Answering Vayra's 10 Questions

To hop onto the bandwagon, and potentially get ranked, I decided to cover the 10 questions from  Vera Lynn's blog. I have no specific home setting, so this is mostly cobbled-together cool stuff that I would include in a world that I run.

Blog posts without pictures are intensely boring

1) What class knows the most martial arts? Are they real martial arts like kung fu, or made up ones like krav maga?

There's no martial art-sy classes included by default, although I'm fine if you want to play one. There's no schools or dojos of martial arts either. However, there's plenty of travelling weirdos and vagabonds, more than a few of which willing to teach you their own personal style.

2) Can I start out having already made a deal with the devil or do I have to do that in game?

In game, mostly because it's more fun to meet the weird spirit and negotiate with them than to do it in character creation. Devils are weird; some people say that angels and devils are from otherworld dimensions, while others say that they're just like earthly spirits, only from the surface of the sun and core of the earth. In any case, you can definitely make deals with any of those things.

(Side note: you can also make a deal with The Kingdom, far to the east. Just alert a Royal Emissary and they'll have the papers and some cool stuff in no time. Expect to follow some byzantine code of honor in exchange.)

3) Do you want me to write an 8-page backstory? Can I write an 8-page backstory, if I want to? If I write something down in it like I'm the timelost princess of the brass city and the daughter of the sun and I commanded legions in the Hell War but was betrayed by my father's vizier but I don't know that, or that I'm elf conan and cooler than everyone else, will that be true?

I'm fine with backstory, just don't make it too crazy. It's the backstory for a reason, all the cool things are supposed to happen while playing.

4) If I eat someone's heart, will I gain their powers? What about their brain?

Sometimes eating the heart will heal even the deadliest diseases, sometimes it's just a delicious cut of meat. Sometimes the brain grants awesome psychic powers, sometimes it grants Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Eating things generally grants power, but it depends on what you're eating and what part.

5) These classes are boring, can I be one from somewhere else? What about from a different system entirely?

As long as it's from the system (usually GLOG) and I get to look over it, I'm fine with it! I have no solid "world", so I can probably make it fit with a bit of fiddling and thinking.

6) If I make a sword, which one of us gets to name it?

The sword-spirit decides. Sometimes it decides within a minute of being quenched, other times it remains nameless for decades, until it's cracked and rusted and bloodied. People often think that they decide their sword's name themselves, but the spirit's influence is subtle when it comes to dubbing itself.

7) Am I allowed to kill the other player characters? What would I have to do to be allowed to? Do I win if I kill them all? Actually, how do I win in general?

PvP is judged on a case-by-case basis, but as long as both players are cool with it OOC, I won't pull any punches. You win by bringing peace to your pastoral little Ghibli village, or by making so many spirit deals and collecting so much magic that you ascend to something not quite human. (Yes, I associate being turned into a weird magical NPC with winning. Why wouldn't I?)

8) What language stands in for 'Common'? Or what are we all talking to each other in? Like the party, mostly, but also everyone else?

Common, mostly. Not any Earth language. I know that's a bit boring, but the idea of finding something in plain English via dimensional shenanigans and having no idea how to read it is extremely entertaining.

9) How do I learn how to talk to rocks? No not once a day just, like, normally?

You just gotta know the language. The spirits all technically speak one language, but the dialects are all so varied that they might as well be different. If you know how to speak to birds, for example, then the spirits of the river or the dead will understand you, but only barely (and vice versa). People who know many of these dialects are revered, for being the bridge between the human and spirit worlds.

10) Which kinds of wizards get to serve kings and live in towers and shit and which ones are run out of town or stoned to death in the streets? Can I be both? At the same time?

Clerics, priests, bards, witches, druids, warlocks, shamans, sorcerers, mages, magic-users, and the like are what you would typically consider "wizards" and wander the wilds or live on the edge of town, solving weird problems and speaking with spirits as previously mentioned. Royal mages are unseen, as are most elements of The Kingdom, but are responsible for many of the wonders from there that find their way out west. Wizards with a capital W are people possessed by magic? become one with it? are magic made flesh?, are walking natural disasters, and are completely inhuman and fucking terrifying.

I've realized over the course of making this that I don't know exactly what I want, only that it be points of light.

ELEVEN THREE NAMES

 Three times it wield Excalibur,

and through the air it gleamed.

Then to waters black it sank,

no more to be seen.

    No weapon quite has the same mystique as the sword, but so often they're bogged down with lame or overdramatic names. Such is not the problem with THREE WORD NAMES. 3 is an auspicious number, and such spiritual power will add much-needed weight to your weapons' blows.

Pale, Chardun, Bronte, Ossgold, and Adamant are not my creation. Look for it as you must, for I refuse to give context nor clemency to you.

FOG BEFORE SUNRISE: He is a large claymore of adamant. The blade is cracked and nicked, and whatever he tries to say is drowned out in a wordless rasp. His blade dirties water and makes wounds fester. Those who lick it contract leprosy, and can take a template in that class if they so choose. Kept in the treausure vault of a dead king.

SLOUCHES TOWARDS BIRTH: She is a light blakas of bronte. She whispers blasphemies against the g_ds, and thinks it a game, to rile up those of faith. Living things cut by her bleed far more than should be  possible. They don't bleed out any quicker, but everything nearby is left soaked and slick. Other things scratched by her slowly weep honey. Lies buried in a shallow grave.

VELOCITY DESIGN COMFORT: They are a medium shashka of bronte. Their blade is thick and has small holes in it, and the guard is wrapped with multiple strings. It can be played as a flute, and the strings can unwind and be held taught to produce harplike sounds (the bronte bonus applies when playing it). They serve as a centerpiece to the nest of a dire magpie.

DIVINITY OF TEETH: She is a +1 superlative sword of adamant. A quiet, hateful thing. Her name is carved in large, crude letters wrapping around the grip, and the "point" of the blade is flat and square. While drawn, metal within 20 feet of her twists and warps violently. Currently lodged between two rocks in the deadliest, most inhospitable part of your setting.

SEXLESS HYDROGEN CLOUD: She is a medium dao of ossgold. Her name is inscribed along the flat of her blade in tiny letters, repeating over and over. She sparks greatly when struck with a flint, and fires lit with her burn long, hot, and bright. Is pinning a squirming zombie to a tree and is very unhappy about it.

DEEP TIME BRIDGE: He is a light kris of pale. He speaks in nonsense riddles and koans, and his blade gleams with cold star-light. Whoever holds it no longer needs to breathe. This served his former owner well, on the trek up the summit for sky burial.

SEVEN SEVEN ANGELS: She is a medium paramerion of ossgold. Her hilt and blade are decorated with brass laurels. Stern and formal. The movement of her blade dampens sound; when violently waved about, the area in a 30ft radius becomes completely silent. Works as the baton for a very avant-garde conductor. 

MEDITATION PRACTICES DEATH: They are a medium makhaira of ossgold and chardun. Worked into the metal is the ashes of a priest, and the sheath is specially made to keep the sword immersed with anointing oil. Prick your tongue with the blade, and whenever it goes out of sight, you can call it back to your hand by reciting its name. Held in the hand of a statue at a monastery. 

I SOFTLY CARESS: She is a medium gladius of pale and bronte. Her blade is polished to a mirror sheen, and she is highly adverse to fighting. Spirits of all kinds can faintly sense the blade, and will become curious about it. They, even the invisible ones, can be seen in the sword's reflection. She sits on a mossy stump in a quiet forest grove.

A LIGHT GREEN: He is a medium Oakeshott XV of chardun and bronte. His pommel and rain-guard are bronze, and engraved with scenes of nobles hunting game. His touch turns water to ice, ice to steam, and steam to water. Is stuck in a lake, floating and sinking as the phases of water around it rapidly change.

BLACK BARGE SAILS: He is a medium longsword of pale and adamant. He is unadorned of any decorations. When thrust into the ground, flowers bloom around him, and any fighting within 15ft of him hurts as if you struck yourself with your blow. Gripped in the hands of a nameless soldier, on some windswept battlefield.