Medaevum

The Northern Kingdoms, as this land was once known, are no more. The first thing that returning Alterans discovered is that the land has sunken in places, the sea risen in others, and the landscape has been torn apart by unfathomably powerful forces.

They could have reasonably expected to be challenged upon their arrival. They left with the understanding that Shoreless Gulf and the Sea of Storms were on the precipice of being embroiled in a fight that would take decades or centuries to resolve.

Only, upon their arrival, there were no titanic elementals. No vast storms. No roiling seas. What's more, there were the ruins of a civilization that must have persisted through the desolation of the landscape.

With all this talk of phenomenal cosmic power, I just want to make sure we're all on the same page with the intended power level of mages and blessed relative to everything else.

An apprentice mage or T1 blessed is able to do the occasional impossible thing - lighting a candle with their mind, for example - but they are not sufficiently strong enough to leverage that power into anything not utterly trivial. Lighting a candle, for example.

A journeyman mage or T2 blessed could reasonably leverage their magical ability into overcoming someone of equal skill to them. If they are in a swordfight with an equally skilled swordsman on even footing, and if the mage/blessed is using their magic to their full potential, the mage/blessed should win.

An adept mage or T3 blessed could leverage their magic into performing competently at tasks which they have no skill, or by supplementing ample skill with ample magic, stand toe to toe against 2-3 lesser skilled adversaries. Someone who is a master at their craft could still outcompete an adept, but only just.

A master mage or T4 blessed is able to hold their own against two or three opponents at once using their magic alone. Even a skilled master in a nonmagical field could not hold a candle to the might of a master's magic. If the master is particularly skilled in something like swordsmanship, they could use their magic to supplement that skill and be able to take out an entire group of unskilled adversaries.

How powerful should a character be relative to some common event monsters?

An angry bear would absolutely trounce an adept or T3 blessed. A master could probably contend with it alone, at a push. 

A minor elemental, only just powerful enough to manifest an avatar, would be at the level of a master mage within the boundaries of its chosen element.

An arrow to the heart is fatal to any mortal, regardless of how powerful they are in theory.

There's an elephant in the room...

Divine magic, the divine themselves, the pantheon, and characters' relationship with it is getting reworked. How? I don't know yet. When I have a more concrete idea, it will become possible to explore the implications of the ongoing divine absentia and be really cool I promise.

In the meanwhile, this is how things work for now.

How does divine magic work?

The gods are unfathomably deep wellsprings of power with a mind, agenda, and personality. Each member of the Pantheon is an island unto themselves, with mysteries and histories uncounted. However, they are finite. Gods can die. Gods can change. New gods can be made from the ashes of the old.

Because of the finite nature of their being, the divine require servants to see that their will is done across the length and breadth of existence. Some of these servants are in the form of angels greater and lesser, sometimes even beings of near divine power vassalized or subjugated to their will, but a plurality of any given god's servants will be blessed mortal followers.

These mortal followers act as a lens through which divine power is shone. The divine is the wellspring, from which their followers draw, and then shape the power according to their will - within constraints set by the divine.

What's the catch?

That's just it: constraints. The divine have an agenda. You could make a strong argument that the agenda is a fundamentally good thing, such as upholding the sanctity of truth or protecting the weak. However, you have to keep the bathwater with the baby. Is upholding bonds of fealty always a moral good? Should you always seek out vengeance against those who have wronged you? The divine do not appreciate their moral framework being taken piecemeal and the inconvenient parts ignored.

Are there ranks within the divine system like there are with arcane?

At least for now, yes. Because of the diverse nature of the divine, the ranks are not named but listed in tiers. You're welcome to come up with unique titles for your character's interpretation of their divine's ranks.

Each rank is intended to be roughly of the same power level as within the arcane system, so a tier one blessed would be on equal footing against an apprentice of of any given magic school, and so on.

How do I rank up?

Goodwill.

T1 -> T2: 6
T2 -> T3: 12
T3 -> T4: 16

Will there eventually be a more involved process for leveling up?

Yeah, as it stands I'm just going to trust you to know when it feels appropriate to level your character up in the blessed magic system. When the rework comes out, things will be different.

Valiant
The god of War, Counsel, and Protection.

Followers of Valiant are beholden to the following creed:
- Protect the weak, no matter if they are worthy.
- Never retreat from battle, for your resolve is what shall bear your soul to me in death.
- Never be the first to break peace, and always be ready to accept surrender and repentance.

What can a follower of Valiant do?

They can summon arms and armor to themselves. They can lean on Valiant for strength of mind and composure in the face of fear and chaos. They can attack faster and hit harder than should be possible.

Visage
The god of Secrets, the Moon, and Tides.

Followers of Visage are beholden to the following creed:
- Lay all that would be hidden bare to the moon and seas, that we may share our secrets together.
- Never share a secret without receiving something of equal or greater value in return.

What can a follower of Visage do?

Illusions, they can make you see things that aren't really there. They can manipulate water to do all sorts of things. They can see perfectly at night, under the moon. They can breathe underwater and stay submerged indefinitely.

Ignis Synnove
The goddess of Law, Fire, and Truth

Followers of Ignis Synnove are beholden to the following creed:
- Never give voice to a lie, or leave a record of it in any form.
- Never go back on your given word or solemn vow, and punish those who do.
- Destroy with fire those things antithetical to me - mages, betrayers, undead, and demons.

What can a follower of Ignis Synnove do?

They have a command over fire, able to conjure fire from nothing and manipulate it in the environment. They become progressively immune to flames, but a sufficient powerful source may still do them harm (such as those of a mage more powerful than they). They can compel the truth from others.

Skraag
The god of Murder, Undeath, and Envy

Followers of Skraag are beholden to the following creed:
- Allow life to pass without remorse or pity.
- Do not break a covenant once it has been made.
- Take freely that which you covet, but not with undo haste. All will be made yours, in due time.

What can a follower of Skraag do?

Raise the dead. The more powerful the Skraag blessed in question, the more powerful and interesting the dead they can raise. Do note, however, that this is only ever a fascilime of life; they will remain corpselike, even in subtle ways, forever while in this state of undeath. Skraag blessed may also become undead themselves, no longer aging or the like. Their undead form may be possessed of greater speed, strength, and vitality than they ever had in life.

Theodra
The goddess of Wisdom, Hunting, and Wilderness

Followers of Theodra are beholden to the following creed:
- Share your wisdom with those who will listen.
- Never kill without need.
- Mercy is a knife: do not cut yourself with it.

What can a follower of Theodra do?

They can track unerringly, know how to survive even in the most unlikely and inhospitable environments, and have an affinity for wolves and other wild things. They can also use a bow with terrifying accuracy.

Jax
The god of Trickery, Wealth, and Sailing

Followers of Jax are beholden to the following creed:
- Never do with direct action what could better be accomplished through subtler means.
- A tenth of all wealth you garner should be set aside in safe havens.
- Once it is yours, it is yours; it does not matter who owned it before.

What can a follower of Jax do?

Sometimes, things just seem to work out for them. It should never be clear if it was divine providence, or just a confluence of skill and luck.

The Grey Lady
The goddess of Death, the Afterlife, and Winter

Followers of The Grey Lady are beholden to the following creed:
- You must oppose the followers of Skraag in all that they do, and scour them like a blight from the earth.
- Protect and preserve the vessels of the dead.
- Fulfill the last wishes of the dead, that their spirit may rest and their legacy be preserved.

What can a follower of The Grey Lady do?

Unbind souls from their moorings. Against powerful undead or tightly bound souls, this only weakens them. Against undead which are weaker than them, it can kill them outright. Presented with a horde of undeath, a sufficiently powerful blessed of The Grey Lady could see them all put to rest with little more than a gesture. Blessed of The Grey Lady are also able to manipulate cold, snow, wind, and other forces of winter.

Sallana
The goddess of Wine, Love, and Harvest

Followers of Sallana are beholden to the following creed:
- Make love and be merry, and carry the memories of better times with you to brighten darker days.

What can a follower of Sallana do?

Turn water into wine. Play music beeautifully. Memorize poems in moments. Create art that is literally divine.

Korog
The god of Artifice, Beer, and Legacy

Followers of Korog are beholden to the following creed:
- Hold yourself to the highest standard.
- If what you've made isn't at least as good as your last, scrap it and start over again.
- Make things to last. If your work does not outlive you, you are an unworthy craftsman.

What can a follower of Korog do?

Create the finest and most durable works in all the land. Whatever craft they are engaged with, a Korog blessed will be the absolute top of their field, able to create works far surpassing any other.

Shalherana
The goddess of Life, Renewal, and Vengeance

Followers of Shalherana are beholden to the following creed:
- Never let a wrong go unpunished; name your wrongdoer that they may be shamed, make a record of who they are and what they did that the misdeed never be forgotten.
- Never kill a living thing. If a life has been taken from you, find other means to right that wrong. If a life is taken by mistake, repent.
- Protect mothers and their children, let the sanctity of life never be forgotten.

What can a follower of Shalherana do?

They can heal. They can shape the growth of plants and other living things. All living creatures love Shalherana, and the most powerful of her blessed are able to calm natural beasts from raging and the like.

Jishrim
The spider sleeps, and of what it dreams, no mortal mind should ever want to know.

The world ended.

The world has ended before.

Everything fell to ruin.

This isn't the first time.

If we are to live, we must rebuild.

So we shall.

The descent of the Daughter of Grief upon Altera prompted a great exodus. Those who could fled by magic or artifice, even as far as fleeing to other worlds. Those of lesser means than that fled by ship. Some north, into forbidding cold; some east, into uncharted lands; some south, into terrible heat; and some west, back to lands forgotten. Those who could not flee at all died.

The story of Altera is going to follow those who fled west. The tales of those who went to other places is as of yet unknown.

The old Northern Kingdoms is the new Sunken Lands. What was once familiar is now foreign. Where once there had been mighty continents, only scattered islands remain. Islands with signs of having once been inhabited, but no living people to greet their long lost kin. Shoreless Gulf and the Sea of Storms are to blame for the change in landscape, but are nowhere to be found either.

All that is left is for those who remain to move on, and try to carve out a new life for themselves amidst uncertain tides.

Where your character, and presumably other people also, live.

How big can my settlement be?

It has to start small. You can put up a campfire and a few tents anywhere without spending Goodwill, that's fine, so it has to be a bit larger than that. A longhouse. 2-3 small cottages. Something for them to do, like a small mine.

What happens when I spend Goodwill on my settlement to expand it?

You make it bigger. A few more cottages here, a tower there, and so on. Every time you expand your settlement with Goodwill, you can add onto it a little more.

What if someone attacks and destroys some of my stuff?

You get the amount of Goodwill you spent on it back, and more for whatever else happened in the course of that happening.

And if they conquer it?

If someone outright conquers your settlement - there's no chance of getting it back, they destroyed it, they don't want to give it back, whatever - then you get the Goodwill that you spent on it returned to you. And the conqueror must spend Goodwill to restore the settlement back to its previous glory, with lots of derelict buildings and the like until then.

Why spend Goodwill on a settlement at all?

Insofar as there is a mechanical reason, it serves to justify your character's means. If they are a banker within a bustling city, a DM is more likely to accept that they have enough money to offer a huge bribe to an NPC. If they are a wizard being challenged on how wise they are, having a wizarding tower would be ample justification for why they are an especially wise wizard.

You can also make use of the NPCs within, if it makes sense to in context. If you have a barracks and a castle and some guy attacks, you're welcome to have NPC guards take issue with it; if two settlements are in conflict, they could well fight each other with armies. If you have a wizarding school, the occasional apprentice or journeyman NPC around town would be reasonable. Ditto, if you have a temple you could have the occasional blessed acolyte within the township.

Can I get weird with it?

Absolutely! As long as the idea can start small and expand with time, it can work. Do you want your settlement to be a flotilla of ships that travel from place to place, accruing more vessels along the way? That's fine. Do you want a floating castle? If you can justify to me how you have a floating castle, that sounds great to me.