The World Below: Dawn Path

Ancestries

Darv

Few peoples in the World Below are so committed to celebrating their ancestry and trying to follow the ideals established by their predecessors as the darvs. They sing the songs of their grandparents and have their family trees tattooed or engraved into their skins, with family crests often prominently stenciled into their foreheads. For all their perceived insularity, however, darvs have traditions relating to giving aid to those in need, especially when an injured traveler or wandering orphan stumbles into their care.

Momentum Generators:

Elv

Of all the cultural traditions passed down from elv to elv, the most prominent one is their curiosity. Elvkin often repeat the mantra, “We buried the secrets of the world; it’s up to us to unearth them.” This sense of curiosity encourages a strong tradition of exploration and sharing their findings with others. Many elvkin believe in a utopian glade of immense size, buried somewhere in the World Below, waiting for them. They call this place Pan and ascribe it a religious and cultural importance.

Momentum Generators:

Entissia

Entissia group more tightly into family units than most peoples in the World Below. While they possess no predisposition for species-based hostility, they’re aware that among the people who embarked upon the Great Descent, they alone are egg-laying, cold-blooded reptilians. Therefore, they know long-term, safe habitats are vital for their survival and have little understanding for those who feel happier as nomads. This, in turn, makes them some of the most reliable keepers of static troves of knowledge and comfortable inhabitants of ancient ruins, provided those ruins can be made secure.

Momentum Generators:

Hobgob

A numerous and varied group, the only cultural commonality that joins the hobgobs is a firm sense of irony, sarcasm, and with it, mischief. The development of this trait is perhaps due to the adversity their ancestors experienced (and they now live with) in the World Below. Since taking their freedom, hobgobs celebrate it with Kaos rocks and deep stones formed into jewelry, not because they think they look good or even appropriate to their surroundings, but because they identify the Great Descent—and therefore proximity to the Well (or more rarely, the Abyss)—as symbolic of their freedom. Hobgobs make up the bulk of Well Keepers for this reason. They enthusiastically adorn clothing with as many pieces of Kaotic ore as they can locate on their adventures.

Momentum Generators:

Human

Humans are stereotypically known for their technological and magical innovations and their energy in the face of dire threat. Humans are writers of stories, inventors of machines, and exploiters of Kaos. This doesn’t mark them out as particularly different from other ancestries, except for their particular skill at those pursuits. Humans are far from the most populous ancestry in the World Below, and a common refrain from one human to another is, “We are not long for this world.” Whether born from a place of hope that escape from the World Below is within reach or a dire sense of stoicism that the fight is already lost, humans tend to see everything as temporary, and they often join migratory communities rather than fixed settlements.

Momentum Generators:

Makiru

If the makiru are typified by one ancestral tradition (aside from their pessimistic view of the world to come), it’s their absolute devotion to children, or “pups.” Makiru are born as rats, and as they grow, they develop into their humanoid forms, retaining claws and a rodent’s features but otherwise reaching the average body proportions of a human or elv. Makiru possess an instinctive drive to sacrifice everything for their offspring, even when those pups are adopted or found and don’t bear their same genetics. As far as makiru are concerned, the world may have ended for those in adulthood, but children are destined to build a future on the ashes of the past. They’ll put everything on hold to patch up an injured child.

Momentum Generators:

Communities and Settlements

Dogmas

The Church of Golthon

Followers of Golthon are found throughout the World Below. Their faith demands they offer mercy to the wicked and relief to the afflicted. They believe their deity is within the soil and stone. These beliefs lead many to act recklessly, especially in service of others, as they feel the world itself will protect them. Members of this church are often healers and quietly preach that the Well’s temptations must be avoided in favor of the blessings from the wider World Below.

Suggested short-term Aspirations for Golthon include:

Suggested long-term Aspirations for Golthon include:

Fortuna

The key elements of Fortuna worship are to assist those suffering from misfortune, to hold those with great luck in awe, and to bring low those who abuse their good fortune. The last is where the church is at its most militant, as Casters strongly believe good luck is only for the deserving. Anyone visiting suffering on another while riding a high of wealth or power needs a streak of bad luck to bring them back down to balance. They despise the way the Well Liches grasp power and refuse to share it.

Suggested short-term Aspirations for Casters include:

Suggested long-term Aspirations for Casters include:

The Hades Tract

A diverse philosophical group, the Hades Tract believe they’re already dead, and so is everyone and everything else in the World Below. It’s not a hard belief system to grasp, even though Hadeans do little to evangelize for new followers. Their argument is that the World Below is a vast afterlife, and that the fleeting memories of the World Above were of lives once lived under a radiant, nourishing sun. Now, they’re condemned to the World Below, and will only find salvation by enduring and overcoming the challenges the gods, the environment, and the other tormented souls put in their way.

Suggested short-term Aspirations for Hadeans include:

Suggested long-term Aspirations for Hadeans include:

The Lords and Ladies of Rot

Vrot are a rare, dangerous breed. They believe entirely that the Exodus was in defiance of nature’s plan. They say the original inhabitants of the World Below — the haemexii, the Ipreceans, the hypogean heralds, and others — are the only peoples to deserve a place in the Vast Underneath, and everyone else is an intruder.

They serve the god-kings known as the Lords and Ladies of Rot, though no one outside the Vrot appears to have met them. The Vrot claim to encounter these ancient nobles in lost cities and temples, and it’s there they gain the benefit of such self-destructive wisdom. Their tenets are simple: erase every intruder from skyward to wellward; lay the foundations for the Lords and Ladies of Rot to occupy their thrones; eliminate yourselves in holy sacrifice once your work is done.

Suggested short-term Aspirations for Vrot include:

Suggested long-term Aspirations for Vrot include:

The Temple of the Benevolent Earth

The Templars see it as their role to sacrifice great things to the World Below (primarily rare minerals and dangerous beasts), root out heresies (other faiths, especially when they dogmatically believe the World Below a hellish place), and channel their world’s benevolence, helping communities and peoples come to understand, live within, and best prosper within their environment. They’re dubious about the spiritual importance of the Well, seeing it as a corrupting element in what could otherwise be a utopia, and work to stymie its power throughout the World Below.

Suggested short-term Aspirations for Templars include:

Suggested long-term Aspirations for Templars include:

Well Worship

Well Keepers are a rare and troubling group, fanatical in their devotion to the Well and its offerings. To be a Well Keeper is to give yourself fully to the great source of power, eschewing experimentation with Kaos in favor of seeking out the Well itself. Many are perpetual pilgrims, making their way to the Well to harness its gifts before returning to display their newfound powers. Others are disciples who wish to forever bask in the Well’s glory or enter the servitude of the Well Liches.

Suggested short-term Aspirations for Well Keepers include:

Suggested long-term Aspirations for Well Keepers include:

Guilds

The Company of Artificers

An affiliation of crafters and fabricators, mainly those who make large and essential items such as boats, carts, wagons, sledges, tools and “maker’s gear” (such as anvils, jigs, crucibles, molds), and ropes. Members pay dues into a collective that supports the work of traveling “Agents of Art” who compile notes of the processes and procedures for forging, casting, making wire and rope, and so on; key parts are often encoded so only members can read them. Agents also assist members by finding or fetching rare supplies and ingredients (or finding sources where these can be gleaned or purchased) or skilled assistants if a member stands in need.

Major Path Attributes: Mental 5, Physical 4, Social 1
Minor Path Attributes: Mental 2, Physical 2

The Excavators and Explorers Collective

Craftspeople who “dig to make”; delvers excavate tunnels, build new settlements, and fortify and improve existing ones. They examine the geology as they go with an eye to faults and cleavage lines, what gems and minerals can be extracted from the rock in the future, and the structure of what they’re carving out. For most delvers, architecture or demolition is their expertise, and their delight and skill at either is how delvers decide who is ready for full membership (“mastery”) and who is still an apprentice.

Major Path Attributes: Mental 2, Physical 5, Social 3
Minor Path Attributes: Physical 3, Social 1

The Kitchen

Gastrevores explore sustenance and healthy needs, largely by creating detailed accounts of edible and poisonous substances, work that has given them the moniker “the Kitchen.” They examine the life cycles of slimes, worms, and molds, determine what such things eat themselves and where the most abundant supplies of them are to be found and what medicines can be derived from them. They also research sanitation and the disposal and recycling of wastes (diseases spread by improper disposal, and what lifeforms of the World Below are attracted to large deposits of fresh waste).

Major Path Attributes: Mental 3, Physical 5, Social 2
Minor Path Attributes: Mental 1, Physical 3

The Moths

Moths are a merchant guild, the members of which travel the World Below, paying high prices for “the Color”—what they call precious minerals. They live to obtain more of it, valuing it above people, though every Moth habitually cooperates with other Moths rather than competing. Which minerals count as precious may vary, but it’s always gems, ores, rocks, and rock dusts. A Moth never swindles, and a Moth rarely underpays but often overpays, which makes them very welcome in many places where outsiders are otherwise received uneasily.

Major Path Attributes: Mental 3, Physical 2, Social 5
Minor Path Attributes: Mental 1, Social 3

The Union of Cartographers and Stratigraphers

Master mapmakers and historians who seek to map the entire World Below with precision. As Kaos storms, cave-ins, and other events constantly change what’s Below, their work can never be completed. They keep at it but restrict access to their record slates to guildmembers in good standing. The guild also constructs good spherical compasses from insect bones or rare metals, which don’t last long and indicate the direction of the Well and the Abyss. These compasses lose effectiveness as the Kaos daubed on the Well end of their needles dwindles.

Major Path Attributes: Mental 5, Physical 3, Social 2
Minor Path Attributes: Mental 2, Physical 1, Social 1