Monday, March 14, 2011

History and Geography of Nova Avalon for Pirates of the Bronze Sky Part 2

Monarchist Humans

The men and women of the Monarchy are proud and cultured, and prize athleticism without a laborer’s unsightly bulk, decorum and intellectual achievement. Humans born to the Monarchy who assign their ‘floating’ ability score modifier to either DEX or INT receive the following national traits.

Proud Child of the Monarchy (EX): You are a citizen of the greatest and most powerful empire of mankind in the broken sky, and you conduct yourself as such. You receive a +2 racial bonus on CHA-based skill checks made against ‘the rabble’… that is, humanoids with NPC class levels other than levels in Aristocrat.

Monarchist humans receive a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (history and nobility) checks. History and genealogy are national obsessions, and the common folk are fascinated by royal gossip.

Magistera Humans

Though proud of their heritage as citizens of the Monarchy, the inhabitants of the grand and historic city of Magistera consider themselves “Magisters” first and foremost. Chief virtues for city dwellers are quick hands, open-mindedness, pluck and ambition. Humans born in Magistera who assign their ‘floating’ ability score to either DEX, WIS or CHA receive the following national traits.

Gift for Conversation (EX): Magisters are a talkative lot, always quick with a joke or a story or a confidence scheme. Once per day, when making any Bluff or Diplomacy check, the Magister may roll 2d20 and take the better result. The character must declare the use of this ability before making the check.

Citizens of the greatest city in Nova Avalon know how to lose themselves in a crowd. Humans hailing from Magistera receive a +2 racial bonus on Stealth checks made in urban environments.

The Avalonians

In 5,721 S.R., a Monarchy windship was blown far off course by a freak hurricane. When the Merriment’s exhausted and starving crew finally sighted land, they gave thanks to Jahal Windsong for blowing them right where they needed to be. An exploratory party went ashore and quickly realized that the newly discovered sky-island, one of the largest and richest in human history, was uncatalogued and unclaimed. Quickly claiming the massive sky-island for the Monarchy and its Blessed King and Queen, the Merriment’s crew began to explore.

What they found astonished them: an enormous mass of land, a floating continent so gigantic it would take days to cross even with the swiftest sky-corvette, a land teeming with game, with un-human but undeniably sentient life, a land richer in ore and gold than any previously discovered. There were apples aplenty, moist, plump and red, true to the name Avalon, which in the old tongue meant Apple Place. By Jada and Jahal, there were even rivers- true rivers that stretched for many miles, not the stunted acre-long trickles of the Monarchy’s sky islands! The newly discovered sky-island was christened Avalon, because it echoed the beauty and richness of the world before Justar shattered it.

The heroes of the Merriment became legends throughout the Monarchy’s domain, and many of the townships erected on the new continent bear their names. The sky-island Avalon became a protectorate of the Monarchy, one of the brightest jewels in the Monarchy’s crown. The Monarchy’s poor crowded onto overloaded sky-ships, indenturing themselves to pay for passage, in hopes of building a better life for their children in the new land. Avalon became a symbol of hope, pride and progress for all citizens of the Monarchy.

Then things changed.

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