs surrounding a toothless, twitching mouth. I have never seen or read of an ashoka eating, sleeping, or perform any other activity. They simply float and plan.

Ashoka do have telepathic powers, and so strong are they that most intelligent creatures that venture within a hundred yards of an ashoka are quickly overpowered. It’s as though all of one’s own thoughts are pushed out of one’s mind by the ashoka’s thoughts, and one feels as though one has become an extension of the ashoka itself.

Personality

Ashoka think in ways completely alien to that of any other intelligence I know. They seem to think in very long time scales, and their thoughts leap in directions that most minds simply cannot follow. A telepathic link with an ashoka is disorienting in the extreme, and often results in enslavement to the ashoka.

Social Structure

Ashoka are never seen with others of their kind, though they are usually attended by two or three naked, floating brain squids.

Mating and Young

Where do ashoka come from? This question baffles me even now. There are no records and no evidence of young or old ashoka. There are whispered mentions of ashoka-like creatures—usually called “Lurkers Who Dream”—going all the way back to the Dawn of Magic. But ashoka make such ideal boogie-men that the stories shift dramatically over time.

Perhaps they are cast-off descendants of the Old Ones, now abandoned on this world. Perhaps they were created by evil gods to fulfill some dark purpose. Perhaps they come from some other fragment of reality, and only visit this world for reasons of their own.

‘James Bond Island’ by Jo@net on Flickr

The Shattered World: a planet of islands and adventure. This is a world where merchant fleets employe battle wizards to fight off kraken and pirates, while three distinct empires struggle to dominate hundreds of islands.

I’m currently developing the Shattered World as a complete setting, that I’ll publish as an extensive ebook later this year. The Survivor’s Guide to the Shattered World (working title) will guide players through the major monsters, factions, foes, allies, and locations throughout the world.

I’ll also publish a large percentage of the Shattered World’s content on this blog over the next few months. I’ll polish the material a bit more for the ebook, but you should have a very good idea of its content before you start.

Plus, all of the content I post here should be mostly plug-and-play into your favorite fantasy RPG system.

And now, a primer on this world:

7 Things To Know About The Shattered World

1. This world is mostly ocean. The central continent, Iziz, is the largest land mass, and islands are clustered around it in decreasing density as one travels further from Iziz. Many people live on the sea, as pirates or members of fleet kingdoms.
2. Three empires struggle for dominance. The Empire of Shadow, a magical theocracy of mystery and experimentation, controls Iziz. The Silver Shield League is a fierce, growing empire to the southwest of Iziz. The Charter Confederacy is metaphorically caught in the middle, a squabbling alliance of islands determined to stay free to the north of Iziz.
3. The gods are separate, but near. Gods speak to humans directly through dreams and visions, giving their chosen ones magical power in return for completing the gods’ tasks. The gods have never yet physically manifested on this world.
4. Dragons are real, and bestial shadows of their former glory. Dragons were once a proud, powerful race that helped the humanoids escape their slavery under the Old Ones. After a massive plague, the dragons are now little more than talking beasts, jealously guarding their underground hoards. Some dragons may have escaped to other planes of existence.
5. This is a world of action and ancient treasure. While there’s plenty of political intrigue within the empires, this is a world where physical action is most rewarded. Regional armies attack each others’ borders, brigands watch the highways, pirates without number sail the oceans, and adventurers find heaps of gold in abandoned keeps.
6. Racial equality. While there are distant historical hints that the different humanoid races were created by the Old Ones for specific tasks (like dwarves for mining), they were all united in hatred of their masters. The War of Claw and Fire forged them into metaphorical siblings. Since then, surviving the Shattered World has kept the races together, and there is no prejudice between the major races of humanoids. However, the races are not sexually compatible, so families and small tribes are almost always of the same race.
7. Magic is mysterious. In the distant past, the dragons taught the humanoids magic. Some humanoids ascended into godhood and now offer divine power directly to mortals. Magic remains wild, powerful, and strange.