Dardunah Future Supplement

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    • Dardunah Future Supplement

      Now I wouldn't imagine seeing this sort of thing on the store-shelves for at least 5 to ten years after the initial release of the game system, but of course i am allready thinking about it and brainstorming what kind fo cool shit could develop on the Dardunah world over the next several millenia. Here's some of the ideas Ezra and I had:

      Campaign premise: 3 thousand years after the Cataclysm brought on by the impact of Misarnamu. Darduni culture has solidified into a culture of War.

      The Kalim Shah, Supreme Theocrat of the non-Klin Janah, extends his deva-guided rule over all the nations of Darduna.

      Mahist faith, has prevailed over the heretic Daru-Uprising and the Avatar of Dar; and the demonic appearance of the Children of Prithya. Due to the deva-inspired leadership of the Historical Master, now a single power binds and connects all Janah in a vast, pan-cultural kingdom of the faithful. Save only for the Klin-Ra, The Empire of the East, Whose dark serhibassi empire of demons and ancient secrets plots ever for domination.

      Age of Heretics / Time of Cataclysm:
      Historians mark the beginning of this apocalypse with the Vizedharan war for conquest of the north under Prince Sualanya Bulan (sp?).
      The era of change saw the appearance of the race of The Children of Prithya, the Suthra that walk as Janah, and the rise of their heretical allies among the Janah. As well as the Rakshi Horde from land, sea and air, their army of animal fury and savagery.
      In addition, the unholy hordes of Klin-Ra cunningly timed their conquest of Andhi and Pukaraj, (both weakened by the war with Vizedhara.) Overtaking them in a blitzkreig style war, followed almost immediately by the conquest and taking of Nilam. Consolidating the majority of Darduna’s lore and learning in the hands of the Klin and leaving the once great jewel of learning an empty and burnt out crater.

      Modern world-
      Millennia of conflict have evolved the technology of war to impressive levels. Following a more holistic path, the war technology of Darduna is in league with nature than it's Earthly counterparts might be, despite it’s appetite for destruction.

      While armor and weapon strength and utility has increased, the use of Valah has not replaced the spear and sword, rather, the spear and sword have become sharper, more resilient, and lighter. Blades with an edge of grown and shaped crystal a single molecule wide provide Janah with weapons capable of combating even the toughest of the Suthra Hordes of the Children of Prithya. Slicing though chitin and carapace with deadly utility. Arrows fly farther and pierce ever-greater levels of armor. And clever arrows designed for all sorts of uses fly from composite bows with a range of hundreds of meters.

      And the skills and abilities of the Janah have been bred and honed to an impressive level as well. Martial arts techniques incorporating the Shündé force have evolved, giving rise to the Order of DarSünti ( or something like that but more middle eastern ) the rare and enigmatic “Jedi-like” warriors with amazing martial skills beyond the ken of normal janah.

      Valah technology has become more advanced, with the invention of the bullet-like “plug-cylinder”, a compressed laminate bullet like a shotgun shell, housing as variety of loads from flechette crystal shards to solid slugs, to gas and even poison bullets. Along with the recent development of the sorcerously endowed bullet. Capable of a variety of effects which will be discussed at length later.

      Sky-ships, sleek and fast, composed of light chitinous materials and strong yet extremely light laminates, ply the skies at speeds unknown in the past and great castles in the sky move armies and heavy cannons to battlefields around the continent. With dreadful armies of makdi-riders and drop-skiffs full of vicious Saudaukar-style shock troops, these city-states, controlled by powerful Lines wage unending war on the forces of the Children of Prithya and the Klin Empire and each-other.

      For nearly the last 200 years Darduna has seen the rise of the KarnaSunti, the bio-mystical constructs capable of combating giant Suthra single handedly. Involving amazing feats of Suthra husbandry, serhibassi skill, and Shündé lore and craft, they are perhaps the greatest achievement of Janah-kind to date. Standing as high as a small tower and possessing the speed and agility of an unarmored man, they can fly like kretella (sp?) and fight like 100 men.

      Children of Prithya
      The frightening and alien Children of Prithya/Rakshi Hordes control the northwestern lands. Seldom seen outside of their kingdom except in times of war. They represent an unpredictable and devastating force of terror for the Janah. Using their uncanny ancient lore and deep and abiding understanding of the workings of Shündé they have taken control of vast parts of the world with unstoppable force. Thus far, the best the janah have been able to do is hold the line where the Children mysteriously stopped one day and have not advanced much past for 1000 years. Within the Rakshi land the jungles have grown to tremendous size and natural splendor such as hasn’t been seen since before the coming of the Janah. Gargantuan forests ala Nausicaa cover the lands controlled by the Suthra-people concealing vast plagues of deadly suthra held in check by what and for what reason, no-one knows. For the last 500 years however, the Children of Prithya have been seen abroad in the land with their horrible slave-interpreters, pathetic, twisted creatures bred only to serve as speech puppets for the Children when dealing with the Janah. Their very presence is a horror and sign of the alien deviltry of the unfathomable Children of Prithya.

      The Klin Ra Empire
      Truly a dark and blasphemous people, in some ways more horrid than the Children of Prithya, The Klin callously use demons for every task. Considering them to be without end and malleable to any specific purpose. The Klin rely on the labor and ferocity of demons to expand and maintain their empire. Decadent and ancient, their culture is depraved and sinister. Racist and elitist to a spiritual level the Klin believe themselves to be the inherent masters of Darduna. With their amazing prescience and almost natural control of demonic and spirit forces. They pose a serious threat of making themselves just that. Capable of summoning hordes of Suthra, controlling the weather and laying out horrible curses, the black and wholly evil Klin Empire is a blight upon the world. ( But perhaps the only hope against the naraka-spawned evil of the body-hopping Doksikoor, who has ruled three thousand years through a succession of High Satyans to the current line of Shas. )

      Problems inherent in modern warfare-
      1 Serhibas can see the future
      2 Advent of 'poison Gas' technology
      3 Use of tamed or controlled suthra in War
      4 Armor is rarely effective
      5 Exploitation of flying suthra and skyships to their full, bomb-dropping effect.
      6 “Laputa” Style flying fortresses present serious threat to land based sovereignty
      7 Endowment style ritual magic has had 3000 years to be honed to a very pragmatically effective art form
      8 Quasi-Jedi now exist and are capable of fighting like a dozen men all by themselves
      9 Three unified fronts of aggression prevent stability
      10 Psychic, dream walking warfare is a fact of life, troops can and are weakened during the night by onslaughts from dream-walking serhibas, resulting in nocturnal dream battles rivaling and sometimes surpassing the waking battles.
      11 KarnaSunti Bio-Mechs can turn the tide of battle single handedly

      And there's one more post concerning new Archetype Occupations for your consideration
      "Daggra" means "Enemy" in Tibetan.
      "Chora" means "Thief" in Sanskrit.
    • RE: Dardunah Future Supplement

      I agree! This is all excellent base material for a huge discussion concerning future supplements and info. With your permission, I'll be copying this and setting it aside for later consideration, since some of this may be able to play into aspects of the current campaign I am running (at least hints of what may come...)

      Scottie ^^
    • Recent Thinking on the subject

      Since I wrote that original post in 2006, Scott's excellent post-apocalyptic campaign began and progressed quite far. It's events have colored my vision of the future slightly, producing these thoughts on the same themes as well as others not included here in this post:

      Shunde Adepts
      In my anger at what Lucas did with the mythology of the Jedi in his three prequel movies, my Shunde Adepts are a gleeful rip-off of the Jedi. But with all of the mysticism and enigma intact. I imagine them organized like the Hashishim of Hassan Y Sabbah of Earth. They are recognized publicly by their several different degrees of members and for their famous Temple-Fortress “Alamut” the High Sept of the Adepts.

      From the lowest rank:
      Fidai – meaning: ‘devotee’. Like a paduan or newly anointed Jedi-knight. Also known as Mujahadin – ‘Holy Warriors’. They are a basic Shunde warrior. Everything a Jedi was before Lucas cock-tasted them into oblivion with Midichlorians and other pap. They are considered Medium Status Holy Caste .

      Lasiq – meaning: ‘lay-brother’. Like a Jedi master. Totally Quai-Gon and Obi Wan types.

      Rafiq – meaning: ‘companion’ a member who is a specialist or expert without being a shunde-wielder. Often include Locutors – who are ‘Evangelist speakers’ for the Gorilla-Snake ‘Living-God’. They often Guide pilgrimages of Hadji to the Great Hardazi temple-fortress Alamut. Rafiq are often associated with Da’is as immediate advisers or Agents

      Da’is – meaning: ‘Teacher’ Like the Jedi Council of the movies. Leader of a Sept of Fidai and Lasiq and Rafiq.

      Sept - A Temple-fortress, often extremely hidden. Often built in old Chuun ruins that are re-activated through Shunde.

      Capable of Shunde-style martial arts. Like the old "Talons of Kramah"
      - - - -
      Chuun - Children of Prithya – Indiginous sentient Suthra-men of a once-magnificent high culture now descended into shadow of their former glory. Generally peaceful and introspective and enigmatic. Extremely rare individuals in their population go out now into the world and interact with Janah.

      Available as player character-characters. Come off as enigmatic because their motives and behaviors are inscrutable to Janah. They lack humanity despite considerable spirituality, wisdom and intelligence. They are alien. They cannot speak in sentences. They communicate amongst themselves through a layered combination of telepathy, insect pheromones, Antennae movements and color changes in a mix of words, symbols, emotions and images.

      Their thinking flows in circles and spirals with a progression that is difficult for Janah to relate to. For this reason they are not well integrated into Dardunah culture and are still treated as outsiders, even if recognized ones.

      - - - - -
      Rakshi – Chuun that lost some of their great civilization in a cataclysm in the distant pre-history. Visibly and culturally different from the more passive Chuun. Possessed of fantastic bioengineered weapon-suthra once thought to be members of their race. The historic tall-walkers and low runners are the most recognized of these. As well as the Changelings. Rakshi are often warlike and dangerous and Imperialistic.

      Believing themselves the rightful inhabitants of all of Shard and that the Janah are intruders and outlanders alien to the world, they tolerate the millennium-old peace with the Janah grudgingly. From the shape of their bodies to the concepts in their heads they are warlike creatures of considerable threat and savagery and inhuman drive and cunning. Their control of Shunde as pertains to bioengineering sciences is fantastic and awesome. They can breed a Suthra for just about ANY purpose. And do. Their suthra slaves are the basis of their civilization and culture and are integral to their society. There are several different species of Rakshi in addition to their bioengineered pets. Their Chuun language is extremely sophisticated and they are capable of communicating enormous amounts of data in a very short time due to their layered communication.

      - - - - - -
      KarnaSunti Siege Demons – a horrific product of the Sorcerers of Klin Rah. Demonic, purpose-bred suthra of enormous size and ferocity. Magically bio-engineered without fore-brains as such. Possessed of invasive neuroganglia that connect ot the spine of the Janah they were bred for allowing that Sunborn to think and act through them as an extension of their body. These Demon-Knights are known for their neck and spine wounds that seep and for their middle age paralysis and neural disorders controllable only with powerful healing magic and even then, sometimes not at all controllable. Each siege demon is unique and is said to reflect the warlike side of the hereditary caste-soul of the sunborn for whom they are made. Some even bear vestigial or uncanny resemblance to the Sunborn they are symbiotically joined with. They take 10 years to mature. A Line or an EXTREMELY royal house can afford one and ONLY one. There are about 60 in all of Dardunah.


      Below are recent quick-shot ideas:
      • Living armor is common soldier equipment now. Including flying armor. Breastplates sort of based on bioengineered wasps or locusts or Makdi. Living weapons are like Animal Companions in other games

      • Guns are advanced. Machine guns.(called swarm-valah or something) Flechette guns (fire monomolecular edged obsidian shards that penetrate armor with horrorific ease.)

      The Dream City – Imagine that the art and science of dreamwalking was taken over thousands of years to an amazing level. Creating a somewhat stable environ in The Dream that exists co-terminous with Dardunah. A massive construct of magic that is the ONLY unchanging feature of The Dream that remains constant. A sort of virtual reality environment without the computers. Among the most impressive achievements of 3 thousand years of trying to understand Dreamwalking and Shunde

      • The Guilds Samuts and whatever the fuck the other guilds were called. But now enormous, international. With as much money as small Isvarates. Am I thinking of the Spacers Guild in Dune? Yes. Yes I am.

      • Other Shards. The frontier of the day. Traversible with Chuun technology ships, Colonies have been established on the borders of 3 other Shards.

      • Mahist Church - is now Satyan Order dominated in a sort of “Vatican of Dardunah”. Immense international influence. Make or break Royal Lines in certain Isvarates. As corrupt as Jesuits and easily as vicious as the Spanish inquisition. NOT to be trifled with. Satyan bruiser squads now more sophisticated, better trained, better armed and enhanced with herbal potions and drugs that render them PCP addled psychopaths in the vein of Sustruum’s ancient Imperial Guard. They often have to fight the demons of the purple flame

      • Church of the Purple Flame - responsible for theological terrorism worldwide. A sort of COBRA to the Satyan’s GI Joe but with summoned demons instead of bombs. Not as funny as it sounds though. Their demons are sophisticated and powerful and they garner new recruits from among the angry , vengeful and dispossessed. And those with low morals awed by their blatant power. In the rare instances where a priest of the purple flame is seen in public, his superhuman power is only matched by the Shunde Knights or enigmatic Klin.
      "Daggra" means "Enemy" in Tibetan.
      "Chora" means "Thief" in Sanskrit.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Ghorüm ().

    • RE: Recent Thinking on the subject

      Ooh! All of these are wonderful ideas (albeit terrible spoilers for those who've barely embraced the basic of the "modern" world of Dárdünah, as presented in the Basic Compendium)... Heh!

      The idea of "Shündé" being essentially the force of the Dream flowing wild and unhampered by any ritualistic "buffers" directly through the heart of the world, and potentially directly through its devotees has always been an interesting concept, ever since the earliest concepts of it were forged by my nephew Keegan...

      I like the direction your thoughts seem to be taking it as well, especially as they might apply to the future of the world of Dárdünah as presented in my apocalyptic campaign, including the Chün and the Rakshi...

      Scottie ^^