So I've decided to post another meandering write up of an idea for that dark fantasy setting I posted some bits of a while back. My D&D group is likely going to be playing another game by the same GM, in the same setting as our last few games, so I won't be getting a chance to actually play with the setting properly for a while, so writing ideas down is all I've got for the time being.
Pre-face is that I don't much care for Mind Flayers, I find a lot of their fluff uninspired, them being essentially cthulhoid zombie vampires, as a result I spent a while thinking about what aspects I think are worth keeping for a re-imagining of them. It's honestly not a lot. In any case, for your perusal, I present;
The Alchemist Lords of Tarrik, and the Elixer of Life
Tarrik is something of a black sheep among the provinces of the Aurogentum empire, it's people pallid, docile and artless, the nobility corrupt and decadent even by the standards of the imperial gentry and the land polluted and poisoned by magical and industrial waste. Despite this the province is immensely wealthy and influential, powerful enough to defy the empire's state religion and openly engage in arts widely considered blasphemous and heretical without censure.
The source of this power and wealth is the alchemical and magical talents of the Alchemist Lords, the ruling elite of Tarrik. These scholar-kings have long delved into the forbidden arcane arts, striving for power, knowledge and immortality. Their experiments have resulted in potions, tinctures and balms that can heal grievous injuries, regrow body parts, extend human life, as well as darker products such as potions capable rendering humans complacent and biddable, weaponised toxins, pain enhancers and all manner of addictive substances. These flow forth into the empire in exchange for gold and favours, for all but the most pious nobles and priests are eager to buy the creations of the mad intellects of Tarrik, for who does not wish to forestall death, to regain the glories of youth, or mould the minds of others?
The greatest achievement of the lords of Tarrik is the Elixer of Life, a grandiose term for a costly and disfiguring transmutative potion they created several centuries ago. The elixer extends the human lifespan to several centuries, some of those who have taken it have lived to be over five hundred years old, rivaling the lifespan of even elves, as well as increasing the mental and mystical abilities of the imbiber. The elixer is not without it's downsides however, the subject mutates over several years, their skin becoming rubbery or scaled, and their mouth and sometimes entire head changing to more closely resemble the jaws of a lamprey, the beak of a squid or the entire head of an aquatic lifeform. The only commonality is that all possess a long, thin tongue, sharp like a razor and flexible like an eel, able to pierce through skin, flesh and bone. In addition the resulting horror becomes dependant on the consumption of brain matter, spinal tissue and cerebral fluid, failing to consume such substances on a regular basis causes the individual to starve as readily as any normal man would if denied food and drink.
It would be easy for the Alchemist Lords to devolve into cannibals, feeding on their citizens to prolong their own perverse existence, but such practices are considered gauche by the majority of Tarrik's nobility. Those who have drunk the elixer and remain in good standing instead choose to dine on the neural tissue of animals, expending vast quantities of money on importing animals from the far reaches of the empire and beyond to consume in extravagant orgies of consumption. A feast can see thousands of animals, songbirds, tropical beasts, noble stags, mighty bears, mice fed on grapes and honey, live fish brought from the ocean, all brought to the estates of the monstrous alchemists to be butchered or served alive, their spines torn out and sucked clean of nerve tissue, their brains plucked from their skulls and their cranial fluids served in opulent chalices. The flesh, skin and bones then rendered into alchemical reagents or donated as a miscellaneous slop to the normal men and women who of Tarrik.
Tarrik itself is rotting, the land poisoned by the waste products of the nobility's experiments, the industrial practices needed to keep them supplied with glassware and metal tools, and by the copious quantities of garbage resulting from their ruinous importation of animals. The streets of most towns and cities are thick with animal waste, churned by the passage of a near unending stream of wagons and hooves, bringing livestock and raw materials to Tarrik and shipping potions out. The rivers and lakes are thick with mats of algae, and shimmer with toxic runoff, the sky black with soot and alchemical fumes. Much of the local wildlife has been driven to near extinction over the past few centuries, hunted in droves to feed the appetities of the lords of the land.
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Topic: Re: Dungeons & Dragons / PNP games thread: COBRA!!! (Read 934430 times)