WΔRRIOR

Vagabond

A long time ago, Sahh asked me to do another WΔRLOCK-type post. This is that.

I've already written a 5e Fighter rework, but I don't think it really holds up. Use this instead.

* * * * *

You become a Fighter by fighting a Fighter. (The Fight is infectious, in that way.)

When you defeat a Fighter, you learn one of their Techniques. (You need to see their Technique in action and figure out what it actually is, or you won't be able to learn it.)

This is the only way to become a Fighter.

 

Your Fighter level is the number of Techniques you know.

At Level 1, you recognize other Fighters on sight, and they recognize you. Fighters rarely get along, for obvious reasons.

Once per session, when you meet or initiate combat with an NPC, you may declare that they are a Fighter, then laugh and laugh as the GM scrambles to assign Techniques to them. (This will, obviously, make combat with them a lot harder.)

At Level 3, you can tell, at a glance, if a creature is your superior, equal, or inferior in any combat-relevant statistic. This includes (but is not limited to) current and maximum HP, level, # of Techniques known, and # of weapons on their person.

At Levels 6, 10, 15, and 21, you can attack an additional time per turn.

 

You can invent new Techniques by combining ones you already know. This takes resources (a dedicated dojo space, ancient martial texts, and/or a community of other Fighters) and time (one session playing as a different character).

If you've learned the same Technique twice, you can combine it with itself to get an exaggerated version of that Technique. 

Either way, this will attract prospective disciples and enemy Fighters.

(Optional) If a Fighter defeats you and allows you to live, you may begin developing a Technique to counter their own. If you do, you will definitely cross paths with them again, when both of you are stronger.

* * * * *

ΔRTS OF WΔR

If you try to use a Technique you've learned without internalizing it, you're likely to push your limits and hurt yourself (Save vs. 1d6, or more if it's especially dangerous). You internalize a Technique through meditation, achieving physical perfection, and esoterick training methods. Think of them as side-quests.

Anyone can learn and use these Techniques without becoming a Fighter. It's just that the only people who can teach Techniques are Fighters, and they are rarely keen on sharing.

Δ: Archer Eyes
Train with a ranger lord for a session; or, Somehow acquire cooler eyes.
Spend 1/2/3 turns locking on to guarantee your next attack from across a room/a clearing/a battlefield.

Δ: Dueling Stance
Train with an etiquette coach for a session; or, Marry royalty of any stripe.
You deal +2 damage when fighting with one hand behind your back.

Δ: Great Weapon Fighting
Train with a monster hunter for a session; or, Cook and eat something Huge or larger.
Reroll 1s and 2s when attacking or dealing damage with two-handed weapons. 

Δ: Perfect Defense
Train with a berserker-knight for a session; or, Become locked inside a suit of armor, forever.
You have +1 AC. You have an additional +1 AC while upholding an extremely inconvenient oath.

Δ: Protector's Oath
Train with a martyr for a session; or, Die for someone else, and come back.
Once per round, you can take an attack for someone in arm's reach. (It ignores your AC.) If they were an enemy, they remake their reaction roll with an additional +2.

Δ: Two Swords Style
Train with a swordwife for a session; or, Get legally married to two or more swords.
You deal +1 damage for each sword you are currently holding.

[To "train for a session," play another character for at least one session. The Fighter returns to the game a soon as is feasible in-fiction.]

Karate Baka Isekai

Δ: Action Surge
Knock yourself unconscious three times by pushing your limits.
Once per day, you can act twice in combat.

Δ: Indomitable
Wear the severed head of a tyrant or slaver on your waist.
You can take 1d6 damage to make a failed Save.

Δ: Second Wind
Travel three days and three nights without rest, carrying another on your back.
Once per day, you can purge yourself of all fatigue and one condition.

Δ: Improved Critical
Crit the same target three separate times.
Your critical hit range is 19-20.

Δ: Superior Critical
Crit the same target seven separate times.
Your critical hit range is 18-20. When you crit another Fighter, you may learn one of their Techniques. (You still need to figure out their Technique before you learn it.)

Δ: Brutal Critical
Deal 40+ damage in a single strike.
When you crit a target, disable OR copy one of their abilities for the next hour (i.e. injure a dragon's wing or fly via sheer willpower).

Δ: Unarmored Defense
Survive 40+ damage from a single strike.
Treat your exposed abs as plate armor.

Δ: Remarkable Athlete
Win a shiny medal in a crowded arena.
You can climb as fast as you can run, jump twice as far and high, and hold your breath four times as long.

Δ: Survivor
Have a near-death experience.
You don't fall unconscious at 0 HP. (You still make Death Saves.)

Δ: Student of War
Watch a historic battle unfold from a tall vantage point.
You can spot 2 flaws in any battle plan. If you shout very loudly, dumb animals and nameless goons will follow your orders for a few seconds.

Δ: Combat Superiority
Defeat a fighting force 10 times larger than yours.
Dumb animals and nameless goons never, ever fuck with you.

Δ: Weapon Bond
Sleep in the wilderness with nothing but your weapons for a week. If you sleep with any creature comforts, start over.
You can't be disarmed of your weapons as long as you are conscious. They will leap a short distance into your hands, when called.

Δ: War Magic
Never wear armor. Instead, wear a tall, goofy hat that screams "I'm a wizard!"
Whenever you cast a spell, you may attack as a bonus action.

Δ: Eldritch Strike
Eat or marry an intangible thing.
You cut through illusions and ghosts like paper.

Δ: Arcane Charge
Carry five curses from five different wizards.
You are immune to magic as long as you are charging in a straight line.

Δ: Deflect Missiles
Walk across a 100+ man battlefield without getting hit.
You can catch as many projectiles per round as you have free hands.

Δ: Born to the Saddle
Stay mounted for three days. Sleep in the saddle.
You can't be dismounted.

[this is about where I started getting bored of adapting the "canon" Fighter abilities. the completion thereof--as well as of the Monk/Ranger/Rogue/Paladin/Barbarian abilities--is left as an exercise to the reader]

Negimaki Kagyu

Δ: Nothing Personnel
Wear sunglasses, carry a cursed katana, and hold onto your virginity. If you've already lost it, get it back.
If no one is looking at you (even for a moment), you can disappear and reappear directly behind an enemy, unless it would be impossible for you to do so.

Δ: Scabbard Cut
Cut down a tree with a fish.
You can treat any sword-shaped object, from a scabbard to a toothpick, as if it were a medium sword.

Δ: Sword Step
Marry the wind; or, Walk across a warm lake without getting wet.
You can balance perfectly on an outstretched weapon or flying projectile, as if weightless.

Δ: Hawk's Gambit
Fall from the top of the tallest tower.
You deal +2 damage while fighting in midair (suspended from a wire is a-ok; standing on the ceiling is not).

Δ: Killing-Shadow
Kill your doppelganger; or Become a Creature of the Night.
The shadow of your sword can cut, if it is dark enough.

Δ: Gentle Cutting Storm
Swing a weapon straight through a loved one without hurting them.
You can take an extra turn of attacks. Don't roll damage for them until you sheathe your weapon dramatically (takes a full turn).

Δ: The Fletching Arts
Shoot through two monstrous eyes with a single shot.
You can ignore cover and curve projectiles around corners.

Δ: Like a Ghost
Let no one, not even yourself, remember your name.
When you kill someone, turn briefly invisible. 

One Punch Man

Δ: Exploding Point Excavating Burst
Level a small hill via explosive means.
You can cast Fireball centered on the tip of your finger.

Δ: Iron Cloth
Kill someone with a necktie.
You may treat cloth as steel.

Δ: World Tree Root Stance
Drink from a tree root deep underground.
You can't be moved against your will, even while dead or unconscious.

Δ: Dark Sky Trial
Acquire a 1' grip diameter, somehow.
You can fire a high, arcing arrow at everything in a 1000' radius as an action. This briefly blots out the sun.

Δ: Red Hot Fist
Set yourself on fire for an hour.
You can light a fire/burn thru wood/heat metal with 1/2/3 turns of rapid, continuous, noisy strikes.

Δ: Sword Swallowing
Eat a legendary sword.
You can hide weapons in your throat. While you do this, you can't talk, and your throat is impervious to slashing damage.

Δ: Extreme Equestrian
Learn the 6 dark secrets of horses.
With a 60' running start, your mounts can charge straight up a wall or do a wall-run. They may still struggle with stairs.

Δ: Tseren's Ear
Listen to the song of the elusive Col Do Ma Ma Daqua.
You can fight without sight, so long as you can hear.

Δ: Burial Chop
Literally push someone into Hell.
With a swift chop, you can bury someone in the ground up to their chest.

Δ: Healing Factor
Become best friends with a troll. (This is widely considered impossible.)
You may heal 1d6 HP/round. If you overheal, Save vs. mutation.

Δ: Turtle Power
Don't sweat it. Turns out, it's really easy.
You can suck each of your appendages into your torso, individually or all at once.

Δ: Swarchery
"Redefine archery," whatever that means.
You can shoot any size of weapon from a bow.

Δ: Hippo Wrestling
Bite thru an iron bar.
Your teeth count as a heavy weapon.

Δ: Qi Arts
Varies.
You can cast a spell. (This Technique is an umbrella term for Fighters that are just Wizards.)

(Add fantasy martial arts to taste.)

Yakuza Reincarnation

P.S. none of these are manga recommendations. They're just pictures with good vibes.

P.P.S. DO read Ranma 1/2 tho
and send me more pictures with good vibes

Ruined City Living

Hubert Robert

On a fundamental level, the City must be populated. Even after being massively depopulated by an ugly five-way civil war, even after the Shivering of many transitional boulevards, even after the radiation leaks, all sorts of creatures crawl in the empty shell of Empire and call it home.

And so there are places where the cyclopean architecture of the City is overgrown with scaffolding, like crawling ivy; where people bathe and wash clothes and herd goats around vast flooded arcades; where laundry dries on the many outstretched arms of a hundred-meter obsidian statue--because it gets so hot in the afternoon, y'see, it barely takes a half hour.

Here, in the long shadow of history, people live their little lives.

Smells like a domain game to me.

All this quoted text stolen near-verbatim from TBD and its wretched spawn

The District’s Level is a rough estimate of the sentient population:
    Level 1: ~1000 People
    Level 2: ~2000 People
    etc.
The Level of a District limits the total number of each type of holding it can have.

These Districts are marked with ‘Holdings’ - In summary…
    Law holdings represent your stake in violence.
    Trade holdings represent your stake in food, currency, and other desirable resources.
    Temple holdings represent your stake in faithful congregations and civil life.
    Esoteric holdings represent your stake in numinous, weird, fucked up, dangerous or otherwise odd things.

The districts are non-exhaustive: small tribes exist throughout the City.

The City is also very vertical: some districts are in the "canopy", some are miles below with little light or clean water.

Pilgrim's Vista - The root of the Pilgrim Tree--the closest thing the City has to a monotheistic God--growing up the side of a colossal monastic icon. The only place in Cath Celdaenn where you won't find a ghost, Skeleton, or Carmine (at least, not at first). Further populated by faeries, and wealthy pilgrims from beyond the City, for whom hundreds of palatial manors are available for rent.
- Level 3: Law 3 (Seelie Army), Trade 2 (Indulgences), Temple 2 (Pilgrim Tree Worship)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Honored Guest.

1. Nadir - A colossal stepwell. Twenty-seven marble colossi of varying sizes are submerged to the chest; dotted across their shoulders are driftwood shacks. Far below, trained cormorants and ambitious youths pick at the trove of ancient coinage between their toes.
- Level 1: Trade 1 (Sunken Treasure!), Temple 1 (The Old Kings)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Lead Diver.

2. Ygrun - Half a day's climb from the urban canopy, a near-lightless district populated primarily by skeletons. A many-armed, segmented pillar stands in the center of town, which skeletons dance around at odd hours, like a maypole.
- Level 1: Trade 1 (Salt Mines), Temple 1 (Lich Worship)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Clattering.

3. Fordest - All the city's waters converge at this point, driving the deep churning mechanism of the dam. Thus far, it has powered nothing; the dam's inner workings are guarded by real high level shit. Instead, the folk sift thru the rest of the city's wastewater for scraps.
- Level 1: Law 1 (Local Toughs), Esoteric 1 (The Dam)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Bastioneer.

4. Caldera - A riverside town, just upwind of a vast chasm which emits poisonous steam. A former supply depot; a brutal, vertical campaign was fought against Hell itself on the chasm walls. Scavenging from the warzone is not uncommon.
- Level 1: Law 1 (Old Vanguard), Trade 1 (Anti-Demon Surplus)
- The ruler of this district holds the title High General.

5. Gorluk - Carved cairns and massive black roots mark the road to the Town of Kind Heretics. Many bear dragon-marks--oversized fangs, painful horns and scales--of which they are terribly ashamed. The last bastion of whale worship.
- Level 1: Temple 1 (Whale Worship), Esoteric 1 (Egg-like Cairns)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Matriline.

6. Red-Gutters - The entire port is dragon-marked, and proud of it. They specialize in sea serpent meat, which they fold into hefty pierogis. Far from shore is the Palace of Sails, a castle on a cruise ship, keeling over at 15 degrees like a woody mountain range. It's surrounded by rings of sunken ships, which appear to bow towards it.
- Level 1: Law 1 (Pirate Thugs), Trade 1 (Serpent Hangars)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Head Butcher.

map of the moscow metro

7. Turnplate - A deep-City trade hub connected a vast and comprehensive tunnel network, much of which is Shivered or collapsed. Market roads are lined with steel and patrolled by the Order of the Quiet City, luddites who enforce local sumptuary/arming laws and confiscate wares they deem "irresponsibly loud."
- Level 1: Law 1 (Quiet Patrol), Trade 1 (Turnplate Exchange)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Controller.

8. Mursi - A steaming marsh at the foot of the city, where the Burymen live alongside their ancestral ghosts in an ever-present, spectral fog. They throw the finest ceramics in the world, including the ceramic suits of the Jarmen, and are tasked with carrying ghosts up onto the City's highest promenades.
- Level 1: Trade 1 (Master Ceramicists), Temple 1 (Last Psychopomps)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Stag.

9. Samrod - A town built around a field of menacing black spikes of ogretite--black, porous metal which regenerates gradually when cut. Tides of radiation surround The Black Site, a sinister complex within the ogretite field, ebbing and flowing with the seasons. The locals keep their distance.
- Level 1: Trade 1 (Ogretite Spikes), Esoteric 1 (The Black Site)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Foreman.

10. Hiddiq - This district once belonged to the giants, and is, more than most places, hostile to human-sized inhabitants. Terrace farms sprawl over vast stairwells. The locals are superstitious, opinionated, and have serious issues with authority; purple newsletters arrive on their doorsteps every week.
- Level 2: Trade 2 (Terrace Farms)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Baron.

11. Degnollum - An outpost town for Gnomen academy brats before they rappel down into the Howling Stacks for spoils. It's the kind of district where hastily constructed wizard towers are available for rent, and bar fights spill over into wizard duels at the drop of a pointy hat.
- Level 1: Law 1 (Wizard Militia), Esoteric 1 (Terrible Tomes)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Towering.

12. The Line - An immense fortress which bisects the city on its North-South axis (a small section of a greater construction, which does the same unto the world). The toll is extracted by many disparate tribes who dwell within the Line, constantly infighting and stirring up drama.
- Level 2: Law 2 (The Linear Armies)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Toll-Lord.

Patrick Janicke

 

13. Promenade - The highest district in the City, choked with empty manors and opulent palaces. The Vermin Houses, debased descendants of the original citizenry, languish inside, imagining what it might have been like to rule. The locals cling to half-remembered traditions with terrible fervor.
- Level 1: Law 1 (Knights of the Peacock), Temple 1 (The Manifold Temple)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Ceremonist.

14. Ilusard - The Ilmari who were left behind returned here to build The-Town-That-Grieves. They live alongside and under the Ush River, navigating the landscape's gravitational fuckery with a lot of pitons and rope. Borders the Pope's Road--an extremely Shivered space which traverses the whole city in just under half a day.
- Level 1: Law 1 (Anomaly Rangers), Temple 1 (Cult of the Moon)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Mirrored Lord.

15. Breon - A dense district hanging in the roots of a great tree; sometimes, rarely, whole neighborhoods slip and tumble into the abyss below. Fungids are harvested in vast quantities for jerky and mushroom booze, as well as for psychedelics to enable ritual trancing. An oracular order dwells here, training to sleep for longer and longer periods to receive more and more accurate omens.
- Level 1: Trade 1 (Fungid Ranges), Temple 1 (Dreaming Monks)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Grandee.

16. Knockalong - A truly lightless, profundal district, buried in layers and layers of City. An artificial sun hangs overhead, although it only ever flickers on briefly. The people are outcasts--many are Carmines, even--living in abandoned, candlelit palaces, raising blind pigs in darkened salons; what the pigs eat, no one will say.
- Level 1: Law 1 (Blindfighter Militia), Esoteric 1 (What The Pigs Eat)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Profunder.

17. Junerise - A storied district, one of the oldest of the new era, undergoing recent changes; the population is split between old, wine-making fogeys and young, gun-toting blood, who struggle to get along. The fogeys have longstanding relationships with every other district and at least one of the Ogres. The young'uns have guns.
- Level 1: Law 1 (Guns-n'-Swords), Trade 1 (Hanging Vineyards)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Big Shot.

18. Wolead - Nature's abundance chokes this district; saplings stretch from every rooftop, clear water runs thru every street. A ringed temple in the center houses a hundred or so Holiers, nature gods once dragged to the City in chains, now served by a rotating cast of priests who are trained to propitiate ten or twelve gods apiece.
- Level 2: Trade 1 (Overgrown Orchards), Temple 1 (The House of Those Who Served)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Holy Steward.

19. Oneir - A chilly district, the locals ranging from deathly dour to quietly crazed. Most wear fully-covering veils, lined with lead to keep the nightmares at bay. A vast, horizontal tomb-structure, warm to the touch, dominates the local geography; atop it are hundreds of "natural" hot springs.
- Level 1: Trade 1 (Lead-Lined Textiles), Esoteric 1 (Tomb-Top Hot Springs)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Insomnoler.

20. Erd - A crater-town constructed around a dense silver cube, 11.9m on each side, impaled point-down in the earth; it is currently ensconced in a three-sided stone tower. Erd is a profoundly-haunted-yet-unavoidable stop along the Road of Erudition, which connects Celdaenn proper to the districts of ancient Gnosc.
- Level 1: Law 1 (The Toll-Guard), Esoteric 1 (The Cube)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Keeper.

21. Velow Sainte - Home to the Tower of Salt and its many sister-towers, which overlook inlets to the freshwater sea beneath the City. They control naval passage by dint of three masterworks of artillery, each a valuable artefact in its own right. Roughly a third of the district is made up of skeletons.
- Level 1: Law 1 (Seaside Watchtowers), Trade 1 (Ghoulish Fisheries)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Sentinel.

22. Ancilla - A Nemean outpost town, or really a string of towns, funded by pirate nobility outside the City. A series of lenses and mirrors filters sunlight down to illuminate these understory streets, all of which lead to the Observatory. The structure is sized for giants; the locals use it to stage gladitorial combats.
- Level 1: Trade 1 (Pirate Sponsors), Esoteric 1 (Second Giant Observatory)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Observer.

23. Uroda - Surrounded by forests where the trees writhe like snakes and poisonous gas caverns, a dirty spittoon of a town. Only the brother rivers, two minor gods of significant strength, keep this town alive; they also hate each others' guts. Here, they synthesize recreational drugs, deadly poisons, and the occasional tincture that straddles both categories.
- Level 1: Trade 1 (Dark Pharmaceutics), Esoteric 1 (Caves of Deep Venom)
- The ruler of this district holds the title Typhon.

diy alternate alignment systems

Based on this post, trying out their method for ~*associative setting creation*~.

Rolling for values:

joy/permanence

freedom/knowledge

 

Assigning and justifying associations:

(associated damage types included, from scrap princess's post)

Joy is associated with: books, coming of age, shame, wealth, cars, afterlife, dueling, coal

Tech-rich (coal = steampunk?) society centered around the accumulation of wealth, of which vast libraries, dueling pistols, and fancy cars are the hallmarks (basically R4WR). Greed is good, so long as you're having fun; when you die, G-d will bring only those she wants to party with most to Heaven.
Damage type: secrets, magic words
Associated with: insects (the pretty ones, mostly)

Permanence is associated with: birth, axolotls, sky, filth, shame, breaking promises, pre-utero

For those living under a perpetually soot-choked sky, clear days are most dangerous; those who see the sky are driven mad or disappeared. Once, it was the source of all life; we have outgrown the need for it. Necro- and biomancy, darkroom agriculture, soul recycling, waste management: these are tools of the terrarium architects.
Damage type: crystal, ice
Associated with: undead

Freedom is associated with: narcotics, water, palaces, afterlife, winter, poison, opal, alcohol

The river is so drugged up she can't remember her own godhood. Good! You would do well to poison yourself as she is poisoned, hibernating in the stupor where enlightenment hides. River priesthood = forty drunk monks stacked like cordwood in a smoke-choked palace, communing with that great flowing body.
Damage type: entropy, erosion
Associated with: demons

Knowledge is associated with: fire, executing, sun, darkness, brewing, sleeping, gardening

Where is the Sun?! Our greatest ally, burning a hole thru Heaven; a smoldering corpse in the sky's dread trophy hall. We had the tools, once. And once we uncover them, we will rescue him and bring death to the-traitor-above.
--the war cry of a farming guild turned wizard militia, with a terrible, terrible grudge.
Damage type: fire, mutation
Associated with: mutants

[ bonus damage RPS chart: Entropy >destabilizes> Crystal/Ice >silences> Fire/Mutation >corrupts> Magic Words >explains> Entropy ]

So that's an industrialized setting where humanity lives under a thick sheet of smog, is at war with the sky (related to them filling it with smoke), and has adapted to an eternal polluted night. Classes (as implied by factions) might be:

• aristohedonistocrat
• wizard w/ dueling pistols
• necro-biomancer
• conservator (no clue what this means but it sounds cool)
• (drunken) martial artist
• (drunken) diabolist 
• dead sun cleric
  
• reaper B) (edgy farmer-assassin w/ impractical weapon)
  

I guess I didn't really "make factions" but I like these groups quite a bit. If I had to set them up with alliances and such I'd say:

mago(A)ristocrats - (C)onservators - river (M)onks - (V)igilante martial artists - (F)armer-assassins
A allies with F and C, enemies with M and V
C allies with A and M, enemies with V and F
and so on...

Overall its a pretty esoteric method that requires quite a bit of legwork, but it did result in something I feel pretty happy with! I award the og post a gold star + a leprechaun sticker for the very very good artist recommendations

And now, a smidge of the same for Cath Celdaenn:

(fudging the rolls a bit because i know most of what i want from the setting)

(permanence)history/ignorance <-- how much weight does the past have on the present?

(sorrow)apocalypse/(civilization)construction <-- is the world ending, or beginning?

Historic-Apocalyptic - Weep, weep for the dying world, but do not let it go quietly into the night.

Ignorant-Apocalyptic - Nothing means anything, and it's all ending anyway. Let's enjoy it while it lasts.

Historic-Constructive - Empire stirs in a shallow grave. Where will you stand when it rears its noble head?

Ignorant-Constructive - Someone else tore it down. Now it's our turn. We can do better.

Shivered Space // People of Cath Celdaenn

Michael Wheelan's covers for the Foundation series

Cath Celdaenn is a place where spacetime is fucked all sideways. It is called City of Cities because it was literally, physically connected to all the major cities of its time, and when it "disappeared", it took all those places with it.

[During their third and final world conquest, the statesmen of the Last Empire devised a plot to actually maintain the damn thing. The vassal states were physically drawn together, the map rearranged to their liking—per clockmaker legend, the Mad Knight Narn used adamantine chains to drag each city into place, like a drawstring bag.]

This is why you can walk from the foot of the Mother Ash to the libraries of Ancient Gnosc in five hexes.

[In those days, the Archpope was said to enjoy walking the circumference of the empire each morning. The Pope’s Road remains, patrolled by the Shivered Leopard, Ssonnet.]

In this process, vast stretches of land were folded over, some disappearing entirely into the corners of existence. In historically contested territories, where space has been folded and unfolded many times, reality may wrinkle in unforeseen ways, creating Shivered Space.

1d6	Shivered Spaces
1	Falling through solid earth, standing on open air;
2	Inception-style folded streets; open-air geographic impossibility; two towers on opposite sides of a ruined hamlet spiral into one another seamlessly.
3	Star-shaped rooms like broken mirrors; high-tension spaces; too much movement will cause it to violently snap into a new conformation, revealing hidden corners.
4	Gravity fuckery; floating bridges, suspended aqueducts, reverse waterfalls; roving, localized black holes; things grow too tall or not at all.
5	Reality is sharp; glints of light reveal hairline fractures in the air. A bisected swallow lies on the ground; traverse with extreme caution.
6	Columns stretching into infinity; an enormous landmark cannot be seen from certain angles.

You encounter Shivered Beasts here; degenerate offspring of the Thing Between Things. (The Monster Overhaul, p. 193)

(Additional Reading: Non-Euclidean Architecture, and the sequel)

By the way,

The Thing Between Things is the primary reason why teleport doesn’t work anymore. It's been described both as an oversized dog (once) and a thousand thousand birds (twice). The Witch of El made it out of leftover scraps of spacetime.

It is blamed for the disappearance of the Interstitial Kingdom, aka Lost Ilmar. Pretty much everyone wants it dead.

It's the most lethal encounter in Shivered Space. The second-most lethal is a twenty-story origami crab.

(just gonna push this out and stop sitting on it)

Races of Cath Celdaenn

Roll	Race	Reroll	Perk	Quirk
1-10	Warrior	Choice	Start with 1 extra random item	-4 to resist being mutated or transformed
11	Buryman	DEX	Your family lives just outside the city. Start with a pot full of ghosts.	Ghosts are drawn to you like a beacon. If someone gets possessed, that someone is you.
12	Gnomen	INT	You can speak with architecture (helpful for finding hidden doors).	Your murderous doppelganger lives in the city.
13	Nemean	CHA	You can't feel fear as long as the Sun shines on you.	Your flaming red hair grows astonishingly quickly.
14	Ashlander	INT	You know how to make gunpowder.	You age twice as fast and are mildly radioactive.
15	Carmine	STR	Your blood is black, highly conductive, and hardens when spilled.	Everyone hates you.
16	Jarman	STR	You're always wearing plate armor.	You can't doff your armor. It's heavy; you can't swim.
17	Spagyrian	CHA	If you die, your ghost can avenge you.	1/2 HP unless you submerge in water every day.
18	Royal Vermin	DEX	You can't be ignored.	You're 3'0".
19	Holier	CHA	You're a god; people respect that. Start with 1 Erstwhile Believer	You need to be perceived to act on the world; if no one sees you doing something, you can't do it
20	Skeleton	-	You don't need to eat, sleep, drink, or breathe. Half damage from arrows	Mute

(formatting stolen from Skerples)

6 Wizard-Kings (for the same setting)

Thinking about Cosmic's wizardposting here, inspired me to do some worldbuilding via wizard. Here's the format:

Domain - The places they ruled over, and the mark they left on them.
Army - The factions (read: organized groups of people who will do violence to you) left over from their conquests. Inspired by this Arnold post.
Castle - A dungeon! :>
Monster - The ones they made.
Spell - The ones they invented.

Berserk

1. Mad Knight Narn, Heaven-Eater, The Red Sun, Wolf-That-Kills-Lions
A samurai-cowboy-wizard from the Land of Ashen Rain, although he predates the titular black squalls. Widely credited with inventing gunpowder by pulling it out of his giant hat. Put the angels to the sword, leaving the world without psychopomps. Survived by a vast collection of apocalyptic poetry.
Domain - The Orbiter Courts--pretty much the entire civilized world--but never all at the same time. Our shared language is the mark of Red Sun occupation.
Army - The Red Sun Knights, so named because they allegedly never stopped marching long enough to clean their armor. Full plate and flintlocks. They dot the landscape and fight each other (mostly) in a grand tournament for Narn's title. Once they've sorted that out, they'll set about conquering the world again.
Castle - Fort Drakkengard. It lumbers across the world, aimless without its master. Held by the Black Sun Knights, a heretic offshoot who saw Narn stand on the surface of the sun and hit it with a sword.
Monster - The Annihilating Sphere
Spell - Conjure Rifle (Loaded); Comet Strike

2. Simurgh, Lion-Breaker, Mockingstar Mayura, The Old King of Gold
One of the smallest giants at a mere 11'6". Most famous for stealing the sun from the sky, then putting it back like a benevolent god. Widely credited with kicking off the wizard space race, then abruptly ending it (which is why so many wizard towers are full of rocket fuel).
Domain - North Apolyon and Nemea. There, she is depicted in solstice plays as a cruel tyrant with a dish on his head. Nemean currency (the most widespread, albeit non-universal) is counted in simurghs.
Army - The Knights of the Peacock. Impractical and imperious, with brilliant blue sabers and sidearms that issue cerulean smoke. They've rallied around a House of royal vermin, reduced in size and status but royals nonetheless.
Castle - The Ash Palace, a thousand-thousand tons of marble and lapis lazuli caught like a kite in the branches of an enormous tree.
Monster - Phoenix Rays, the Orphemes, the Glass Ooze (she was, among other things, an aesthete)
Spell - Simurgh's Shadow (a moving Darkness that swallows all the senses, inflicts light sensitivity)

zhaotyart

3. Thoraxximos, Ur-Lich, Lord-Cantor, The Unspeakable Corpus
Rose to prominence after an era-defining plague as an advocate for the undead right to a sovereign state. Became a martyr, came back a few days later as the first Lich and founded their own necropolis. Later brought back the dinosaurs, by accident.
Domain - The Six Necropolises, or the Free States of the Twice Arisen. Many elaborate funerary customs were invented to placate the States (and enrich tomb-robbers).
Army - The Grey Maidens, skeletons with flower crowns and man-catchers. They rove about, liberating corpses from tombs and skeletons from sleeping travelers. Currently led by Greyad Mirianna, a pacifist and civic engineer, although not all Greys follow her principles.
Castle - Cantor's Cradle, a hanging gardens rising from a lifeless morass. (The Grey Maidens despise tombs.) Deeper than it is tall.
Monster - Catoblepas, the Atropal
Spell - True Message (as message, but instantaneous and over any distance; only lesser versions exist)

4. The Carmine General, The Centipede Lord, Koagni the Interminable
The most hated man in history. All of his descendants are tainted by his pairing with the Iron God; their blood and bones are black, and they grow horns in late childhood. Carved a path from Akadia to Lost Ilmar to take their princess, although historians assert that torture was his only love. Had sex with a volcano (?????)
Domain - Everything west of the mountains. Obvious remnants of his dominion have been purged, but the symbol association between power and centipedes remains.
Army - Black Knights. Almost all of them are Carmines. They struggle to organize without being targeted by greater authorities, and thus rove about as single hedge-knights. Some of them ride motorcycles.
Castle - The Tomb-City of Shakuay, with its rivers of mercury and cannibal kings. When Koagni lived, it was called Capital City; on the day of his funeral, everything within a mile radius was spontaneously inhumed in exchange for his resurrection.
Monster - Burning Sycophants, Skeleton Wheels, the Machina Ethikos
Spell - Circle of Flame, Bloodbrand (you may track the target over any distance, forever, by scent, and vice versa), Blood to Ants

Disco Elysium

5. Wizard-King of The Line, Geometrist Supreme, Talib
The first of the Philosophers, or The Last Great Thinker. Popularized the practice of headbinding among wizards, to elongate the brain and align one's neurons. Invented the space-folding techniques of Cath Celdaenn (City of Cities, Seat of Last Empire).
Domain - Ancient Gnosc. Idolized by academics the world over.
Army - The Mason Knights, a secret society of academics and other nerdy types. High-ranking members wear lead-lined robes, carry sickles, and know heavy ordnance secrets. Their secret agendas often put them into conflict with one another (two Mason Knights are always less dangerous than one).
Castle - The Line, an unbroken fort which extends from True North to True South, bisecting the world. Manned by a hundred Toll Kings, mastered by none.
Monster - The Gnomen (he dabbled in eugenics), Right Angles, the Manosphere
Spell - Monologue (fire a continuous screaming laser from your forehead), Gate

6. The Witch of El, She-Who-Is-Yet-To-Laugh, The Fox
A shapechanger from Far Flung Lands. Conquered a kingdom by replacing half its ruling caste with her clones (she eventually lost track of who was and was not a clone). A legendary gourmand, credited with hunting the dragons to extinction. Hated by other wizards for ruining teleport (the word "witch" was invented to separate her legacy from their own).
Domain - Ilmar, the Interstitial Kingdom, and its sister state of Eyoch. She is remembered by a rich history of twinned architecture and secret tattoo art.
Army - The Limpids, encased in perfect clear glass like amber. They travel alone and weep at the humanity of it all while writing poetry on a bed of rose petals. They oppose Black Knights wherever they can be found.
Castle - The Throne of Shivered Sight, which cannot be seen from any angle but behind. Mostly obliterated by shivered space in a series of territorial wars.
Monster - Mercurians, Arrowflies, The Thing Between Things
Spell - Fork Causality