Gothic Knights - A Setting Of Faith, Passion and Madness

[jburneko]

So, someone of you know about my love for Ravenloft-esq settings.  I've done this setting write up for Sorcerer but one idea that has always intregued me is the concept a Paladin in this setting.  So, I thought, what the hell?  I've given it some thought and now I present you my first pass at:

Gothic Knights - A Paladin Setting of Faith, Passion and Madness

Background

God is gone.  The world left behind is rapidly losing hope and faith.  Castle's that have stood for generations are crumbling and the family lines that inhabited them, dying out.  Villages are becoming ghost towns and the once lush forests that surrounds them are decaying.  The cause of it all?  The presence of the Dream Eaters.

The Dream Eaters feed on the emotions of those suffering from tragedy, or more precisely on the death of that person's hopes, faith and dreams.  The Dream Eaters diet is the suffering of an innocent at the hands of someone driven to the brink of madness by his own personal obsessions.  A Dream Eater enjoys the sweetest dessert when someone has brought total ruin to everyone around him and then is, himself, consumed by his own misguided passions.

The Order

The Restoration is an order of holy knights composed of the last remaining true believers in God and his message of hope and faith and the quest for temperance and wisdom.  The order believes that God abandoned his creation because already too many had lost hold of any asemblance of hope or faith.  And now, without the army of Angels keeping them at bay the Dream-Eaters are feasting on the broken dreams of the emotionally defenseless.  The Knights have dedicated their lives to, destroying the Dream-Easters and restoring peoples passions and faith into balance so that God may once more take notice of them.

The Code

Minor Laws
Never allow your passions to cloud your judgment.
Never acknowledge God's absence.
Remain vigilant of your fellow Knights.

Major Laws
Never turn your back on tragedy.
Always preserve that which is decaying.

Unbreakable Law
Never allow a Dream-Eater to feast.

Arms

Each knight carries a sword fashioned from a precious or semi-precious metal or stone.  The material chosen is symbolic for the Knights greatest passion.  A Knight prone to thoughts of vengeance may carry an obsidian blade, while a romantic knight may carry an amethyst one.  The idea is that the blade serves as a reminder that even the most benign of passions taken too far can serve as a deadly weapon.

The one thing common to all the blades is the power to reveal a person's True Self.  When a person catches a glimpse of their own reflection in the blade they see themselves through God's eyes.  A man who has brought ruin to his family may see himself as a decaying lich, for example.  No one, but the owner of the reflection will see this image, not even the Knight who owns the blade.

Abilities
Sense Emotions – A knight may sense the current emotional state of any person.

Commune With Patron Saint – Although the Angels and Saints cannot take direct action in the absence of their Mater's Will, a Knight may still commune with his Patron Saint to ask for guidance and perhaps very minor boons.  The Knight must be alone to use this ability.

Command Nature – A Knight has the ability to command the natural elements around him.  He may cause roses to bloom; the clouds to part or animals to flee in fear.  However, the elements must already be in place.  He cannot make plants grow where there are no seeds, nor draw rain from where there are no clouds, nor make the sun shine at night.
 
Control Light and Shadow – The Knights are masters of extreme contrasts and no contrast is closer to a Knights life mission than that of Light and Shadow.  This is ability is the most flexible of all the Knights abilities with effects ranging from traveling through shadows, molding pools of bright light or deep shadow as if they were liquid or even solid, to simply controlling the intensity and contrast of available light and darkness.  The only real limitation is that BOTH light and darkness must be present.  These abilities do not work at high noon in a desert when there are no shadows, nor in absolute darkness without some light source.

Hope that was interesting.

Jesse

[b_bankhead]

Hey guy your idea made me think of two other forge games, the Wuthering Heights rpg available here http://philippe.tromeur.free.fr/rene.htm

and Courts and Corsets also another Forge game here:
http://zaknet.tripod.com/hmouse/games/court.html

[jburneko]

I'm familiar with Wuthering Heights.  It's one of those games that's on my To Play list but just can't seem to get around to.

I wasn't familiar with Courts and Corsets though.  Thanks for the link.

Jesse

[b_bankhead]

In wuthering Heights characters have a Despair score which ties in well with your idea of despair eating 'demons'.  Basically the eaters can appear when someone suffera a big despair increase. The enter into a faustian bargain to resolve the characters problems, but only if it occurs ina way which increases other peoples  despair scores.

For instance from the list 'You are old' the eater could reduce the character's oldness at the cost of increasing another's or increasing their wound level, if the problem is 'bad sight, the problem might just shift to another person. In some cases the persones behaviour might be altered to cater to the problem, for example a person with the problem 'In love with family member might actually get a laison with them,but such a pervers act has a cost of a massive despair increase to the object of these affections.

Of course a person who suffers a lot of despair loss of course can become vulnerable to the bargains of an eater themselves and a nice self-sustaining ring of suffering can be created this way.

In short the pattern is the classic 'Monkey's Paw' situation, use the magic to solve your dilemmas and a price MUST be paid, by someone......

[joshua neff]

Jesse, that's fantastic! I love the image of a Knight with an amethyst sword. Very, very cool.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Jesse,

I also deem this super-rad. It makes me want to set up a space on the Anvilwerks website for custom settings.

[Valamir]

Only change I'd recommend is allowing everyone to see the reflection.  Strikes me as much creepier and moving that way.  Imagine innocent young Jimmy who just saw mom's reflection as a hideous hag-like banshee...and the knight who caused him this despair.

[jburneko]

Only change I'd recommend is allowing everyone to see the reflection.  Strikes me as much creepier and moving that way.  Imagine innocent young Jimmy who just saw mom's reflection as a hideous hag-like banshee...and the knight who caused him this despair.

That was a point I was waffling on.  I couldn't decide what was cooler,  the concept of the knight boldly revealing to one and all the true nature of someone.  Or the more morbid take that, in the end, we must face our judgement alone.

I decided that I prefered the solemnity of the latter, although the former may open up more actual in play opportunities.

Jesse