by Neil Thompson

Downloaded  156 times

Although the Anoth Delta is claimed by the Kingdom of Orbaal, it is also home to the Anoa tribal nation and is within the ranges of the nomadic Diaffa and Wurokin gargun. In addition to the Jarin and Ivinian inhabitants of the Orbaalese settlements, the delta is home to outlaws and pirates who find refuge in its marshy waterways.

The area is known for its abundance of wildlife, insects, and plants, some species of which are found only in the delta. The Anoth Delta is a dangerous place, with many natural hazards that can hamper or harm those unfamiliar with this type of environment.

This article describes the history, geography, flora and fauna, and natural hazards of the Anoth Delta. A map of the entire delta is included, as are descriptions of the area’s three regions and their inhabitants.

The Anoth Delta is the setting for an adventure, Bognor’s Folly, which is also available from this website.

by Brent Bailey, Rob Barnes, and Jonathan Davidson

Downloaded 327 times

Bognor’s skill was legendary. His knowledge of living things, especially the green and growing, was without compare. But so too was his pride. He delved too deeply into secrets best left alone, it is said, well past the limits of his understanding.

Nearly a quarter century has passed since Bognor’s demise. Many have tried to find his marvellous home, to uncover his secrets, or plunder his treasures. None have returned. Will the player characters be able to succeed where others have failed? Can they find the wizard’s famous abode and unlock its mysteries? Or will they, too, become victims of Bognor’s folly?

Included in this adventure pack are:

• Bognor’s Folly: An adventure synopsis with suggestions for getting your characters involved and for further expansion by the gamemaster.
• Bognor’s Island: A description of Bognor’s island sanctum, its unique inhabitants, and its secrets.
• Bognor’s Arcana: A collection of useful items associated with Bognor, including expansions of CGI’s Herblore, Potions, and Tomes & Scrolls articles. Also included is a four page expansion of the Fyvria section of HârnMaster Magic, with details of some of Bognor’s original spells.
• Maps and Plans: Player and GM maps of the island, plus plans of its two main locales. Also includes an atlas map and a player handout map of the Anoth Delta.

Bognor’s Folly requires the location article Anoth Delta, available separately from this website.

by Rob Barnes

Downloaded 487 times

Just log in to the forum, go to your User Control Panel (you’ll find that in the upper right, just underneath the header bar), and look down the left-hand menu for Digests.

All the options are fairly self-explanatory, but to be clear about one thing I found, you will have to subscribe first and click the submit button on that page, then go back to the Digests options to customise it to your taste. Just be sure to click the submit for each page you change (there are about four different pages). But to repeat, subscribe first, then change the other options.

by Leitchy

To find out the address, please check out the About >RSS Feeds page. It’s yet another way you can stay in touch.   I hope you find it useful; I know I will!

by Leitchy

by Richard Woollacott

Downloaded  529 times

On different layers, the maps show in detail the tenant-in-chief (church, sheriff, earl or baron) and his coat of arms, intermediary tenant, the name of the holder or bailiff/reeve and his/her coat of arms (if known from canon or fanon), more information is given on the ´data´ layer: fief size and land quality, number of households and population.

This is part I and contains the hundreds Alatar, Aleta, Aleur, Chakre, Dunzael, Dyrien, Homele, Horkand, Kandis, Kedisa Mineous, Mirwyn and Omele. More hundreds to come…

by Werner (sard) Riga

Downloaded 554 times

This Guide will assist players (and Gamemasters) new to the Chéler people gain an overview of the kingdom, its major city and the people who live there. It provides an introduction to the culture, history, politics and geography of the kingdom and its surroundings, making players more at home and able to enjoy this fascinating setting.

The guide is the perfect accompaniment to the Keléstia Productions series of publications covering Chélemby – including Kingdom of Chélemby, Chélemby: City of the Sea Kings, and the Chélemby Interactive Map.

The Chéler Player Guide can be downloaded from http://www.kelestia.com.

Hávnhus Interactive PDF map
Today we have also released another interactive, multi-layered PDF map for Chélemby City. This is a high-quality version of the Hávnhus (I34) map included in Chélemby: City of the Sea Kings. This multi-layered map will enable GMs to decide what information they wish to share with players, and enable them to print out those features they wish. The Hávnhus interactive map can be downloaded from http://www.kelestia.com.

Other free Chélemby downloads
We have a growing number of free downloads design to support GMs and players using the Chélemby setting. Downloads include a PDF version of the poetic map of Chélemby City, PDF versions of the interior layouts, and more. These can be be found on the Chélemby Downloads page.

Chéler Player Guide

Unfortunately, a couple of years later—around about the time I purchased a heap of new domains from them—they underwent an ownership change. They suddenly became very expensive, and very hard to work with. Overnight, it became incredibly easy to transfer a domain name from another hosting service to them, but impossibly difficult and incredibly expensive to transfer domains away from them (eg, it took me three hours to just find the page which allowed transfers away from them, and then it started to get difficult).

I have let lapse a number of domains I had with them, and transferred the three domains I really wanted to keep (including Lythia.com) away from them to my current hosting service and registrar (Dreamhost). I still gag at the cost! Should I ever want to, transfers away from Dreamhost are free, and easy to do. So why does Easyspace make it so hard? I don’t know, and I no longer care (although I suspect greed plays a big part).

But one domain that I didn’t bring across, and which is now in a “redemption” period is “harnlist.com”. This was always just the domain name for the website which supported the HârnList (ie, the email distribution list) itself, but the information it once held has long since been ported to Lythia.com. The mailing list itself was always “harnlist@lythia.com”. I don’t know why I thought I might need the domain, frankly, but I bought it and kept it going for many years. And now it’s time to let it go…

Fly free, little domain name! Keep clear of domain squatters and spamvertisers…if you can.

In other words, people, don’t go to this domain anymore, because I don’t own it or control it. And at a cost of £99, I’m not going to redeem it, either.

Before I continue, I have to warn you that I am operating from my memory of the conversation, and my own personal interpretation of what Robin told me…or that I remember that Robin told me (which you’ll appreciate may not be the same thing). So, my memory might be faulty, or my interpretation, or both. Or neither! Your mileage may vary, as they say.

— • • • —

What is the Pvâric Philosophy? From Hârndex, it is “essentially a way of perceiving Kelestia (the cosmic all) in terms of key elemental principles”. In HârnMaster Gold, The Shèk-Pvâr, Robin states in part “…it is more a  style of enlightenment that must be embraced by the whole being.”

But what does that all mean??

Adhering to the Pvâric Philosophy and learning to manipulate the elemental principles (that is, casting spells) is a method of improving one’s self. It has exactly the same goal as alchemy and religion; a means of achieving enlightenment, or moving one’s soul (for want of a better term) to the next higher plane of existence. In other words, obtaining eternal life. On Earth, Buddhism has a similar goal; enlightenment, achievement of nirvana. Heck, Christianity, Judaism and Islam all have Heaven or Paradise (eternal life) as a basic tenet.

As an aside; the primary difference between Earthly religions and philosophies and Pvârism is that the former all allow one to learn from the lessons of others (indeed many use parables as a teaching tool), while the latter requires you to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

Learning to cast spells is not the goal of a shèk-pvâr. In fact, thinking that way is dangerously close to being heretical; power for the sake of power. That goes against the Shèk-Pvâr Code. No, learning to cast spells is merely a step on the path. The goal of a true shèk-pvâr is to understand and manipulate the fundamental elements of nature so as to achieve enlightenment. And with enlightenment comes eternal life, or so goes the thinking.

So there you have it. Priests, alchemists and shèk-pvâr all have the same purpose, struggle to achieve the same goal. They just do it in different ways.

• Priests try to achieve piety so they gain the favour of a higher power, and thus be granted eternal life.
• Alchemists attempt to understand and manipulate physical properties of matter so they can construct the elixir of life (ie, the Philosopher’s Stone) and thus gain eternal life.
• Shèk-pvâr attempt to understand and manipulate the fundamental elemental forces of the cosmic all so they can create and cast the ultimate incantation and thus gain eternal life.

For me, this made the whole idea of the shèk-pvâr real. It meant that they are struggling in isolation, each man or women bending all their effort into understanding something that is inherently beyond normal understanding as we know it. It screams of utter devotion, of a mindset and outlook that is totally different to the ordinary Hârnic dweller. It also implies failure, greed, avarice, subtle bending of the rules, desperation,and all the base human emotions as these highly individualistic people try to force their minds into different paths to gain just a little bit more understanding. Which makes for more fodder for gaming, of course.

And once in perhaps a millennium, a shèk-pvâr disappears from his study leaving no trace. Did he just walk out, disillusioned and empty? Was he abducted? Was he obliterated by a rival? Did a casting go horribly wrong? Or did he achieve enlightenment? The rest of his chantry will probably never know.

And so the shèk-pvâr’s struggle to understand continues…

— • • • —

Feel free to leave a comment about the article or about how you play mages.