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The Greys of the Great Beyond
Since the Drow are getting scrubbed from Pathfinder, it inspired me to think about how I might separate my nocturnally-inclined elves from the Drizzts and dominatrix spider ladies of D&D past.
So I went with big-eyed, saucer-sailing, orifice-probing, short-statured aliens. I'm beyond pleased, and somehow this is more terrifying than the always-evil Lolth worshipers to me. (It may help that we just watched "No One Will Save You" this week)
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Elves across the Great Beyond fall into one of several sub-species, with characteristics related to the influence of or adaptation to ancestral habitation. The vast majority of these are terrestrial elves, sometimes called “wood” elves to separate them from their kin. While these can vary significantly in appearance from world to world, they share enough culture and characteristics to be distinct from their less-common off-shoots.
The Sun (or “gold”) elves, moon (or “silver”) elves, and star (or “mithral”) elves who sail as part of the New Elven Imperial Navy are the varieties most commonly encountered (or avoided, preferably) by space-farers in the Great Beyond. These groups have significant cultural differences on their home-worlds and settlements, but those tend to be smoothed out enough by the discipline of the Navy that the casual observer may confuse them sometimes. Though, a ship’s quartermaster could be forgiven for not stopping to note the “certain starry gleam” in the eyes of the officer responsible for confiscating his cargo during an interdiction.
However, there is one branch of the elven evolutionary taxonomy that less familiar, even to some elves. Known by various names across the worlds, such as svartálfar, adamantine elves, umbral elves, or grey elves, this secretive group is commonly just called the “Greys” by most.
Appearance-wise, they can vary more widely than other elf sub-species, partly due to a cultural acceptance for flesh-crafting and genetic experimentation. While many have some hue of grey complexion, the name is also partly due to their use of the grey alloy glaucite in their ships and tools. One (fairly) uniform feature is their large “owl-like” eyes which are often jet-black, though the color of these can vary widely as well. They tend to be much shorter than other elves, standing a little above 5ft on average (and when not manipulated by their scientists and mages into more alien forms).
Due to their light-sensitivity, they are known to build or repurpose Turtle Ship hulls and plate them with glaucite. Similarly to a Nautiloid-class vessel, these saucer-shaped ships are comfortable homes for a species used to lightless environments. The turtle ship’s ability to submerge also allow the Greys to covertly enter their underground bases by way of underwater caves, leaving nearby communities unaware of their coming and going.
Not much is known about their culture, but secrecy and a tendency to experiment on other species without their consent has left them with a bad reputation on the planets they are known to visit. Some associate them with the Elder Mythos and the aliens of the Dark Tapestry, but this is possibly because the results of their abductions can seem similar to those of the Mi-Go. However, while a few Greys do study or even worship the Outer Gods, there is very little uniformity to their religion outside of a few localized cults on specific planets. When a farming community finds themselves rendered unconscious by poisoned darts and their organs swapped with their livestock, they can rest assured it is most likely for purely scientific purposes and not in service to the worship of some cosmic horror.
One uniting purpose that has been observed among communities and crews of Grey is the study of the radioactive properties of various rocks and ores found throughout the Great Beyond. Their collection and use of these sometimes leads to sickness and mutation, but they have more experience with these than nearly any other species and have significantly advanced their technology as a result. This includes gear to protect themselves from the worse affects of radiation and other harsh environments, so Greys can commonly be encountered in strange protective suits, obscuring their appearance and increasing confusion over their nature and origins.
One individual named in association with their research of radioactive phenomenon is known as “Rafiel”, though it is unclear if this is a chief scientist or a deity of some kind. Other aspects of their leadership or any kind of ruling class are virtually unknown outside of their communities.
After it’s re-formation, the New Elven Imperial Navy has sought out cooperation and alliances with the Greys, which it had formerly shunned as incompatible with their mission. This new association is unlikely to have any positive impact on the Navy’s reputation, as it appears to be more focused on gaining access to the covert and technological capabilities of their kin, rather than as an exercise in tolerance and acceptance of other cultures.
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Aunt Maddie
Legend tells of the “Ancient Brethren”, pirate monarchs who were the terror of the Astral Sea when the mortal worlds were still young. Little is known of them beyond the tall-tales shared by drunk pirates and children playing make-believe at the docks.
The greatest of these was “Aunt Maddie”, who is seen as a patron of all pirates if not of all who sail. She’s as much of a boogie-man as a hero-figure, and isn’t actively worshiped (which avoids any conflict with Besmara). She’s the spooky fairy god-mother of all who sail seeking treasure.
It’s common to see portraits of her hung in bars and taverns frequented by Astral pirates, so toasts and oaths can be offered in her name. Typically depicted as a beautiful older woman of tremendous weight and strength, dressed as a typical buccaneer captain but in incredibly gaudy fashion. Her most notable accessories will always be a hat with a ridiculously wide brim, and a set of 5 rings on one hand, with massive single-set gemstones of a different color on each.
Her most famous legend relates to her treasure vault, which is said to be the most massive collection of riches in the multi-verse. She stole the bulk of it from the other Ancient Brethren and locked it away behind a door that can only be opened with 5 magical keys, which are sometimes said to be her signature rings (which are scattered and lost).
Like the other Ancient Brethren she has sometimes been associated with a playing card. In her case, the Queen of Diamonds is typically known as “Aunt Maddie” in honor of her tremendous greed and wealth.
#spelljammer#Ancient Brethren#pathfinder 2e#I had always pictured The Witch of the Waste (but piraty) but saw a pic of Alvida with her rings recently and realized I borrowed that too.
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A Plethora of Apocalypses
Setting Concepts and Conceits
Table-top fantasy games tend toward the post-apocalyptic, with themes of exploring the ruins of ancient and powerful civilizations. With this plane-hopping / astral-sailing game, I wanted to keep the action in the stars and leaned farther into the destruction, leaving most of the mortal worlds in the midst or near-aftermath of their various cataclysms. The value isn’t from sifting through the radioactive ruins of your home-world, it’s from seeking new worlds and the opportunity that freedom brings.
After polling my players about what they would like to see in a game, I jotted down some quick notes that would become the skeleton of the campaign. The core concept had to do with certain common tropes I saw in various published settings.
I would use a combination of settings and characters from both gaming and literary settings, to save on effort and give the players a sense of the familiar (albeit in a twisted fairy-tale way).
Most “prime” worlds have been wrecked by cataclysms, almost universally involving magical rocks falling out of the sky. The destruction is generally far beyond what occurred in the equivalent published setting, with planets shattered into floating continents or lands left largely uninhabitable. (Krynn’s “burning mountain”, Golarion’s “Earthfall”, Warhammer’s “Great Catastrophe”)
These events altered or increased how magic in these places worked, creating mutants, uplifting animals ,unleashing demons, aliens, etc. Lots of “green rocks” type tropes, powering some of the more fantastical elements or every-day magic so the setting isn’t as reliant on spell-casters. (Warpstone, Ghost Rock, Cinnabryl/Vermeil, Faerzress, etc.)
Inhabitants of these places often gained powers or new abilities and are commonly marked in some way by tattoo or brand-like alterations to the skin. Some of these patterns are not random, and under the right circumstances could be combined to unlock secrets, form maps to treasures, and reveal lost knowledge. (Savage Coast Legacies, Cerilia’s Blood Powers, Athas’ Wild Talents, and particularly Eberron’s Dragonmarks).
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So (most) worlds experiences some sort of magical catastrophe that left them in ruins. These are all related to some kind of (yet unknown) triggering event. And the physical marks on some of the affected inhabitants may hold a clue to exactly what happened.
By starting with the idea that I’ll have warped and twisted versions of “canon” characters and settings, I free myself from the mental hobgoblins of continuity and lore-accuracy, which is a great help to both myself and my players. It’s also my standing excuse for any cheesiness that may occur in posts on this blog.
Due to all of my players having some sort of anthropomorphic animal species (Tortle, Dragonborn, and ferret-folk), I started out designing a version of the Red Steel setting’s Savage Coast, with the coast being part of floating islands that were the remains of a shattered Mystara.
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Restructuring the Great Beyond
The planes have usually been arranged as nesting spheres, wheels, trees, etc., but I wanted something that could make more sense when charting passages around obstacles and to be able to line up multiple "regions" on the same map.
So I wanted to borrow from the models like the River of Souls / Antipode and 4E's World Axis where things spawn rough on one end, coalesce into something more structured, then decay and drain away at the other end.
So I made a list of some of the types of places I wanted to include and tried to figure out what areas I would need to make them fit. And then if it was possible to get from one to another or if something should lie in-between.
I ended up with 8 separate "seas" to sail (with apologies for the rough draft, but I figured I would show the process a bit). It also lined up a bit like a quadrant of a spiral galaxy like I would use for a map in DragonStar or Star Wars, with clear "coreward" and "spinward" directions.
Summary of the 8 Seas of the Great Beyond
The Head Waters
Collisions of regions of positive and negative energy spin off raw quasi-elemental matter (lightning, ash, salt, etc. all the weird ones from 2E planescape) that collide and drift "downstream". This region is incredibly dangerous to navigate, especially as you get closer to the "core"
The Elemental Chaos
Still cluttered by chunks of raw elements, this area at least allows room to navigate. Clouds of fire share space with planets of of solid ice, but it's not that different from some of the stranger worlds one would encounter in Wild Space. Navigation is a little trickier, as the various planetoids and rivers of elements don't necessarily flow in predictable patterns like an orbiting planet does, but powerful primordial elementals and titans have established stable regions and reliable trade routes that sailors can use.
The First World
The early attempts of the Gods to establish realms lie scattered here, along with various other failed projects and randomly spawning realities that don't quiet solidify into true material existence. Mirror realms, fey wilds, titanic landscapes, and persistent shared dreams drift and nudge each other while occasionally brushing up against the mortal worlds.
The Ethereal Reefs
The Ethereal is a region thick with the same drifting aether as the Astral, but instead of flowing silvery and light it hangs like a thick gray fog. Navigation here is nearly impossible, and there are more than a few things in the fog that can disappear a ship. Passage from Wild Space to the First World is better accomplished by seeking out "thin-spots" like fey portals and such where the fog will clear a bit on certain holidays and allow a ship to slip through. Some systems have entire "faery moons" that only appear on certain days of the year that are functionally gates to the realms of powerful fey.
Some of the thin spots lead instead to shadow worlds, dark mirrors of the system the ship just left. While these can be dangerous and difficult to orient oneself in, they have the benefit of bordering on the First World rather than the Astral Sea, so may be the most reliable way of crossing over.
There are also floating bubbles of individual dreamscapes, but these are harder to hitch a ride on (especially with a whole ship) and don't always last long enough to make it to the Dreamlands proper.
Wild Space
Space. Standard fantasy not-quite vacuum, Spelljammer gravity rules, odd planet shapes, stacked turtles, and all that goodness. These may be better represented as spheres that bob gently on the thick Ethereal, just beneath the Astral sky. Navigating directly between regions of Wild Space generally means you will cross into the Astral Sea once you reach the edge of the system, but these "shallows" don't generally hold the same dangers and wonders as the "deep" Astral.
The Astral Sea
The silvery void and primary medium between planes. No "time", no hunger, no thirst, no aging (for the most part). Regions of real-time with varying rules exist as "Astral Domains", and these are generally shaped more like floating islands rather than planets. Not drifting much from 5E Spelljammer and 2E Planescape here.
The Maelstrom
Largely unnavigable, this area is dangerously unstable (physically and philosophically). Dangers can spawn at any time, randomly encasing, mutating, or annihilating ships and crews. Only powerful divine magic will allow ships to survive outside of the actual Outer Planes, which reside here.
Most Outer Planes have at least one border with the Astral Sea, allowing ships to land and possibly navigate deeper into this region with relative safety. By following rivers down through the Abyss, or uphill through heavenly mountains, you may actually go far enough to emerge from the other side.
The Dark Tapestry
On the far side of the Maelstrom and Outer Planes, there are dark places where any sense of normal reality breaks down. The River of Souls has turned back at this point, so any life-forms originating here follow unknown alien rules and take forms that can strain sanity. This is a mostly void true-vacuum, with vast distances between dim and dying stars. Terrible intelligences rule far realms, and only the barrier of the Maelstrom bars their way into the mortal realms, with the Gods defending the few hidden gates where the Outer Planes might offer entrance back to the Astral.
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Charting the Great Beyond
Mapping the planes can get messy, and I wanted my players to have a quick and evocative way to know where they wanted to go without bogging them down with too much unnecessary space that we would never explore. I wanted a bit of a sandbox feel, but with a limited number of options each session (kind of like a hexcrawl) so they didn't just warp completely out of my prepared material. So we needed a flexible system where they could know what options they had for the sandbox and how long each would take to travel.
I liked the idea of hyperspace routes from Star Wars RPGs, but wanted something that fit the metaphysical nature of the planes better and allowed a bit more mystery. I wanted them to be able to reach fantastic locations that felt familiar (because their characters were "old salts" in a way), but to have parts of the map unexplored and treasure maps to locations in their backyard.
So I took a note from Peter Pan, because it would be impossible to find Neverland without directions, but the directions are exceedingly simple (“Second star to the right, and straight on till morning”).
So the only safe(ish) routes through the Great Beyond are defined by two things: Where you currently are, and a constellation you can use as reference (little bit of Stargate in here too, I guess).
Sidereal Navigation
So you would have a chart for each system you visited and have diagrams of multiple constellations to note the known safe routes out of that system or astral domain.
So your pirate may have a map that shows Toril, and has a constellation of a dragon in flight (Krynn 4 days), a goat (Avernus and the 9 Hells 15 days), a tower (Oerth 7 days), and a scorpion (Golarion 11 days).
So to travel from the planet Toril to Oerth, he would head into wild space a ways until his navigator had a good view and direct him to find the matching tower pattern in the visible stars. Then with the course set, they would head straight that way for 7 days (give or take based on the speed of the ship). The stars of the constellation aren't where they are going and wouldn't get any closer, they are just the framing reference for the location.
Now, when our pirate arrives in Oerth, he'll need an additional chart to get out. Because the constellations don't necessarily lead to the same locations as they would have on Toril. From Oerth, sailing towards a constellation shaped like a dragon in flight may lead to the Boneyard, or the City of Brass, nowhere at all, or into sure destruction. So he'll need to buy a new chart, negotiate for directions, or be stuck. He wouldn't even know the way back, because the sky from this side looks completely different. There may not even be a constellation to use as a route to navigate back to Toril (requiring him to get to a 3rd location that has a charted route back).
There be Monsters (and/or X Marks the Spot)
So sailors in the Great Beyond barter and rob for scraps of paper that show safe and secret routes that lead from one planar location to another, and safe passage back. Some wandering souls will set out toward uncharted constellations, hoping to negotiate their way back around to more familiar systems over time and create valuable new charts. Similarly, a ship can be blown off-course by a psychic storm, and may discover new routes by accident when choosing a constellation and hoping for the best to get back to friendly space. "Touchstone" sextants and similar devices can be used to mark a single location and direct you back, but these are very rare and only one can be active on a ship at a time.
In Conclusion
These simple charts give my players 3-6 options on places to go next (related to the story or not), generally require them to interact with the natives or other sailors to figure out the next leg of the journey, gives me the option to get them somewhat lost, and keeps the mystery of those places "which cannot be found except by those who already knows where it is."
I'll see if I can digitize a few examples, but which constellations you use doesn't really matter, and the routes available depend on what your players know. So it builds itself over time as needed, or hang around as hooks to interesting locals you want them to be enticed into visiting. It's the Astral, so they don't even have to make sense in relation to each other. Just set their starting location and 3 destinations with times, then create similar lists for each of those (hopefully with a return route to the original location). You've got around 9 planar locations they can reach, and that's plenty (since some of those are entire worlds and systems with their own maps).
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While I ran Spelljammer back in the 2E days, I didn't want to deal with the caster-focused helms at all. So one of the first decisions was that all of the ships on the Astral Sea would be powered by psychic sails. Magical fabric manufactured by various techniques, it would be used like traditional sails, as well as pinwheel style propellers, fan-style rudders, oars like nets, or strung across riverboat wheels like sheets. And in all cases it would collect the psychic energy of the winds to be stored in "aetheric crystals" so it could be used for lift (and in some cases steering and emergency propulsion depending on the ship design)
So far, that's covered my basis to give me the ship styles I've needed and a simple explanation for the tech and types of crews without needing casters in every case. It cut out the Mercane/Arcane as well, since the sails could be created even by low-tech communities by harvesting the hide of spacefaring creatures or weaving normal sails with wire forged from sky-metals in circuit-like patterns. You still need a dirigible or magical crystal of some sort to get it off the ground, but that's a small matter, right?
It's a simple change that explained away the need for separate rules for how ships worked. The astral winds blow, and the ships go. Simple as that (except in the case of oars, wheels, and props, which push against the astral-stuff instead). Everyone can get back to piracy without wondering how to get a caster to drive their ship.
Added benefit: Massive hamsters running in wheels makes sense now that the paddles on the outside of the boat are actually providing propulsion.
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Pirates of the Great Beyond
My current campaign has a skewed Planescape sensibility, Spelljammer feel, Pathfinder 2e mechanics, a setting which is a kitchen sink of literary nonsense and old-school D&D weirdness, and an alternate-reality PF2 cosmology littered with post-apocalyptic (more than usual) fantasy worlds.
Toss in three chaotic pirates and the promise of the greatest treasure in existence, and you've got... a mess, frankly.
The first arc has completed, so I should have enough material to start sharing some of our NPCs, locations, rule modifications, and setting inspiration.
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