Character Creation

This campaign will be set in the IronSworn game world, but takes inspiration from the novel "The Raven Tower" for how gods exist and affect the world about them. Namely, gods are immortal creatures that have existed (probably) since the beginning of time. While gods may have existed for all time, they are relatively old or young depending on when a particular god developed consciousness enough to begin interacting with the world and considering it thoughtfully.

"Words" that a god speaks must only ever be true. If they are not true, then the universe is changed until the truth is as the god spoke it. Each warping of the universe takes power from the god. Small truths, such as "No mosquitoes will bite you tonight," require little power. Large truths "The mountain sinks into the sea," require more power relative to the statement. Gods may be injured or killed by speaking a truth that would require more power than the god has to give.

Gods receive power from the offerings and worship of people. There exists other means to gain power outside of humans, but only few, ancient gods know of these ways.

Your Truths
These are my selections for my truths of the Ironlands, the setting this game will take place in:

The Old World
The sleeping sickness. Victims eyes begin to water heavily while also yawning heavily throughout the day. Soon fatigue sets in and the afflicted find little energy to do much more than lie in bed. Slowly starvation takes them as they cannot muster the will to eat or drink. Many were force fed broth by caregivers, but those turned into horrid skeletal apparitions of their former selves as muscles atrophied and skin would hang slack on their frail bones.

Now the disease returns to plague the Old World refugees, but worse. The sick fall into their slumber and begin to waste away, but the mind awakens shortly before death would come and take them. Skeletal thin, the starved sleepers go mad with hunger and rise up and consume whatever flesh they can find - even if that would be a loved one that has been carefully dripping broth down their throat and sitting beside them as they slowly die. The sleepers wake and attack with a strength beyond what the their skeletal frame would suggest possible. Many have died from the attacks, only to be consumed in a cannibalistic rage. After gorging, the sleepers return to their slumber.

Many here wish to flee, to start again somewhere far from here where the sleeping sickness will not take them. The few that still remember the flight from the Old World cry with the thought of starting anew. I have already lost my wife, Marylyn and oldest - Ratchawyn after my wife awoke while Ratchy carried her from the family bed to a chair placed near the hearth so Marylyn may be warmed. Ratchy, only a girl at 15 had little trouble lifting her mother as thin as she was. So it became her duty to bear the majority of the work to care for her mother while I was in the fields seeking game. Marylyn's head rested on Ratchy's shoulder while she was carried in her arms. Then Marylyn woke. Mad with hunger, it mattered not to Marylyn that it was her own daughter. I returned home to find the two of them lying beside a cooling fire in a sticky pool of blood, Ratchawyn's throat ripped out and bowels removed. Marylyn lay atop her, belly full and round. I slit her throat then and there and knelt beside them and cried for hours.

My youngest. My only, has fallen ill and now sleeps. I cannot bear to see her waste away and become a monster. I will petition the gods and make offerings to them until one finds the power to cure my daughter.

Iron
A herd of mammoth are migrating through this area. They are formidable beasts, but a one of them could see us through the worst of it.

Legacies
My son went missing in those mines. He is dead now, I am sure of it. When his mother fell ill, he had dreams of the mines. He swore that a god there called to him with promises. I had been to the mines, drawn by his hand as he sought to find the god of the mines and ask it to save his mother. I stopped at the mouth of that enterance, pulling him back hard. That mine was death, I could sense it. I could hear it. "Don't go, only death lies down there." spoke a god to me. Which god, I do not know, and they have not spoken to me before or since. However, I knew it to be true and forbade my son from ever stepping in there. Two weeks later, stricken with grief and shock of the death of his mother and sister, he ran to the mine while I cried over their bodies.

Communities
A massive herd of mammoths is followed by the nomadic Vasdel circle. The Vasdel subsist almost exclusively off of hunting the mammoths. Understandably, they are very protective of their herd. With stores low and winter still at its deepest, some villagers have taken to hunting the mammoth. There have been casualties, both from the dangerous mammoths as well as from Vasdel rangers protecting the herds from the poachers.

My own family has little left, and with little to offer the Vasdel in trade, I fear I must take an mammoth myself.

Leaders
Our Overseer has become one of the sleepers. The twelve families bicker and fight over whom should step in and replace the ill Overseer. Some say we should sacrifice the sleeping Overseer now, despite the term having several years more to serve. In our village, the Overseer is a position of honor and power. They settle feuds, give direction, and speak to the gods. Every seven springs the village chooses whether to allow the overseer to continue on in the position, or accept a petition from another whom wishes to take the position. Once a replacement has been selected, the serving overseer is sacrificed to the gods and the next overseer takes their place.

I know now that I will volunteer to be the next overseer. If I can convince the other families to make that so, I would be able to speak to the gods and get them to save my daughter.

Wow. I'm pretty excited about how this is shaping up so far. I'm also a bit overwhelmed - there are several more "Truths" to choose that each have their own quest starters. Still to choose are the headings:

Defense, Mysticism, Religion, Firstborn, Beasts, Horrors

I like each of them, but am going to limit myself to just one more quest starter so I don't get too burdened with threads to keep track of. The rest I'll just pick the truth so it is there to define the world.

Defense
Mysticism
Religion
Firstborn
Beasts
Horrors

Character

So far I know my character is a farmer who was married and had three children - a daughter, son, and younger daughter. His wife and oldest have died and son is presumed dead. I get the sense that he is respected in the community, but has, thus far, avoided bringing attention to himself and his family.

Rough character sheet has been set up. Next I will need to choose my 3 starting assets and up to 3 background bonds. Then equipment. Finally background vow and inciting incident.

BondsMy home village is a bond, for sure. The village consists of 12 families that have eked out an existence in the Haven lands for two generations. I know I want at least two or three gods that are associated with the village. These gods will be quite small but involved in their daily lives. Something like a god that keeps their axe-heads and blades sharper longer. Other villages in the region will recognize the same gods. I think I want one of these gods to be practically exclusive to the village. Something about the location is what the god operates on. I'll flesh all these gods out later, maybe through play. Coming up with a name for the village: "People of the Blue Rock" or just "Blue Rock". Cool. Maybe the rock is some feature of the land. I know - the blue rock is a bluish hued granite common in the area. The village center is built on a natural mound with two sides protected by natural 10 foot drops, near vertical blue granite cliffs. The rock might be the body of a god.Next I want bonds for the different heads of family in the village. That would be a lot of bonds if I include each one! I'm not exactly sure about how this works, but I think I just want to include the more adversarial or friendly one or two. I've only got three bonds here, and I don't think I want everything to be politics.


Ok, so making a bond with an enemy doesn't sound like what bonds are intended for. A frenemy might be interesting. Razeena Ulvitch, a quiet man whom has been a great friend and neighbor to the Burseddi family. He has gone out of his way to help in a neighborly fashion above and beyond what is expected of neighbors. I think he may have had a long simmering attraction to my wife, which is why he was so good to us, but I have no doubt that there was no infidelity on anyone's part.

I was a bit confused about how to record the bonds. There is a bond progress track, but no place I see to record the bond. Do bonds have their own progress? Or are they just notes and somehow the bond progress track does its own thing? Best I can tell is the latter - I'll make a bullet point list of the bonds I have formed and mark the ticks in the progress track for all of them as a whole.

VowI will cure my daughter of the sleeping sickness. I cannot bear to let the last of my family succumb to this disease.

I have a few ideas here, but nothing great or inspired. Asking the oracle for some direction...
I just now realized that all the quest starters I addressed above are exactly for the purpose of an inciting incident.
So I need to swear an iron vow for the inciting incident. Osck will visit the other families first to garner their support. My vow will be:
"I will hunt down a mammoth to feed the village". This is in relation to the Blue Stone village bond, so I will roll +heart+1

That is a strong hit. +2 momentum (already at max). I'm giving this a rank of FORMIDABLE since I will have several men helping in the hunt.

The whole of the village supports this action. In the great house I swore to bring down a mammoth to feed Blue Rock. Half a dozen other men have agreed to join the fight. We have spears, rope, and even an archer. Nadeena Ulvitch has offered to care for my youngest during the hunt. I have asked the families that could not provide men to put together a sledge with an offering to the Vasdel. Once that has been readied we will set out.

Next I need to select my Assets.

• IMPROVISER - Osck has always been creative about using what is at hand to get the job done.
• KEEN - Blue Stone is supported by a relatively small god that has been known to offer protection to the village (the short 10 ft cliffs are unnaturally slippery to those hostile to the village). Honing an iron edge with a lump of blue stone granite while burning herbs and singing a song praising the lives of those the blade has slain, the god of the blue stone will bless the blade.
• SKIRMISHER - Osck and most of the other men in Blue Stone are familiar with the spear, both as a means of hunting and defending against raiders.

Retcon - Saying I got all the sweet sweet supplies and fighters was overreaching. I think Osck would have received support from his friends, the Ulvitches, and a couple of men to join him on the trip. He will have to do a bit more work to convince others to provide trade materials and additional fighting support.