Once, you were mighty. A dark lord, a figure of awe and terror, rallying together forces awed by your power and cunning. You struck down heroes of old, forced dark chieftains to submit to your authority, and crushed armies. It was not to be so forever though, and eventually the tide turned against you, the forces of light seizing upon some weakness to depose you from your throne.
You knew however, that this was not only a possibility, but functionally inevitable. So you prepared, plotting and toiling to lay the groundwork for your return.
This, you remember. But details are still fuzzy, and it takes effort to draw those details into focus. You consider first, that which you ruled over. The heart of your dark domain, within which will certainly be the focus of your return.
Where was your seat of power?
-A Searing Desert: A land of hardship, littered with the sunbleached bones of those who could not survive the uncompromising heat of the sun. It is however, also a land of wealth, and magic.
-A Frozen Mountain Range: The mountains are known for hardy warriors, and even hardier monsters. It is a place where heroes make their legend, and where mythic beasts guard their lairs.
-The Dark Sea: The seas are a domain not for the faint of heart. Brutal Corsairs may roam the waves, but worse horrors dwell within the blackened depths, of the kind whose names must be spoken only in cautious reverence.
-Vast and Empty Steppes: The Steppes are an untamed place, wandered by many varieties of nomadic tribesmen, but resistant to all attempts at conquest.
-Deep Caverns: The world beneath is a twisted reflection of that on the surface. An everpresent threat, filled with monstrosities and dangers. Its ancient mysteries have resisted all attempts to unlock them.
-Pride: You are as close to godhood as one can be without actually ascending to the divine, and you demand to be treated as such. Your subjects must worship you, whether out of love or fear, declaring themselves for your cult. If your worship abates, so too will your powers.
-Greed: You are driven to acquire ever more treasures. Treasures dedicated not to your ongoing efforts, but to your own glory. You find yourself incapable of not constantly adding to your own treasury, even when such serves as a detriment to your other projects. Your wealth can serve to bring you more wealth, but expenditure can never sink too deeply into your own pockets if it does not carry with it the promise of a greater return.
-Lust: You have more progeny than perhaps any other being on this earth, beautiful champions and monstrous spawn both. Some of these, may be loyal to you, and will actively serve your interests. Others, are pretenders to your throne, and will be obstacles on the path of uniting your empire to its former heights.
-Envy: It is an utter humiliation, to know that another being may stand higher in you in any respect. You are driven always, to be better than all others, and this is particularly true of those who serve under you. It is therefore difficult, for you to have any minions whose skill exceeds yours, and you have often been driven into murderous rage whenever it has become clear that those loyal to you are more than your equal. Wether that servant is a magician, a warrior, or an artist, you must be their better. It is therefore, easier for you to personally acquire skills, but torture to not be a master of them.
-Gluttony: Where you go, you consume. Your armies are known for stripping any land they come across, leaving places once flush with natural resources desolate strip-mined places. You yourself, go a great deal farther however, consuming not mere food, but the very life force of living, sentient beings. It is a ravenous hunger, that grows only more demanding as your power grows. You are a doomed thing, and if your victory ever becomes complete, so too will your despair, as you rule over a land with nothing in it.
-Wrath: You will suffer no insult without retaliation, will let no challenge stand. You may be manipulated to reckless action by those willing to provoke you, however, the results of doing so are well known, and feared as fates often worse than death. One must think carefully before risking your ire.
-Sloth: You are a manipulator, whose plots spanned not mere months or years, but decades or centuries. You slept, quite literally, for long stretches of time, hoarding power for crucial moments. Often, your enemies were driven to complacency, not realizing as they slowly fell to your plots. Decisive action however, is a weakness of yours. Those who act quickly, have often seized advantages from you. However, due to this long view, many of your plots have continued even after your death, the fruits of which may even be coming to fruition now upon your awakening. Perhaps there are world shaking rituals and unholy alliances with forgotten gods in your future.
-Unity: The Free People of the world united in an alliance the likes of which had never been seen before, and has not been seen since. You must never again allow the world to unite in arms against you. They must remain divided.
-Heroism: It was a group of legendary figures which struck you down. Heroes of prophecy, tied by threads of destiny. You must not ignore threads of fate in the future, so that you can know what is coming, and prepare for it.
-Betrayal: It was one of your Lieutenants which struck the final blow. Either you pushed them too far, or had simply been unwitting of their plot to turn against you, but either way it was one who you had thought loyal that ensured your defeat. You will be sure in the future to pay painstaking attention to those under you, and what motivates them.
-Division: It was the discord of your own forces, which ensured enough weakness in your armies to unravel them. Factions underneath you who both considered themselves loyal could nontheless not stand together under the same banner, and warred with eachother when you needed them to war with the enemy. Never again will you allow whispers of discord to remain unnattended within your own ranks.
-Hubris: Victory was within your grasp, but you simply reached too far, too quickly. Perhaps if you had been patient you would have succeeded in your aims of conquering the world, but instead when it seemed that aim could provide no further challenge you attempted the unthinkable, ascension to True Godhood. Your punishment was terrible, and you will not again make that mistake. At least, not unless there is truly no more to be accomplished without that lofty position.
Raised: You remain dead, and yet you are returned. Unliving, but awake. This comes with a lack of many of the frailties of the living, but also the limitations and weaknesses of a creature of the night.
Reincarnated: This is your second life. You went through another childhood, among a new people. Upon passing the rites of adulthood of that culture however, your memories of your first life returned to you. This provides the opportunity to become a ruler of this new people, but it will take time for the full extent of your power and memories to return to you.
Cultist Sacrifice: One of your most loyal servants has vacated their own body, providing it as a vessel for your own soul. Your connection to this body is loose however, and might be disconnected by magic or the death of your host. Conversely, you will be able to possess new hosts should this connection be untethered, though only so long as that individual is willing.
Artifact Possession: You have tethered your soul to an artifact of power, which has finally gathered enough of you back together to return you to consciousness. It is an artifact which has since accomplished many great deeds, and is coveted greatly. It is unknown to its users that you are now able to influence their minds, and act of your own volition.
Heroic Alliance: Ah. Of course. You have been awake for some time actually, and now share a body with the caliber of hero which very well may have been a threat to you. You have resolved to unite your powers together in the threat of some common foe. While the hero in question will resist acts of overt evil, you are confident that you can yet corrupt them. Shrouding your darkness in their light also provides the opportunity for you to access and corrupt what might otherwise be incorruptible.
GM NOTE
This first round of suggestion will be for deciding on the flavor and setting details of this game. I plan for it to be a character focused empire builder, with dark themes. Further character and history customization will open up after i have a starting point.
Author
Topic: Dark Resurrection: Of Monsters and Gnolls (SG) (Read 3958 times)