#hrazhak

TEMPERAMENT AND LUPERCALIA

Shifters are the descendants of lycanthropes and humans. Not necessarily first-generationally either. Sometimes called “Weretouched,” shifters can display animalistic features even if neither of their parents showed any outward signs.

They are usually socially solitary and tend to be quiet in mixed group settings. Not so when gathering with other shifters. When with shifters of their own “species” (swiftstride, longtooth, beasthide, etc), they are more relaxed, apt to wax nostalgic or make a toast. When around other types of shifter, this gregarious nature tends to turn decidedly more rowdy.

This is fairly unnoteworthy in most situations; if said rowdy intersection takes place where other races outnumber the shifters present, we’re talking opposing sports fans in a bar, at worst. And even if shifters are the majority, 11/12 of the year, the absolute worst it will get is rock stars wrecking a hotel room.

But in the month of Olarune, it’s a different story. Whether it’s to do with a seasonal pheromonal shift, or some more likely connection to “Olarune’s Blessing” (as druids and Eldeen shifters refer to shifter powers), the second month of the year affects shifters heavily. Really heavily. Shifters purposefully avoid other types of shifter during Olarune. They purposefully avoid large groups of shifters of any kind that month. It’s a month for meditation or solo hunting/drinking/studying. Or it’s a month for spending time with non-shifters (although that is a much less common pastime). Because if a bunch of shifters were to get together in Olurane, it would result in a dangerous —and hyper-sexual— state called a Lupercalia: an unstable middle ground between an orgy and a bloodbath. There’s no clear number for how many shifters it would take to cause a Lupercalia, and any quantitative study of that sort of thing would require a truly evil research organization (Know any?).

THE SILVER CRUSADE

In the 800s YK, lycanthropy was, out of nowhere, a major concern for a large swath of the population of Khorvaire. Whether from a confluence of moons or some darker magic, the curse was suddenly able to be spread by anyone bitten by a lycanthrope. Were rats, werewolves, weredolphins, and more: all were proliferating at an alarming rate.

Simultaneously, the Keeper of the Flame at the time, Jolan Sol, The human speaker for the will of the Church of the Silver Flame, was attempting to expand the church’s reach into Aundair, where the lycanthropes were causing massive problems not just infecting people but also decimating their livestock. Keeper Sol saw an opportunity to maximize the Silver Flame’s marketability while making some of the more militaristic factions within the church’s current ranks happy. He declared that this lycanthropic surge would be met with an equal and opposite lycanthropic purge.

From 832-882 YK, the Church of the Silver Flame launched The Silver Crusade, a zero-tolerance campaign to stop the spread of a mutating lycanthropic curse. As part of that purge, many shifters were killed, not out of confusion, but out of bigotry. Eventually the Church decreed that its more overzealous (read: ‘violently racist’) knights were to leave shifters alone, but by then a lot of blood feud had built up on both sides. To this day, over 100 years later, there are knights of the Silver Flame out there who consider shifters to be one bad day away from a lycanthropic rampage. Also to this day, there are shifters who would just as soon rip out the throat of a Silver Flame paladin as look at them.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME HRAZHAK?

One of the three most well-known/infamous spectator sports in Khorvaire (SEE ALSO: Six Stones, Skyblades), Hrazhak is primarily a shifter game, played like full-contact Capture The Flag. More than full-contact, actually, since most full-contact sports don’t allow claws and fangs to be employed quite so liberally. While (super)natural weapons are permitted, magic is prohibited (both spells and items), as are all other weapons and armor. Normally played with two teams of seven shifters, substitutions are possible. Tieflings have often been welcomed in because of their sizable horns, but most other races are not seen as able to hit the overlap between A) hearty B) savage, and C) likely to stop hitting other players before killing them.

Standard gameplay involves a bounded 100x50yd stadium field featuring outcroppings, structures, and various traversal methods. Design is up to the event coordinator, and a regular contest prize in Sharn is “Design The Next Hrazhak Field!” Teams place their respective Hrazhaks (usually stones the size of a large vase), and disperse around their half of the field. When play begins, players try to literally knock out the other team and be the first to have both hrazhaks touching on their half of the field. Healers are on hand to stabilize and keep players alive, but as soon as a player has been magically healed, they are out of the game until a winning team has been announced. Thus, training often involves on-the-fly non-magical first-aid techniques to bandage wounds and keep going as long as possible.

Eastern Reaches:

Merylsward:

With Meryl meaning “by the sea” and Sward meaning “expanse of short grass,” Merylsward is a quiet and rustic farming village to the far north of the Reaches. It is the furthest north civilization ventures in the nation, and is the nearest you can get to the Icehorn Mountains without ocean-sailing or forest-delving. Merylsward’s town square features a complex scaredeer fountain, dozens of hollow lengths of bamboo filling the air with carefully-timed soothing tipping-tube music all day and night.

Featured Locations: The Seasaltlick Tavern and Inn: run by Brandy and Bailey Rialto, a retired sailor and her current husband. Meryl’s Wards, Meryl’s Wands, Meryl’s Swords: a trio of supply shops run by “Marm” Meryl Lavinia, with public front rooms and adventurer-only back rooms. Warden Yurt: the equivalent of a Town Watch Station, the resident Warden of the Wood is a razorclaw shifter druid named Astro.

Redleaf:

A village named and known for how trees grown there naturally present red leaves, needles, and blossoms year-round, no matter where the seeds come from. The village maintains its typical hunting/gathering lifestyle around the House Vadalis outpost’s day-to-day dominance.

Featured Locations: House Vadalis Kennels: run by Leo d’Vadalis, focused on breeding and training hounds, raptors, and other hunting animals. The Redleaf Inn: run by Kellibelle d’Ghallanda, this bed and breakfast is a go-to spot for nature-loving honeymooners.

Varna:

The commerce/trade hub of the Reaches, Varna makes great use of its location on the shores of Lake Galifar. It boasts enclaves for all 12 Marked Houses (with Vadalis being juuust a bit larger and more crenulated), but also hides various black markets dealing in less-than-legal animal products poached from across the Reaches.

Featured Locations: Foalwood: House Vadalis ranch just north of the city, run by Briar St. Price of House Vadalis (she is a druid both unaffiliated and unpopular with the druids of the Reaches). Secretkeeper: a large awakened strangler fig who host has long since died and rotted away, leaving what appears to be a 60-foot-tall hollow tube made of welded crisscrossing vines; Secretkeeper is located in a susurrus grove that muffles sound, allowing their visitors to share their deepest secrets; those who do, receive gifts based on the juiciness of their donations.

Central Reaches:

Mosswood: Once a thriving area, rich with humanoid and animal life, about 30 years ago, a serious disease (Blood Root) started to take hold, and the local druids, the Children of Winter, held that it was nature’s will, and refused to provide medical assistance. When the disease spread beyond the Mosswood, druids of other orders stepped in and cut off the spread of Blood Root, but at the cost of their peace with the Children. Now, the Mosswood is home to the sparse few survivors of the disease…the Children of Winter who never got sick, and the nondruids who never got better.

Wolfwood: Wolf’s Paw is the largest settlement near the Wolfwood. Led by Slara (ranger) and Lorgan (druid, Watcher of the Wood), this thorp is 100% shifters. They play a shifter sport called Hrazhak (full-contact Capture the Flag with claws and fangs). Recently, the shifters of Wolf’s Paw have spread out their Hrazhak league throughout the Wolfwood. Like, aaaaall throughout. Have fun with that.

Western Reaches:

“Deep woods” does not even begin to scratch the surface of the Western Reaches. To get there, you’d have to make it past packs of shifters, five flavors of druids, awakened trees and animals, and multiple weak spots in our reality leading to coterminous zones that could result in the rest of the campaign taking place in the feywild. Let’s be very honest: if you find yourselves in the Western Eldeen Reaches, I’ll have had time to write a supplemental.