TD;LR: Please give your thoughts and opinions on my ideas about building lore, history and adventure in my world by giving the Barbarian character a powerful, awaked sacred treasure. I'd love your opinions and thoughts. I am not asking you to come up with material for me but please do give me your opinions, thoughts and any constructive criticism you might have.
----
THE PLAN FOR 2019!
The plan is to create lore, history and adventure in my world, by giving each of my players characters a sacred treasurethat will come in useful throughout this multi-series of campaigns and which they will be relying upon during the final battle with the Demon Lords at the end of the end of this series.
2019, will start off the Sacred Treasure arc, in which each of my players characters explore their expanded backstories and get their sacred treasures.
WHAT ARE SACRED TREASURES?
Sacred Treasures are an idea that I have stolen from the anime Seven Deadly Sins and adapted to fit into my world. They are powerful, ancient artifacts, each of which have been around since before recorded time. Each sacred treasure has been involved in one of more events since their original creation by the primal gods - at the beginning of everything.
Sacred Treasures bond with one person, and assist them in performing one ultimate task. After that task is completed, they vanish. though how they appear and how the disappear from existence is not known.
HOW DO I PLAN ON GIVING THE BARBARIAN HIS SACRED TREASURE!
In order to explain (with context) how I plan on giving the Barbarian his Sacred Treasure, we must first look at a very basic backstory of where the Barbarian comes from. I will give a very brief summary of his expanded backstory (which actually runs to several pages)
A summary of the Barbarians expanded backstory
The Barbarian character was not always a Barbarian. In fact, he was a monk by birth. He was born to an ancient order of monks. Monks who were born in, lived in and died in a monastery, built over a portal to the abyss. At the centre of the monastery, there was a chamber in which stood the oldest part of the monastery - a stone altar.
This altar was actually the key to keeping the portal closed. To maintain the power needed to keep the portal closed however, the monks had to perform 3 seperate sealing rituals per day, in which they refreshed and replenished the power of the seal that locked the portal.
This is the order the monk (who became the barbarian) and his twin sister. was born into but this would not be his fate.
When he [the barbarian] was 9 years old, he was playing on the edge of the forest with his sister. It was early morning and the older monks were performing their first ritual of the day. Unbeknownst to them [the monks] mercenary soldiers; hired by an unknown party, were preparing to attack the monastery.
[I have cut a whole chunk of unnecessary stuff out here]
The mercantile army made their way through the sprawling monastery complex, killing anyone who tried to stop them. When they reached the central chamber, their leader took out a strange looking sword and plunged it into the altar. The altar immediately cracked and broke into three pieces. The piece the sword was now embedded in and two other pieces that had been blowen outwards and across the room by the sheer power that had been unleashed.
With that, the key to the seal that kept the portal to the abyss closed was broken. The portal opened and demons flooded forth, killing the monks in the central chamber and the mercantile forces that had just freed them [the demons] from their abyssal abode. After killing everyone in the central chamber, the demons proceeded to spread out throughout the rest of the monastery, killing and devouring any living beings still alive.
They [the rampaging demons] tore down doors, broke through walls, ransacked, killed, consumed and destroyed. Somehow or another, a fire was lit and soon began to spread and seeking out fuel from the broken buildings, became a raging inferno. This drove the demons outwards towards the edge of the forest where our character and his sister had been playing and were now hiding, watching in horror as their home burned and the screams of the dying and collapsing buildings filled the air.
From their hiding place, these two small children saw a great monstrous shape - a nightmare made flesh - coming towards them. Realising that their hiding place had been discovered, our hero grabbed his sisters hand, pulled her to her feet and turned to run, but it was too late. The demon tore away the bushes that they [the players character and his sister] had been hiding in and was just about to snatch up both of them, when the head of a greataxe slammed into its side. It [the demon] screamed but ignored its attacker, its attention focussed on the small things in front of it. It lashed at them [the boy and girl] with its clawed hand. The boy was fast and got out of the way, but his sister was not so lucky.
The demons claws sank into her side and she fell to the ground. Limp but not yet dead - though she had suffered a mortal wound.
The boy stood there and stared, the fight gone from him. His soul burned with rage, his heart trembled with fear and his body was as still as stone. He [the boy] didn't even notice that the enormous man with the greataxe had retrieved his weapon from the demons side and with one more swing, cut it [the demon] in two. Neither did he notice this Goliath of a man, kneel down, pick up the small; limp body of his sister, before scooping him [the boy] up and setting off into the forest.
Indeed the next thing he [the boy] remembers was sitting on the floor of a makeshift shelter, surrounded by strange men. When he plucked up the courage to ask where his sister was, he was told she had passed away due to her injuries and one of the men ruffled his hair and another pushed food into his lap.
He would later be adopted by the man who had saved him from the demon and he [the boys adoptive father] would teach him to the ways of the barbarian. He would teach him how to harness his rage and fear and how to turn his weaknesses into his strengths and so the boy grew up; not as monk, but as Barbarian and although he accepted his sisters death, he never truly believed that she was dead. The bond he felt with her was still there, she was still part of him, she was alive he knew it - he could feel her existence, the life force that they both shared.
Little by little though, his bond with his sister began to fade, replaced by something else - somethink dark and twisted that was filled with malice and hate (and this will become important)
----
So I have cut a lot of stuff out of that. His actual expanded backstory runs to several pages and described his life with his parents, living in the monastery and goes into much more details about his special spirit bond that he shared with his sister.
WHAT I PLAN TO GIVE TO THE BARBARIAN AS HIS SACRED TREASURE!
The sword she is supposed to have used in her battle to over throw the Mind Flayers.
Since the lore surrounding Gith (the person not the race) is somewhat sketchy; that I can see anyway, I planned on taking it and using parts of it for my own purposes. Basically, I want to say that, her sword was not actually forged or created by her. That instead it came to her in some way and was already a powerful ancient weapon, when she used it against the Mind Flayers.
After the Mind Flayers were defeated Gith lost her sword and was never able to find it again. So desperately did she pine for her great weapon, that she created an imitation and it is that imitation that all the other Githyanki silver swords are based off of. Nobody knows where the sword went after Gith lost it, as it seemed to have disappeared from existence. It [the sword] will reappear in my campaign and be found by the party, stuck in the ruins of the barbarians childhood home; embedded in a piece of a broken altar, as described above, in the summary of his expanded backstory.
HOW I PLAN TO GIVE HIM HIS SACRED TREASURE!
It will turn out that the sister of the barbarian character was not killed by the demon who attacked them as children, rather her wounds festered and the abyss corrupted her soul and turned her into something "other" a guardian - to ensure that the portal could never again be closed.
Through idle gossip, the party will learn of a powerful demon princess, who guards a portal to the abyss that is buried beneath the ruins of a desecrated monastery - and if I know the players character the way I think I do, he will put two and two together, realise that this is actually his sister want to go and rescue what left of her soul.
He can feel the last dregs of her humanity draining away. She was strong, she fought the darkness inside of her all these years, but now she is defeated and if he does not rescue her now - nothing of the her will remain.
So it will become very important to him, that the party goes to rescue her.
Upon reaching the early childhood home of the barbarian; the party will be attacked by demons (but not so powerful that they can't defeat them) and make their way into the central chamber of the monastery. There they will defeat more demons and then face the characters sister, who has been turned into a powerful demon.
In a sort of sword in the stone moment, I am hoping that the barbarian will pull out the sword from the broken altar. Using this powerful (and now awakened) ancient weapon - he will be able to defeat his sister and save his friends.
Pulling out the sword will also temporarily close the portal, so no more demons can come through. Giving the party time to explore the ruined monastery, discover books on spirit magic, various treasures and a brief history of how this order of monks have been guarding the portal for thousands of years.
HE NOW HAS HIS SACRED TREASURE - WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS AND THOUGHTS!
So now the barbarian will have a powerful awaked weapon that I will let him bond with over a few sessions. His bond will the weapon will give him glimpses of events that happened before recorded time (Giths war with the Mind Flayers). It will also whisper to him secrets that will allow him to unlock it's true power, which he will need when the party faces the demon lords at the end of this current arc (multiple campaigns)
----
Opinions, thoughts and and criticism on this plan for building the lore and adventures in my world, will be most appreciated.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
So, you gave the barbarian a sword? Are you worried it's too powerful? What's the barbarian's level?
I love how you've got a plan all figured out but if my experience with D&D has taught me anything, it's that the best laid plans of mice and men always go awry. Maybe your group will totally be on board with this but the barbarian might not realize it's their sister, or they might not think to grab the super cool sword, or another party member might take the sword.
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
It doesn't have to happen the way I have it planned. They can wander round the world doing what they like, if they don't take the hook, I will try another way.
If they still don't take it, I'll move the monestrary, so they end up there anyway when they head in that general direction.
The only thing I don't like is I have to do a video game style "can't go back or leave the area once you enter". But I will basically just fill it up with demons rather than an invisible wall.
Demons to the left of them, to the right of them, demons behind them Volley'd and thunder'd.
So they are guided down a certain path, without it seeming like they are actually being guided.
The other danger is as you mentioned - what someone else takes the sword instead. If that happens, I will have to think of what to do.
Because sacred treasures are so powerful though, I didn't want them to just stumble across it
It's true though, that the entire sacred treasure arc kind of relies on the backstories of the PCs and the links between them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
WARNING - A VERY LONG POST AHEAD
TD;LR: Please give your thoughts and opinions on my ideas about building lore, history and adventure in my world by giving the Barbarian character a powerful, awaked sacred treasure. I'd love your opinions and thoughts. I am not asking you to come up with material for me but please do give me your opinions, thoughts and any constructive criticism you might have.
----
THE PLAN FOR 2019!
The plan is to create lore, history and adventure in my world, by giving each of my players characters a sacred treasurethat will come in useful throughout this multi-series of campaigns and which they will be relying upon during the final battle with the Demon Lords at the end of the end of this series.
2019, will start off the Sacred Treasure arc, in which each of my players characters explore their expanded backstories and get their sacred treasures.
WHAT ARE SACRED TREASURES?
Sacred Treasures are an idea that I have stolen from the anime Seven Deadly Sins and adapted to fit into my world. They are powerful, ancient artifacts, each of which have been around since before recorded time. Each sacred treasure has been involved in one of more events since their original creation by the primal gods - at the beginning of everything.
Sacred Treasures bond with one person, and assist them in performing one ultimate task. After that task is completed, they vanish. though how they appear and how the disappear from existence is not known.
HOW DO I PLAN ON GIVING THE BARBARIAN HIS SACRED TREASURE!
In order to explain (with context) how I plan on giving the Barbarian his Sacred Treasure, we must first look at a very basic backstory of where the Barbarian comes from. I will give a very brief summary of his expanded backstory (which actually runs to several pages)
A summary of the Barbarians expanded backstory
The Barbarian character was not always a Barbarian. In fact, he was a monk by birth. He was born to an ancient order of monks. Monks who were born in, lived in and died in a monastery, built over a portal to the abyss. At the centre of the monastery, there was a chamber in which stood the oldest part of the monastery - a stone altar.
This altar was actually the key to keeping the portal closed. To maintain the power needed to keep the portal closed however, the monks had to perform 3 seperate sealing rituals per day, in which they refreshed and replenished the power of the seal that locked the portal.
This is the order the monk (who became the barbarian) and his twin sister. was born into but this would not be his fate.
When he [the barbarian] was 9 years old, he was playing on the edge of the forest with his sister. It was early morning and the older monks were performing their first ritual of the day. Unbeknownst to them [the monks] mercenary soldiers; hired by an unknown party, were preparing to attack the monastery.
[I have cut a whole chunk of unnecessary stuff out here]
The mercantile army made their way through the sprawling monastery complex, killing anyone who tried to stop them. When they reached the central chamber, their leader took out a strange looking sword and plunged it into the altar. The altar immediately cracked and broke into three pieces. The piece the sword was now embedded in and two other pieces that had been blowen outwards and across the room by the sheer power that had been unleashed.
With that, the key to the seal that kept the portal to the abyss closed was broken. The portal opened and demons flooded forth, killing the monks in the central chamber and the mercantile forces that had just freed them [the demons] from their abyssal abode. After killing everyone in the central chamber, the demons proceeded to spread out throughout the rest of the monastery, killing and devouring any living beings still alive.
They [the rampaging demons] tore down doors, broke through walls, ransacked, killed, consumed and destroyed. Somehow or another, a fire was lit and soon began to spread and seeking out fuel from the broken buildings, became a raging inferno. This drove the demons outwards towards the edge of the forest where our character and his sister had been playing and were now hiding, watching in horror as their home burned and the screams of the dying and collapsing buildings filled the air.
From their hiding place, these two small children saw a great monstrous shape - a nightmare made flesh - coming towards them. Realising that their hiding place had been discovered, our hero grabbed his sisters hand, pulled her to her feet and turned to run, but it was too late. The demon tore away the bushes that they [the players character and his sister] had been hiding in and was just about to snatch up both of them, when the head of a greataxe slammed into its side. It [the demon] screamed but ignored its attacker, its attention focussed on the small things in front of it. It lashed at them [the boy and girl] with its clawed hand. The boy was fast and got out of the way, but his sister was not so lucky.
The demons claws sank into her side and she fell to the ground. Limp but not yet dead - though she had suffered a mortal wound.
The boy stood there and stared, the fight gone from him. His soul burned with rage, his heart trembled with fear and his body was as still as stone. He [the boy] didn't even notice that the enormous man with the greataxe had retrieved his weapon from the demons side and with one more swing, cut it [the demon] in two. Neither did he notice this Goliath of a man, kneel down, pick up the small; limp body of his sister, before scooping him [the boy] up and setting off into the forest.
Indeed the next thing he [the boy] remembers was sitting on the floor of a makeshift shelter, surrounded by strange men. When he plucked up the courage to ask where his sister was, he was told she had passed away due to her injuries and one of the men ruffled his hair and another pushed food into his lap.
He would later be adopted by the man who had saved him from the demon and he [the boys adoptive father] would teach him to the ways of the barbarian. He would teach him how to harness his rage and fear and how to turn his weaknesses into his strengths and so the boy grew up; not as monk, but as Barbarian and although he accepted his sisters death, he never truly believed that she was dead. The bond he felt with her was still there, she was still part of him, she was alive he knew it - he could feel her existence, the life force that they both shared.
Little by little though, his bond with his sister began to fade, replaced by something else - somethink dark and twisted that was filled with malice and hate (and this will become important)
----
So I have cut a lot of stuff out of that. His actual expanded backstory runs to several pages and described his life with his parents, living in the monastery and goes into much more details about his special spirit bond that he shared with his sister.
WHAT I PLAN TO GIVE TO THE BARBARIAN AS HIS SACRED TREASURE!
I plan on giving him the Silver Sword of Gith
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Silver_Sword_of_Gith
The sword she is supposed to have used in her battle to over throw the Mind Flayers.
Since the lore surrounding Gith (the person not the race) is somewhat sketchy; that I can see anyway, I planned on taking it and using parts of it for my own purposes. Basically, I want to say that, her sword was not actually forged or created by her. That instead it came to her in some way and was already a powerful ancient weapon, when she used it against the Mind Flayers.
After the Mind Flayers were defeated Gith lost her sword and was never able to find it again. So desperately did she pine for her great weapon, that she created an imitation and it is that imitation that all the other Githyanki silver swords are based off of. Nobody knows where the sword went after Gith lost it, as it seemed to have disappeared from existence. It [the sword] will reappear in my campaign and be found by the party, stuck in the ruins of the barbarians childhood home; embedded in a piece of a broken altar, as described above, in the summary of his expanded backstory.
HOW I PLAN TO GIVE HIM HIS SACRED TREASURE!
It will turn out that the sister of the barbarian character was not killed by the demon who attacked them as children, rather her wounds festered and the abyss corrupted her soul and turned her into something "other" a guardian - to ensure that the portal could never again be closed.
Through idle gossip, the party will learn of a powerful demon princess, who guards a portal to the abyss that is buried beneath the ruins of a desecrated monastery - and if I know the players character the way I think I do, he will put two and two together, realise that this is actually his sister want to go and rescue what left of her soul.
He can feel the last dregs of her humanity draining away. She was strong, she fought the darkness inside of her all these years, but now she is defeated and if he does not rescue her now - nothing of the her will remain.
So it will become very important to him, that the party goes to rescue her.
Upon reaching the early childhood home of the barbarian; the party will be attacked by demons (but not so powerful that they can't defeat them) and make their way into the central chamber of the monastery. There they will defeat more demons and then face the characters sister, who has been turned into a powerful demon.
In a sort of sword in the stone moment, I am hoping that the barbarian will pull out the sword from the broken altar. Using this powerful (and now awakened) ancient weapon - he will be able to defeat his sister and save his friends.
Pulling out the sword will also temporarily close the portal, so no more demons can come through. Giving the party time to explore the ruined monastery, discover books on spirit magic, various treasures and a brief history of how this order of monks have been guarding the portal for thousands of years.
HE NOW HAS HIS SACRED TREASURE - WHAT ARE YOUR OPINIONS AND THOUGHTS!
So now the barbarian will have a powerful awaked weapon that I will let him bond with over a few sessions. His bond will the weapon will give him glimpses of events that happened before recorded time (Giths war with the Mind Flayers). It will also whisper to him secrets that will allow him to unlock it's true power, which he will need when the party faces the demon lords at the end of this current arc (multiple campaigns)
----
Opinions, thoughts and and criticism on this plan for building the lore and adventures in my world, will be most appreciated.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
So, you gave the barbarian a sword? Are you worried it's too powerful? What's the barbarian's level?
I love how you've got a plan all figured out but if my experience with D&D has taught me anything, it's that the best laid plans of mice and men always go awry. Maybe your group will totally be on board with this but the barbarian might not realize it's their sister, or they might not think to grab the super cool sword, or another party member might take the sword.
Tooltips | Snippet Code | How to Homebrew on D&D Beyond | Subclass Guide | Feature Roadmap
Astromancer's Homebrew Assembly
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
It doesn't have to happen the way I have it planned. They can wander round the world doing what they like, if they don't take the hook, I will try another way.
If they still don't take it, I'll move the monestrary, so they end up there anyway when they head in that general direction.
The only thing I don't like is I have to do a video game style "can't go back or leave the area once you enter". But I will basically just fill it up with demons rather than an invisible wall.
Demons to the left of them, to the right of them, demons behind them Volley'd and thunder'd.
So they are guided down a certain path, without it seeming like they are actually being guided.
The other danger is as you mentioned - what someone else takes the sword instead. If that happens, I will have to think of what to do.
Because sacred treasures are so powerful though, I didn't want them to just stumble across it
It's true though, that the entire sacred treasure arc kind of relies on the backstories of the PCs and the links between them.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
The easiest solution is to make it sentient and make it angry if anyone other than the barbarian picks it up.
Tooltips | Snippet Code | How to Homebrew on D&D Beyond | Subclass Guide | Feature Roadmap
Astromancer's Homebrew Assembly
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett