If one can make the trip in one piece, though, and arrive safely at the Oyuvik Waystation in the Greenstone Isles, they'll find themselves with a straight shot over temperate waters to the vibrant port city known as the Jewel of the Desert... and with access to its lucrative markets.
Many airship crews have bet their lives and lost while attempting to make the Polar Mok'tar Run.
Maybe you'll beat the odds?
2/2
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line... except when those points are on a sphere. The shortest path between the metropolis of Apex City and the Imperium provincial capital Parast leads over the northern polar reaches... and the harsh frozen wilds of Mok'tar. Airship captains who brave the Polar Mok'tar Run can expect punishing winds, searing cold, and over a thousand kilometers of forbidding tundra and its (reportedly cannibalistic?) Turahl denizens.
1/2
Brudo Cadamar is a disabled athlete competing at the 27th Imperium Martial Games. A swimmer and a mountain chariot driver, Cadamar was on-track to continue his family legacy as a Games-bound weightlifter. A climbing accident put Brudo in a chair, but did nothing to dampen his competitive spirit. A devout cleric of Ka, goddess of strength and competition, Cadamar's putting Team Oyster Islands on his back in search of Games gold.
One of the cornerstones of the Yewdar worldbuilding project from the outset has been that evil is *mundane.*
There are no flatly evil deities, even the ones whose domains are unpleasant. Even the daemons trying to unmake Yewdar aren't evil. They're chaotic to destructive degrees. They're devastating in the way a natural disaster is devastating, but neither is evil.
True evil comes from mortals. From us. From the frail and the flawed. The weak and the willing.
Got more complete details on my party.
- Infernis Bard, Olympic volleyball player
- Half-dwarf Seraph, Paralympic swimmer; uses combat wheelchair on land
- Half-goblin Rogue, underground sports bookkeeper
- Human Brawler, Olympic hackeysack player
- Human Warrior, Olympic blitzball player & high-jumping dragoon
So four competitors from two different nations, and one spectator who is absolutely trying to profit off the games. Lots of fun places to go with that.
One of my players produced a beefcake paralympic swimmer for their player character, with an accompanying HeroForge model.
If you're going to serve beefcake, I'm going to cook.
Me: "OK, what's your character?"
Player: "Minotaur cleric of the time god. Defender of the timelines, one of the Chronal Wardens. Think Dr. Strange by way of Doctor Who and Green Lantern."
Me: "I gotchu, fam."
It is my hope that this collage of dwarves going about their days will tell a viewer everything they need to know about Mother Ka's Stony Children.
When PCs graduate into NPCs in my games, I like to make sure they get a commensurate glow up. Here's an old pal named Saoirse who went from being an antisocial outdoorsy dwarf who liked hiking and hated being a "lady" to becoming a 3'10" Wonder Woman who has saved nations and downed ale with the Dweomertouched, children of gods.
Typical Aqori theocrat logic:
- Sport is ritual
- Ritual is a doorway to the divine
- The Church must guard all doorways to the divine
- The Church must co-opt sport as a sanctioned act of worship
The Duke of Fall 