Sunchaser Answers

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What faith do the non sun-worshipping Vessans and drakes follow? I understand its some religion dedicated towards ancient dragons but what are its characteristics?
The Dragon Kings alignment shown in table 3.3 is both the faith of the Drake in the Black peaks and that followed by the Vessan.

What happened to the Vessan princes who joined the Sharos? Are they still princes?
They are still 'princes' in the sense that their bloodlines are revered by other Vessans and they hand down a small amount of secret knowelege and religious ceremony - they are still responsible for going out and making certain minimal offering at the shrines of their tribes but it is a practice maintaned more for traditional reasons than religious. Their alignment is predominantly the Eyes of Heaven. An occasional throw back who secretly or not so secretly holds the old ways in their heart rather than the faith that brought them into the human society could make for a strong NPC. I see a Vessan Firebrand promoting a return to the old ways as a good hook for adventuring, but most are happy to work and live shoulder to sholder with Humans and Green Erron. Having players track down and win the favor of either of the two current Sharos princes might make an excellent prelude to a player gaining levels in the Ironfang master class &mdash; not because the Princes are themselves Ironfangs, but any 'civilized' masters of that art may require the approval of a prince before they pass their teachings on.

Do Green Errons and Vessans become hazelighters as well?
I don't see why not. It's a religious calling not unlike being a paladin and both the Vessa and Erron have produced true-believers.

===It seems that all races are represented in the Sunchaser setting except for the giants (even if some are in the army of darkness), are they in there? And if they are not in the setting at all, where would you advise that they be put in (should the need arise)?===

Sunhaser is set up to absorb new character options very easily, so giants can be introduced as player characters or a one-off threat as easily as saying "And then one stumbles out of a sunpool." They are not intended as a sustained threat or pressence in the setting -- partially to differentiate it from the [as yet unpublished] norse-inspired Godspawn setting. If you did want to add them on a full-time basis I would sugest small communities high in the Rainwall mountains.

===I'd like to know why there's no explanation of why the setting is called Sun Chaser; the text doesn't seem particularly clear on this. I did spot one reference to adventurers being refered to as Sunchasers because their nomadic lifestyle makes it seem like they're always chasing the sun.===

This is certainly the start of the idea. More specifically sunchassers tend to move from place to place by wading across sunpools - being teleported at random to another location at the whim and will of Avva. Basically when an adventuring party has tapped out the immediate plot lines of an area, they make a blind jump to the next place the Sun-lord chooses for them and start adventuring there, carrying with them news and tales from afar and leaving many of their more troublesome entanglements behind. Most sunchaser start out on the run from something and that makes for a good hook later in their careers if that somethign ever catches up to them. I should also point out ruin-develvers and sunchasers are overlaping sets, not the same thing. A team of professional ruin-delvers who are not sunchasers might stick to one region (or even one site) for years. Sunchasers who are also ruin-delvers tend to pop in, hit a site 2-3 times for the low hanging fruit and then move on.

How do sunpools actually work?
Sunpools are natural bodies of water that take on a noticable shimmer for about 40 minutes at midday (starting ~20 minutes before and lasting until ~20 minutes after local noon). Any person wading into such a pool becomes lost in the glare (both from their perspective and that of observers on shore) and vanishes, emerging from a similar pool elsewhere. Each day a pool will open to another random pool. Each living creature may only wade across a pool and be transported once per day, so the trip is a one-way deal (thought you might beable to go back the next day - odds do not favor it though). Some pools have a strong affinity for another pool and tend to link to the same place, but most are fairly random. Because 'open' pools link to other open pools, the teleport is mostly in a north-south oriented band, not coincidetally fitting the shape of the setting. Pools in the 1,000 River Valley tend to go other places in the valley. Magic can force a pool open at other times of day, making them a potential escape route. Really powerful magic can set a pool's next opening to a chosen exit, making them a reliable transportation method for the very powerful.

Huh... sunpools sound like a slightly more random version of ultima's moon gates. Coincidence or inspiration?
Inspiration. I played a lot of Ultima during my misspent youth. While the precise mechncis are different, and the randomness does invite a bit of GM fiat on behalf of Sun-Lord Avva, the value of being able to move protagonists around an enormous setting quickly cannot be underestimated. Making players hike 800 miles - even with a cutscene, can be a bit of a damper on dramatic pacing.

===Errons, a.k.a. Rootwalkers live a long time, so would it stand to reason that most Green Erron today (except for the budlings) were like the Black Errons at some point (i.e. torturing, terrorizing, enslaving and sacrificing the Vessans of the pre Sharos era)?===

Sunchaser's Erron don't have the enormous lifespans attributes to ents. I'd say its quite rare for one to live over a century, and most probably die of natural causes starting at around 75. That still makes them longer lived than humans (rarely older than 65) and much longer tha Vessa (rarely older than 50). Longevity is a prized goal in the setting just like in our world, and some folks have managed to acquire it by magical or spiritual means... So a truely ancient Vessa who has sold their soul to the Lyss or a Black Erron who sinks its roots into a literal fountian of youth once a year might be out there with greater insight into the origins of the War of the Deep Green.

===What changed with the Green Erron, did they all get religion and thats why they calmed down? (I can imagine stopping the violence, but changing into easy-going Sharos citizens seems like its going to take a while?)===

It was a pretty radical and instantaneous conversionon their part. The Erron "god" is nasty, and the Black Eron know of no other power. The Green Erron, upon encountering such an overwhelming conduit of faith in the Sun as displayed by Brighteyes were completely changed in outlook. Prior to her intervention, they simply had no contact with the force that was the source of their lives. No power greater than themselves had ever offered mercy or comfort in their lives. Naturlly, the Black Erron abhor them as weak beings who have abandoned their people's holy calling - the salvation of the world... or at least its preservation...

What are the dark forces that the Errons used to (and presumably the Black Errons still do) worship? Are they like the Soregg?
It's pictured in the book and described in the Gods section - that enormous black tree rising above the mound of sinking, rotting bones. The Black Erron heap the bones of animals (Vessa included) upon its roots to slow, but never halt, the production of its singular fruit. Sometimes the wars go well and they can hold back the growth of the pulpy black mass for several years. Other times they falter and the fruit matures in little more than a single season. Each time a fruit falls from the tree it unleashes horrors, and each horror is different. Sometimes a plague, sometimes a kaiju, sometimes a swarm of lesser vermin. But always woe to the world. Why yes... that is rather like the Soregg...

Why not simply remove the fruit before it can ripen?
That would come after making your way past an army of zealot Erron, and then surviving the tree iteself (I smell stacking poison DCs with a cap around 500). I always figured having a go at the tree was end-game climax on par with the final battle with the Crone (just further north)

What is the general feel of the culture in the Sunchaser setting? European? Norse-Viking? American Indian? Middle Eastern? Whatever?
There are different regions in Sunchaser, so each has a slightly different feel (also the different cultures inhabiting each region probably contributes to that.) In the south you have the black peaks, which are run by the Matha (a scholarly/magical rotating monarchy) and the drakes. The Matha are somewhat Arthurian, with fairly well respected armored knights wandering around and a similarly influenced mode of dress also. Heading north you have the plains of Anmai, which is the home of the Janno who have interbred quite extensively with the native elves (seems to be mostly small villages with a fuedal european feel, kind of like every hero's home village). The Janno do have a more continenetal European feel, with a much larger amount of space letting seperate cultures and styles emerge. Further north is the Gron'ver, home of the Sharos civilization (theocratic villages dotted around a giant swamp/marshland) as well as the Rootwalkers and the Saurians. The Sharos take some cues from Greece. The culture of citizens vs. residents is a nod to those traditions. Its hotter in the everglades and the light, flowing clothing reflects that. Finally we get to Morru's mirror, where the warlike Ahset found and allied with the Dwarves. Sheer cliffs and crags abut the sea which is filled with small islands near to land. The Ahset have a touch of Arabic/Eastern Medditeranean to them, with a culture that sails around a sheltered sea and prizes both weapon skill and merchantile accumen. So, feels European, but each area is different.

Are elves born from the elf blooded Janno, or can only full elves beget more elves?
Only elves beget elves without intervention by the Silver crown (which is rare, but not unheard of - their specific blessing can give what would otherwise be an elf-blooded child fully elven mechanics/Origin). It takes sincere desire from both parents though. For many the trace of elven blood its just a footnote, for those with the Janno or similar Orgins it's noticably manifest (and taking one of the Elven 'Nation' feats can make it quite strongly manifest - no mistaking a Janno with the Swan Nation feat!). The Elven-blood feat or Fey heritage are also perfectly justifiable for humans from the Janno region, though such extreme expressions are not common.

Do the elves talk about the catastrophe that ruined their civilization, or is that one part of their culture that they do not pass on?
As to 'the Devestation' of the Elven civilization, they themselves don't know much about it. Their numbers were so harrowed that their civilizaiton colapsed to the point of oral tradition only. The elves talk about it all the time in terms of mythology about a golden age now gone with only a few ruined towers as reminders -- the gods however have nothing to say on the matter. These are elves perhaps 2 full generations into a hard-core post appocalypse when the humans showed up. Gaunt Elves should give off a serious Mad Max vibe -- feral scavengers picking over the corpse of their own past. Come down hard on the Burden of Ages angle; this is a species on it's way out the door and they know it. The ones in Anmai survived only because the fundamental ecology is so friendly. You can support a decent tribe on hunter/gather tech on these plains even after getting blown all the way back below the agricultural age. Once you hit the Saltweep, everything east of there is dead, dead, dead. Anmai is basically only a border province of what had been a MUCH larger civilization, and the heart of that civilization got torn out and lit on fire. Yeah, there's some plot hooks lurking out on the seared wastes of Avva's Anvil. Ogre and the Bloodghost are just the tip of the... well. Probably not an iceberg, but something big.

===I notice that, under the list for common species feats is "Spider Nation". Are they maybe the strange elves that are spoken of once or twice that still live in the elven ruins? Or is it more along the lines of: Ignore the Noble Feat, and focus on the stats; they're not exactly "dark elves" just a different sub-species?===

I don't actually remember putting that in there, but when you mention it I immediately think of the gaunt elves of the ruins along the southern edge of Anmai. Turning in to driders is probably not appropriate, but the Nation feat seems like a sound representation of the 'old ways' turned horribly in on themselves. The Talon Rock quest hub is set in that area.

What relations do the Black Peaks goblins have with the nearby orcs in the Kaia Jungle?
The goblins think of the Orcs the way we think of summer blockbuster movies... They grab some popcorn and watch the show when the orcs show up. While goblin raiding might uptick slightly while a Orc rampage is passing through, the orcs kill everything indiscrimatealy, so the goblins mostly stay out of the way. They might pick off some targets of aopportunity in the aftermath, but ussually the surviving humans are so spun up on military standby it's not the best time to visit. The orcs stay out of the high mountian areas ("drake territory") so while the drakes do often come out in fair numbers to help the Matha, the goblins can benefit by stepping up their attacks on the drakes in their absence, rather than than attacking the Matha.

===Do the goblins confront the drakes directly on raids, or are they more about sneaking around and stealing the young? If the former, how do they go about it? Do they have flying mounts (I figure something nasty)?===

The black peaks are riddled with extensive volcanic cave systems, some big enough for Drakes to nest and even hold massive gatherings in... and others just big enough for a goblin to squeeze through. So, surprisingly, the goblins have more practical mobility than the drakes do &mdash; underground they can outmanuever and escape drakes quite easily if the pick their battlefields right. Underground attacks do a great job of neutralizing the drake advantage of flight. This is one area where the human-drake alliance shines: most early humans had excellent stone cutting and mining skills, and that knowledge remains common among the 4 kingdoms, so humans are often brought in to collapse smaller tunnels, widen larger tunnels and generally help fortify desirable drake caves against goblin incursion.

How best to build/run those goblins who have consumed the young drakes and stole their powers?
About 75% of the goblins in the black peaks should have the Draconic Heritage feat. This immediately sets the tone for these little buggers. Those goblins that have personally drank the blood and eaten the flesh of a drake straight off the still-warm bones have the option to take the Draconic Legacy feat (ignore the usual species restrictions). Yes, some black peaks goblins can fly.

Are the Matha aware of the goblins preying upon the drakes and would they be interested in helping or not? Have the drakes asked for help, or are they too proud to do so?
Innitially the drakes had no idea what was happening to their eggs and young. This period allowed the goblins to get their innitial hold on the region and gain the broad traces of Draconic Heritage in their numbers. Now the threat is fairly well understood and humans are definitely part of the fight, where their small (to a drake) size is a great asset. Similarly the Goblins have learned about their enemies and are much more comfortable attacking adults and calling a feast for multiple bands, ensuring scores or even hundreds of goblins get a sip and a bite when a large drake falls.

What are the relations between the drakes and the other people groups besides the Matha?
They respect the Matha (and the Rascal) for being smart/clever. When meeting new humans from other regions they'll probably try to test their knowledge or wits just a little to see if they are similarly deserving of respect, or should be lumped in as 'slightly slow' If they think you're not real bright they can be a little disdainful and talk slower. They are so confident of their superior physical prowess that a good, friendly thrashing can also earn their respect (Pummel a drake unconcious, and he'll never give you crap about not knowing the answers to any of his 8 favorite riddles ever again).

Would it be appropriate to have a Drake/Saurian Priest of the Dragon Kings (ie, do they grant power in that way?)
Yes. The Dragon Kings alignment is fully functional for characters that take steps along Paths. That the six Dragon Kings physically reside in remote corners of the world does not reduce their nigh-immortal power. (its a little like the Olympian pantheon &mdash; the belivers CAN point at a mountain and tell their young, "some of the Gods reside right there.")

===Where are the Rainwall Mountains? I have been unable to find them in the Sunchaser chapter nor the map. My assumption is they are located in the Brenne-Stones since that seems to be where the fey/elementals reside and Giants to me have always been "elemental".===

The Rainwall is the mountainrange east of Anmai - Its quite high and probably a significant contributor to the arrid climate of the desert and steppes beyond.

How long is it from one end of the Thousand River Valley to the other? If how long to travel if you go by the rivers?
I tend to bracket it &mdash; if the main course were laid out straight it would be over 2000 miles (though less than 3000) so comparissions to the Mississippi are quite apt. In the absence of monsterous assault, you could travel its length in a bit over a month heading down stream. Half again that time headed upstream. There are 2 major impedimaents to navigation. At the foothills of the Black Mountans a series of great falls above/within Caskanoth prevents any water-travel. Above Arun the waterways ar also laregely restricted to craft small enough to be portaged. Longtooth's Shout is a stricktly one-way passage of wild rapids. As such it is normally only used by rafters (cheap, semi-disposable craft) manned by what less seasoned polers would call lunatics.

The languages section doesn't list one for the Rootwalkers. Do they speak Kamalil?
I actually missed them when doing that, probably since I was having too much fun with the oddities of shared languages. Kamalil is a good fix, and adds some interesting potential in the Rootwalkers maybe remembering more about the former elven dominance than the elves do... Oh, and just for trivia, Kamalil is a Dark Crystal reference }}