"Strength through conquest. Glory through dominion."
— Motto of the Dominion of Xathrin
Introduction
You were raised within the Dominion of Xathrin, a militaristic autocracy in the southern reaches of Sahariad, forged from warring tribes and city-states into one conquest-driven power under the Eternal Sovereign. Xathrin is a desert empire of blackened sands, war engines, harsh survival, Ebon Flame doctrine, and relentless ambition.
Description
Life in Xathrin teaches that the desert does not forgive weakness, and neither does power. The Dominion draws strength from Sahariad’s brutal climate, the Obsidian Dunes, the Glass Wastes, vassal tribes, tribute systems, rare minerals, magical artifacts, and the disciplined terror of its Crimson Legions. Its people are taught from youth that strength, cunning, and ambition are virtues, while hesitation is an invitation for another hand to seize what yours could not.
You may have grown up beneath the shadow of Naxorith, the Onyx Throne; marched with the Crimson Legions; served a high priest of the Ebon Flame; guarded tribute caravans through the Zahari Oasis; mined glass-touched relics from the wastes; or worked as a clerk, scout, informant, or artificer within the Dominion’s war machine. Perhaps you were born free, born vassal, conquered into service, or elevated by talent from a life meant to remain small.
You became an adventurer because Xathrin sends its ambitious beyond the sands, and because some who leave do not return obedient. Perhaps you seek relics from the Glass Wastes, hunt rebels, gather intelligence, recover tribute, flee a failed superior, or test whether the Dominion’s creed holds true beyond its own banners. Perhaps you have seen enough cruelty to know that conquest makes monuments, not justice.
Whatever your loyalty, the Dominion shaped you. You know how hierarchy breathes. You know how fear moves through a crowd. You know how to survive heat, command, scarcity, and suspicion. You also know that glory always arrives with a bill.
Ability Score Bonuses
Xathrini life rewards endurance, dominance, ambition, tactical thought, and the ability to survive where comfort dies quickly. Choose one:
- Strength +2, Constitution +1 for legionaries, caravan guards, pit-fighters, and desert warriors
- Charisma +2, Wisdom +1 for priests, officers, negotiators, informants, and power-brokers
- Constitution +1, Intelligence +1, Charisma +1 for scouts, relic-hunters, artificers, administrators, and Glass Wastes agents
Using This Background
This background is ideal for Fighters, Rangers, Rogues, Paladins, Clerics, Warlocks, Sorcerers, Artificers, Monks, and Barbarians who want ties to desert survival, conquest, autocracy, relic-hunting, military hierarchy, resistance networks, harsh faith, or morally complicated ambition.
A Xathrini Dominion-Born might be:
- a Crimson Legion veteran seeking glory or redemption;
- a vassal-born scout with divided loyalties;
- an Ebon Flame initiate questioning divine conquest;
- a desert relic hunter carrying something the Iron Council wants;
- a tribute caravan guard who knows too much;
- a defector helping rebels dismantle Dominion supply lines;
- a loyal agent sent abroad to advance Xathrin’s interests;
- an ambitious survivor determined never to be powerless again.
This background works especially well in campaigns involving desert travel, imperial conquest, rebellion, espionage, sacred fire cults, vassal politics, Glass Wastes artifacts, arcane war engines, caravan intrigue, and the blistering little question of whether strength can ever be holy when it kneels on someone’s throat.
"The desert taught me to endure. Xathrin taught me to conquer. The road will teach me which lesson deserves to survive."
— Anonymous Dominion exile
- Ability Scores: Xathrini life rewards endurance, dominance, ambition, tactical thought, and the ability to survive where comfort dies quickly. Choose one:
- Strength +2, Constitution +1 for legionaries, caravan guards, pit-fighters, and desert warriors
- Charisma +2, Wisdom +1 for priests, officers, negotiators, informants, and power-brokers
- Constitution +1, Intelligence +1, Charisma +1 for scouts, relic-hunters, artificers, administrators, and Glass Wastes agents
- Feat: Your background grants one of the following feat options:
- Tough
- Alert
At the DM’s discretion, Skilled, Magic Initiate, or Crafter may fit Xathrini spies, Flamebound initiates, relic-workers, desert engineers, or arcane war-engine apprentices.
- Skill Proficiencies: Your upbringing emphasized survival, coercion, discipline, desert travel, and the practical use of power.
Skill Proficiencies: Intimidation, Survival, Athletics
- Tool Proficiencies: Your upbringing emphasized survival, coercion, discipline, desert travel, and the practical use of power.
Tool Proficiencies: Vehicles (Land), one Gaming Set, and one of Cartographer’s Tools, Smith’s Tools, Alchemist’s Supplies, or Calligrapher’s Supplies
- Languages: Your upbringing emphasized survival, coercion, discipline, desert travel, and the practical use of power.
Languages: Common and two additional languages of your choice, often Primordial, Ignan, Infernal, Draconic, Terran, or a Sahariad trade tongue.
- Equipment: You begin with the following equipment:
- Desert traveler’s clothes, legionary leathers, vassal court attire, or ash-colored field garb
- A Dominion service token, vassal tribe seal, Ebon Flame charm, legion tag, or tribute tally-mark
- Vehicles (Land) gear or Cartographer’s Tools
- A wrapped face-scarf, waterskin, and sand goggles
- A small shard of black glass, volcanic mineral, or glass-waste crystal
- A folded route map of a desert road, mine track, or caravan corridor
- A simple weapon, curved utility blade, or worn military sidearm
- A sealed order, forged travel writ, caravan manifest, or forbidden rebel notice
- A pouch containing 15 gp
| d8 | Xathrini Origin |
|---|---|
| 1 | You served in the Crimson Legions and learned that discipline can look very much like hunger wearing armor. |
| 2 | You guarded tribute caravans between the Zahari Oasis, the Obsidian Dunes, and Xathrin Prime. |
| 3 | You were trained by priests of the Ebon Flame and still feel its doctrine burning in your thoughts. |
| 4 | You worked near the Glass Wastes and found an artifact that changed your fate. |
| 5 | You come from a vassal tribe and were raised between loyalty, resentment, and survival. |
| 6 | You exposed, joined, or narrowly escaped an underground resistance movement in a conquered territory. |
| 7 | You were sent abroad to recover a relic, spy on a rival power, or eliminate a fugitive. |
| 8 | You fled after realizing the Dominion’s strength was built on someone else’s broken back. |
Your Xathrini upbringing taught you to read power structures, command hierarchies, tribute systems, military discipline, and fear-based authority.
In military camps, desert cities, occupied territories, caravan courts, mining settlements, temples, autocratic courts, mercenary companies, and conquered lands, you can usually identify:
- who truly holds power, regardless of official title;
- who is loyal, afraid, ambitious, resentful, or waiting to betray someone;
- what resources are being controlled, such as water, tribute, grain, weapons, labor, relics, or magical fuel;
- where resistance, smuggling, corruption, or succession tension might be hiding.
When you spend time observing a command dispute, tribute negotiation, military inspection, caravan crisis, temple gathering, or occupied settlement, you can usually determine one useful truth: who can be pressured, who can be bribed, who cannot be moved, what would spark violence, or where authority is weakest beneath its banners.
You may also secure guarded aid from Xathrini soldiers, merchants, vassal envoys, desert guides, Flamebound sympathizers, mine overseers, relic traders, or defectors. Their help is rarely warm. In Xathrin, even kindness checks the exits first.
Suggested Characteristics
| d6 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I measure every person by what they want and what they fear. |
| 2 | I waste nothing: water, words, food, leverage, or mercy. |
| 3 | I stand calmly in heat, pressure, and accusation. |
| 4 | I respect strength, but I watch what people do with it. |
| 5 | I always know who commands the room and who resents them for it. |
| 6 | I speak in certainties when uncertain people need something to follow. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Dominion: Power must be seized, shaped, and held. |
| 2 | Survival: The desert teaches truth without ornament. |
| 3 | Ambition: I will rise, no matter how low I began. |
| 4 | Freedom: No sovereign, priest, or general owns what remains of my soul. |
| 5 | Order: Chaos devours the weak first. Someone must command. |
| 6 | Reckoning: Strength without justice becomes a monument built over graves. |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I owe my life to a commander, priest, vassal elder, caravan master, or rebel. |
| 2 | Someone I care for remains inside the Dominion’s reach. |
| 3 | I carry proof of a crime, betrayal, hidden succession claim, or forbidden pact. |
| 4 | I seek a relic, route, oasis, mine, or lost artifact tied to Xathrin’s future. |
| 5 | I still hear the teachings of the Ebon Flame, whether I honor them or hate them. |
| 6 | I must decide whether my homeland is a destiny to serve, a prison to escape, or a fire to turn against itself. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I test people before trusting them, and sometimes the test ruins the trust. |
| 2 | I can confuse fear with respect. |
| 3 | I assume mercy will be exploited. |
| 4 | I have trouble disobeying strength even when it is cruel. |
| 5 | I hide guilt behind discipline and dry humor. |
| 6 | I may become what I hate if victory seems close enough. |
Contacts
Your contacts may include Crimson Legion veterans, Flamebound initiates, Ebon Flame priests, tribute assessors, vassal tribe elders, desert guides, mine overseers, caravan masters, war-engine technicians, Glass Wastes relic hunters, smugglers, informants, resistance members, or exiles who know the Dominion’s roads better than its officials wish. These contacts can provide desert routes, water access, military rumors, forged documents, warnings about patrols, relic leads, or introductions to those who trade in tribute and secrets. Every contact has a price. Some name it in coin. The dangerous ones name it in loyalty.
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