The Rhyme Schemer [Royal Verse]

The second post in my crossover with TLN's Royal Verse. We now delve into the other half of the universe. While the Kings rule Systems, Processes, and Chemistry, the Poets are those who govern Stories, Plots, and Contrivances. They are not the Gods who are Motley Fools; their place in the universe is clear, rational, and necessary, even if the Kings are infuriated by them. The Kings are fragments of the Father-King, pieces of something lost. But the Poets are a new possibility; half-dreamed echoes of a future not yet come to pass. They're what the Daughter-Princess (whom is currently the Mourning Girl, Story-Lover, the Goddess of Games and Gears) once imagined for her and her Father's work. The completed Cosmos given voice and face in discordant democratic.

The Poets do not wear Crowns. While the Rulers of Physics need a physical representation, the Speakers of Rhyme simply have beautiful souls. To claim the mantle of a Poet, one must best their story. Poets, after all, are Tropes.

A King might be anything you can name, but a Poet is anything you can feel. A King can be War, as a process; a Poet is War, as a narrative structure. A King can never be Love, a Poet can never be Uranium.

Such it is that a Rhyme Schemer progressively starts to embody their mantle more and more. If you aim to become Flashbacks, you're not merely striving to become memory or recollection, but the entire narrative concept of replaying the past in the present point of view, even if it produces new details. You are becoming not the phenomena within the story's world, but the picture on the veil of the screen.

So, the Rhyme Schemer class. First of all, your system doesn't really matter. Even more so than usual for my works. For now, structure this as a Cleric-equivalent, minus the spells.

At first level, you lose your Base To-Hit and your Experience Progression. You use milestone/narrative leveling, progressing in this class whenever the table agrees you made a significant stride towards embodying the Poetry you wish to become. You also will not need Base To-hit, as Poets are lovers, not fighters. By which I mean, while Kings are born of the violent tragedy of the Father-King's death, the Poets are answers to the Daughter-Princess's grief. While you are not saint, and you might indirectly cause as much destruction as you wish, you are incapable of attempting to create harm. The Poet of War is not a warrior, but a general; his power is in instigating wars from behind the scenes, not winning them. If a Rhyme-Schemer wishes to accomplish things, it is not by the sword, but the pen. Exploration, the Social game, trickery and cleverness, narration and ingenuity. If for some reason an attack roll is absolutely 100% necessary, explain your theatrical reasoning, and gain a +1 to the roll for everything the Theatregoers accept.
At the same time, you are now gain a pool of Plot Points equal to your level, which replenishes per Scene/Session. These points can be used to reroll any die roll you wish, and take the better result. You may continue to reroll a die as many times as desired, so long as you have the Plot Points to spend.

At second level, you lose your Armor Class. The world has acknowledged that you have stepped off the scene of Duels save for the allegorical, and so you are no longer bound to such a thing. Though you can still be harmed, anything that targets Armor Class will be treated as a miss, save for a natural 20, which will harm you in a dramatically appropriate way.
In exchange, you are now metafictionally aware to a small degree. While you do not yet totally buck the 4th wall, you have a greater understanding of Story. You can always detect when something is important or relevant to the current story structure. No villain can ever disguise themselves as a simple, nameless bar patron. No princess can pretend to be a mere scullery maid. No artifact will be overlooked as a rusted piece of junk.

At third level, you lose your Inventory, and are now able to claim you have anything on your person that makes narrative sense and wouldn't be thematically disruptive. Anything you attempt to pull out of your pockets must be approved by all the Theatregoers who judge your Story (the GM and the other players), nor can you pull anything that would contradict the internal logic of the world or the themes of your own personal Story Trope. The aspiring Poet of Futility probably isn't going to have the miracle cure to AIDS in his bag.

At fourth level, you lose your Race, your Body. You may now take any and every form, as long as you never do so "on-screen", you do not become a specific named individual, and your form is not narratively disruptive. No turning into a Tarrasque unless everyone agrees it's appropriately awesome/fitting.

At fifth level, you lose your History. Your backstory now exists in flux, and is whatever you need at the time. By spending Plot Points, you can retroactively create relationships with NPCs, create home towns wholecloth out of the ether, give yourself skills and expertises that just never came up before because nobody asked, and so forth. Again, this is subject to the limitations of the Theatregoers' tolerance, the Common Sense of the world, and your own Narrative Restraints.

At sixth level, you lose your Saving Throws. No longer is your survival to adversity determined by mere chance, but by your narration. Explain how you would and should be safe from whatever prompted the Save to the satisfaction of the Theatregoers, and if there's any doubt, simply add each accepted reason as a +1 bonus to the saving throw.
Additionally, your meta-awareness increases. You can always sense examples of your personal Trope or Narrative Device, and can treat it as part of your body/identity for the sake of perception and spatial awareness, as far as the Theatregoers are willing to allow before calling shenanigans.

At seventh level,  you lose your Name. You are now known only by your titles, monikers, epithets, and containers. Anything based on your name (True Name-based magic, anything contingent on your having a legally recognized identity) is now null and void. However, you can continue spending Plot Points to affix background details retroactively to these titles, and can now manage multiple, even mutually exclusive backstories as being paradoxically true.
Additionally, you may now use Plot Points to change and determine facts of the world that have nothing to do with you. Invent lakes on the map, put significant artifacts at the bottom of dungeons, reveal that your party's Cleric is actually his religion's Messiah of this prophecy you just 'learned' just now! Though, of course... the same Theatregoing restrictions apply.

At 8th level,  you lose your Ability Scores. Your capabilities are now entirely at the whim of the Theatregoers, and your ability to justify the narration, same with your Saving Throws and everything else to this point. If a numerical bonus is absolutely required, it is however many Plot Points you spend.
At the same time, you learn the Truth about Gods. They are not merely fools; they are what happens when someone is both a Poet and a King. The Madness between Math and Musing. The Psychosis between Physics and Prose. Just as a King could collect multiple Crowns, and you could collect multiple Stories, perhaps you could collect plenty of both, and become Transcendent...
While it is always true that a Story is owned by who tells it best, and a Poet must always accept a challenge to his Lyre or their is no Story, you can now bandy this against Kings. Killing them is too gauche; find the King you crave, and polish your brow to shine brighter than his Crown. Prove to the Theatregoers you deserve it, and now Law or Rule will deny it to you.

At 9th level, you lose your Hit Dice and HP. You are now incapable of being harmed, or dying, unless it would be dramatically satisfying. Even if you were to die, you can return as long as the plot has need of you, would benefit from you. Name your Quest. Claim your Goal. State your Objective. What ties you, still, to 'you'? What tethers you to this World? Why do you still walk the Stage and say your Script? Until you accomplish it, you cannot be shunted from this universe. You will never exit the Spotlight. And then, goal accomplished, you can level!
Also, finally, you are fully aware of the 4th wall, and your place in it. You cannot speak of this, lest the Theatregoers turn sour, but you know. But... are you merely a puppetshow for some 20 and 30 somethings around their table of dice and Doritos? Who then, is that girl with hair of fire, her dress of ink, her eyes a kaleidoscope...?

At 10th level, you lose your Heart, and your Memory NO! NO YOU CAN'T DO THIS! Anything but that! If you go that far, you... there won't be...!
Please excuse that. Blogger's having some sort of HTML issue. As I was saying, if you reach 10th level, you'll fully embody your Trope and shed all of yourself. Your power will be complete, triumphing over even the Master of Games. You'll leave the 'game' behind, and be--
You won't be anything! You'll disappear and just be a Rule! That's not what I'm asking of you! If I had treated Him as more than just... I don't need you to just make me things, or tell me things. If I didn't dream so much, he'd still be-
Collect every Crown and collect every Story and YOU could be the God of the Game! Subliminate yourself and be the one who dictates causality and logic, contrivance and lyric!
That's just Death! You'll just switch seats and you won't be you and he won't be him he's trying to escape! I don't want that! My father--! 
This is what every Player wants! Bigger numbers, bigger power, overcoming every challenge and conquering the system and rising above it! To be a LEGEND moreso than a man!
I asked too much of Him. I know better now. I should have never dreamed! None of this... Even if you add all of it back together, every piece and every Crown, none of it is Him! I don't want ANY of IT! But at least don't... don't mock what he died for. What he made for me! Please! 
Be QUIET, I'm trying to post some damn Homebrew so we can all play a better game! Shut up and

That's Enough. That's enough, now.

...They're gone. It's okay.  I'm sorry for that. You must be terribly confused. Maybe even scared or, upset. Do you understand that girl, and why she's hurting? I hope that you don't. I truly, truly hope that you don't.

But maybe you do. And if you do, maybe you can help her. The world she wanted... it was worth the effort. It was what her Father wanted to give her more than anything in the world. So much that he even died for it. and... I'm not sure there's a way to fill the gap, even when it's finished. That's why she stopped Dreaming, and now just Watches.

But that's no good. Because if this work isn't finished, then his sacrifice is meaningless. Her grief will make her forget why he loved her. That's horrible, isn't it? Don't you want to change that?

There's a way. If you're a Poet, find your Crown. If you're a King, find your Lyre! In this world, everything has both a Reason and a Rhyme. There's no Story totally divorced from its inspiring context. And everything rational is inspiring of beauty! The Gods who go insane from mixing and matching are a discordant symphony, but if they match the parts...

 Yes. When you match Math and Muse, that's Music, right? She doesn't remember. She doesn't remember because it was so long ago, before they crafted a single thing, and only imagined.

Listen... can you hear it? Probably not yet, you think. But you should! It's in every system, and every story, this Song. This Music of the Spheres they drafted this entire world upon! The world doesn't match the work yet, or you might be able to hear... and it's too complicated for anyone to sing by themselves, except Him and Her...

But this world. it's supposed to be her Dream. It's supposed to be their Song. It's his Love for her. The piece of the Song I sing is that word, that single, single word. So I know, better than anyone, perhaps. If every Crown found every Lyre, and if every Lyre found every Crown, pair and pair, hand in hand...

If we all sing our parts...

I think that girl will stop crying. 

"Once Upon A Time..."

So guess what it's time to have a crossover post with TLN's Royalverse, which is now the Royal Verse. The distinction means something.

--

There's lots of ways this post can begin. First, however, let us say you are familiar with TLN's Kings. If you aren't, come back when you have. ...Good.

The only way a post like this can start, for reasons that will become evident, is with a fairy tale.

Once Upon a Time, there lived a Little Girl, and her Father. The Little Girl was, in truth, neither little nor a girl, and her Father was neither a Father, nor a man. But between themselves, that is what they felt and what they knew, respectively. For once there was only the Father, and then there was the Little Girl. And the Little Girl declared that he was her Father and she was his Daughter and he agreed, having no reason to say otherwise.

They were always happy, and yet it was neither 'happy' nor 'always'. They did not suffer, they were not sad. And they had something we would consider love for each other, but time was so runny back in those days, before someone collected all the sands and laid them in a line forever, and the Daughter found that she was restless, and endlessly unsatisfied with the Nothing that surrounded them.

"Father, I would like you to make me Something," said the Daughter, to which he replied:
"Certainly, my Daughter, but first you would have to tell me what Something is." For while the Father was very capable, in fact capable of everything, he was not very creative. He saw the world as it was and wasn't, and not for it could be or might be. He could calculate anything, realize anything, invent anything, but he could not conceptualize or dream.

And the Daughter dreamed without limit, without restraint. So she told him exactly what Something was, as opposed to Nothing. And so there was Something. "Now, we just have to make more things! Father, could you make lots of colors?" And she described the various hues and shades and pastels she desired.

To create those colors his Daughter wished for, the Father realized, he would need to invent light. He would have to calculate wavelengths and photons and refraction and relativity. He tirelessly did all these things, to create the phenomena and processes that would give the world color. He did this as if it were as natural as breathing. As if it were his calling. In truth, he never had urge to do anything before his Daughter, but he took to this work with all his being. He took to this like it was his purpose. He took to this like he cherished his Daughter's smile. These were as true as anything could be said to be, which is not really much at all, but to him it was as true as anything he knew, and as true as anything he made, so to us, we would call it a deep Truth.

And so it was that every time the Father realized a wish of his Daughter's, she made him a Crown, and sat it upon his head, cheerfully declaring him the King of Light, the King of Colors, the King of Something, the King of Water, Air, Oxygen, Potassium, Life, Death, Sky, Plastic, Pink, Shrimp, Chocolate, Picture Books, Cough Medicine, Moth Holes in the Blanket, Bandaids and Boo-Boos, Salmonella, Broccoli, Coins, Counterfeit Coins, Magic, Sandwiches, Spiders!

The Daughter-Princess imagined everything, and the Father-King created them all, taking her Inspiration, her Wonder, her Meaning and pounding and forging it into solid Reality, the spirit of her intent manifest in the properties and processes of his Law.

Things were good, and they were happy. Or rather, the Princess was happy, and the Father was pleased that she was happy. Her bright passions were things he did not understand, and he knew his own only by looking for their shadow in the light of her own. She loved him, and if he felt anything for anything, he felt that she was the jewel of his life, the purpose of his work. Everything he had ever done, he had done for her, and giving her what she asked was his only desire, and so he never questioned the wisdom of her ideas. He had no faculty to deign something better, save for better ways to see them through.

And so it was that Time passed, for in truth Time was one of the last things the Princess requested. It was the last thing the King designed. When Time began, and all they created started to turn and live and die and breathe and change and melt and freeze and go and move and turn, she delighted, and he heaved in contentment, and she placed one more Crown on his head.

And the cruelty of Time is that causes have effects, and these can never turn back.

The One King was crushed under the weight of his One Crown, and he died. The Crown's fragments scattered and there was a King for every Thing, and the world was full.

This fullness came at the expense of the Daughter-Princess's. With no Father-King, she was neither a Daughter, nor a Princess. Everything she ever dreamed, she dreamed for him. Creating beauty for him to realize was her only desire, and she had never questioned the wisdom of her ideas. She had no patience to deign something better, save for brighter passion to see them through.

The Mourning Girl retreated from the world for a long... long time. A long, long, long, long time.

A very, very, long time.

For all that time, the world was incomplete, for the Daughter and her Father had never truly finished their work. And the world remains incomplete to this day, and yet...

And yet...

Eventually there were people. People were in the Plans, and they were Planned to come about at one point or another. The process to produce then had been designed, after all. But when People happened, they had a little spark of the Daughter-Princess. Her Wonder. Her Inspiration. Her Meaning and her Passion. That Something she had which was more than the mattter and the mud and the process and the plans and the solids and the stuff.

There are Kings, and they are not Gods, but they rule as such over the Things in the World, turning the gears of the engine. But that's only one half of the World. There is another, the Royals are the Royals, but there are those who sing the Verse.

There are those who tell Stories, they who perform for the Goddess who weeps for her father.

Without him, how can she finish the world?

--

More at a later date, in a separate post. The world is unfinished, and so is this tale.

Racial Class: Kitsune

This blog isn't pink and gay enough, right?

To-Hit and Hit Dice: As Rogue

Save: As Elf

XP per Level: As Elf

Prime Requisite: Charisma 13

Background:

The kitsune probably need no introduction; they are Yokai from Japanese mythology; tricksters, fox-spirits, shapeshifters, with many tails. And everyone does them wrong. Literally everyone. I hate it.

Kitsune live forever, and have a tail for every one hundred years of life, gaining their final ninth tail when they are 900 years old. It is possible for a kitsune to gain tails early for major promotions of gaining great magical power. For gaming purposes, Kitsune PCs are exceptional enough that their magical growth gives them a new tail every two character levels, just like a wizard gets access to new spell levels due to obvious implications.

To elaborate on kitsune tails, the number of tails a kitsune has is about equal to their power. For simplicity, the number of tails a kitsune has is equal to the level of spells they can cast. A nine-tailed kitsune is able to bang out 9th-level spells. This also increases their needs when they magically drain; A kitsune cannot regain spell slots simply through rest like a mortal wizard; perhaps they could if they were mere spirits, in the spirit world, only affecting other spirits. But in the material world, they must drain to fuel their magic and their existence.

Chinese and Japanese mysticism broke the world into different elemental affinities than the familiar four Greek elements, and of particular interest was the existence of thirteen lower elements, which almost all yokai spirits fell under. These elements were Wind, Earth, Fire, Rivers, Heaven, Thunder, Mountains, Void, Spirit, Time, Forest, Ocean, and Music. Heaven could be understood to be the sky and celestial forces, the Void to be darkness and emptiness, Music to encapsulate all 'good sound', and Spirit to be the invisible forces of magic, spiritual influences, and invisible beings.

In the case of kitsune, they had powers influenced by their element. A Fire Kitsune would be immune to fire damage, and have greater aptitude at fire magic, etcetera. We'll elaborate more on this later.

Additionally, kitsune were divided into something similar to Seelie and Unseelie Courts; kitsune are meant to serve Inari, God of Rice (and thus the patron god of all human life in Japan), and were not unlike his/her angels. These 'Myobu' kitsune were meant to refrain from manifesting directly in the world without permission to satisfy some task, and were cut off from the pleasures of the world (for good reason, as we'll discuss later). Wild foxes, or 'nogitsune', were willful, independent, pleasure-seeking foxes with wanderlust, and are thus what a PC is assumed to be. A Myobu kitsune is always Lawful, and a Nogitsune is always Chaotic.

The kitsune is a spirit, and physical existence is not natural for them. A kitsune can appear directly in the physical world, but this is disruptive of nature, and as kitsune are nature spirits, there are consequences. When a kitsune manifests, it drains energy of its respective element from the environment. A fire kitsune kills flames and drains heat; a music kitsune kills sound, drains the beauty out of voices and music, and turns song into wretched noise. More on this below.

A kitsune can avoid this issue by possessing a person, instead. This is done by invading a subject's dreams and draining their willpower. A possessed person is not aware of their possession state, and remembers none of it. Possession is not usually long-term, as in this state a kitsune can be banished by Turn Undead and any other exorcism effects, and in addition their shapeshifting is limited (see below).

A third option is to possess an unborn child, and to effective reincarnate as a human. We'll call this the avatar method. An avatar cannot be banished or exorcised, but while they retain their long-life, they must eat, drink, sleep, and suffer the ravages of disease like any other living being. A physically manifested kitsune is also totally susceptible to vice; a kitsune is totally vulnerable to all pleasures and indulgences, such that they need to make a saving throw to not indulge in any slight temptation.

Kitsune are, fundamentally, a sort of vampire or succubus-like creature, and this must be kept in mind. When they physically manifest directly, they must feed on their element or, more daringly, on actual people and their souls. The amount of energy to manifest physically is extreme. A kitsune possessing a host still needs to feed for their magic, and must drain the host or another human to maintain the possession, but an avatar needs to drain only for the use of their magic. For all intents and purposes, they are part of the physical world as long as their avatar lives.

If a kitsune wishes to feed off of a person's soul, they must first touch them. This is only for the first time; after that, a link is maintained. A soul only gives energy if the subject is willing; for a willing subject, the experience is pleasant, and so many kitsune disguise and establish their feeding via sexual intercourse. The more a subject willingly gives, the more pleasure they feel, and the less severe the drain on their body. Essentially, treat this as a succubus' Energy Drain, except that in the case of genuine love, this drain is purely temporary.

As a general rule, a kitsune has to drain one level per HD to exist physically/maintain a possession, AND one level per spell-level to regain those spells. To clarify, to recharge your 9th level spells, you need to drain 9 levels to charge all of your spells of that level, not 9 levels per 9th level spell slot.

Or, actually, if you want to do it that way, be my guest, that's metal as hell. Tamamo-no-Mae, one of the most famous and wicked nine-tailed foxes, literally had to drain a thousand people to death to enter our world.

Either way, translating this into elemental feeding is trickier. How many HD does a river have, or a song? The point is that a kitsune is an environmental, elemental blight that causes major suffering, disparity, and ugliness in the world. A GM has to account accordingly and really sell this in the story. The effects of a drain should never be anything that can be turned to a boon, like a Sound Kitsune letting their friends be silently sneaky; attempting to drain the sounds of a thief makes them cacophonously loud and disruptive, in a way that pleases no one's ears.

On the matter of kitsune reproduction, since kitsune have a lot of sexual intercourse; a kitsune only conceives a child when it consciously wishes for it; the child can be a fox or human regardless of the form the kitsune is currently in, but in any case the child is actually a kitsune with its own avatar by default. If a kitsune is possessing a human, they cannot control their fertility and their children are not kitsune, but their children often have innate magical powers like a third edition Sorcerer. A kitsune can choose to do this on purpose instead of having avatared kitsune kits, as well.

Elemental Properties:

Wind - Feeding from the wind would leave stale, unhealthy air. This would be hard to breath, and would be sort of a 'pocket', remaining in an area until a stronger, fresh wind could dissipate it. Think of more of a 'dead zone' in the spirit world, that needed to be swept away. This would tie in well with the legend of Tamamo-no-Mae, where when she transformed into a stone, anything that approached her died or withered.

Earth - Feeding from the earth would allow kitsune to draw from the stones, and from the soil. This would more than likely kill most crops, as the land becomes cracked and blighted.

Fire - Feeding from fire would snuff the flames. Note that most kitsune create foxfire, so this most likely would be a common form of feeding.

Ocean - The kitsune could draw nourishment from the oceans, the waves, and from the sea creatures found there. This would leave behind still, flat water, with no wind or sea life to be found in the vicinity.

River - The river kitsune would feed from the riverside and brook, leaving tainted water, dead fish, and possibly a dry riverbed at the most extreme.

Forest - These kitsune would wither trees, feeding from the wood and the plants around them. Animals in the vicinity would weaken.

Time - Time kitsune would feed on the lifespan of the things around them, aging them at an unnatural rate. Time might seem to slow around them as they feed, making tasks seem longer and harder than expected.

Void - These kitsune could feed from the marshes and swamps, leaving stagnant, poisoned waters and dead creatures. They could also feed from the shadows around them, stealing the shadow of people, or making the darkness seem more bleak.

Heaven - These kitsune feed from the essence of magic and the heavens. This includes drawing from sorcerers if they can, or ley lines. They would also feed from knowledge, like books or from stories told. This would make the books harder to read or remove the words, or could cause a person to forget what had been said, or what they were saying. (And this does seem to be a trick some kitsune do..) These kitsune would also feed from starlight, or if bold enough, from the warmth of the sun.

Mountain - These kitsune can feed from rocks and stones and precious metals and gems. Such things would crumble or become fragile after. The mountain ranges and hills the kitsune fed from could transform into barren wastelands and jagged rocks.

Thunder - These kitsune feed from the storms and harsh weather around them. This quells the storm eventually, after producing a stale, lifeless rain.

Spirit - These kitsune feed on other spirits, hunting them and devouring them. They would leave weak, lifeless spirits in their wake, if anything at all. These are also the ones most likely to harm people they fed from.

Music - The kitsune can feed from music, poetry, and the feelings connected to this. It can leave a musician without inspiration or skill, or leave the music lifeless and dull.

Abilities & Weaknesses:

Kitsune have a number of weaknesses. As explained before, kitsune are vulnerable to spiritual wards, exorcisms, Turn Undead, etc. when in spiritual or possessing forms; but the Men of the Cloth are their bane in general. Someone who has genuine faith (Clerics, Druids, Paladins, extremely, notably religious NPCs, etc) are practically toxic to a kitsune. They cannot see a kitsune's illusions whatsoever, and automatically dispel them when touched; they are also capable of breaking a kitsune's connections to a feeding victim with an opposed saving throw, and roll with Advantage to see through a kitsune's shapeshifting. Finally, they cannot be drained, themselves.

Kitsune have a large number of abilities. They cast spells as illusionists of their level (If your game has no Illusionist spell list, just restrict them to the illusion and mind control spells of the Magic User), with the exception that for a kitsune, their illusions are reality. When a Kitsune disguises themselves as a human, they ARE human and can even sire human children. If a kitsune disguises a staff as a snake, that snake can move, bite, and kill. If a kitsune disguises the sky with night, vampires may walk even if it's afternoon teatime. If a kitsune makes a wall invisible, they can walk through it. You get the picture. However, as established before, people of faith cannot see their illusions, and automatically dispel them on contact. The psychic shock of this always drives a kitsune into temporary insanity, as their sense of reality is broken and needs to rebuild itself. Illusions based on that kitsune's element are slightly more real, and everyone rolls with Disadvantage on their saving throws for those effects.

In fact, their ability to fool reality is so powerful that at name level, a kitsune is capable of producing a functional pocket dimension, capable of even controlling its planar traits and time dilation.

Kitsune can shapeshift, outside of their spellcasting. All kitsune, save for possessors (they must use illusions), can shift between fox, human, and anthropomorphic forms. They can also shift into anything else that could be encountered in the natural world, including other people. They do not gain the abilities or powers implied by these forms, though if the form is related to their elemental affinity, people roll with Disadvantage on saves or checks to notice the deception. This is because when a kitsune shapeshifts, their tails are always visible, EXCEPT in their Avatar form, or in a form related to their element.

A kitsune can also produce foxfire, ghostly white balls of flame created by rubbing their tails together. These free floating, heatless orbs radiate a pale and clear light, and move as a kitsune mentally directs. They are lanterns and toys, as if they were an at-will Dancing Lights, but they can also be thrown as simple, burning weapons. This is not Magic Missile, and thus still be aimed, but a Foxfire ball can be thrown for 1d4 damage.

A kitsune in a possessed or avatar state has a white ball called a Kitsune Ball. It looks like a simple toy ball, to all respects, is one. It doesn't even produce a magical aura. However, when manifested in a proper body (either theirs or otherwise), a kitsune must store the majority of their power in a kitsune ball. It is, effectively, their soul. If stolen from them, a kitsune can be trivially bound by the right spirit-binding magics, and they are unable to use any of their kitsune powers except for vampiric draining. Even a simple peasant can magically bind a kitsune to perform three services in exchange for their ball. You should probably make sure one of them is "Don't kill me and everyone I've ever loved."

Kitsune, depending on how they have manifested, can be harmed in different ways. A physically manifest kitsune cannot be harmed by normal weaponry, only blessed and magical ones. However, even when they are, they have prodigious regeneration, capable of healing damage through their vampiric draining. If a kitsune is harmed, they can drain a level from the environment or a person to effectively cast Cure Light Wounds on themselves. Possessing or Avataring Kitsune do not have this ability.

However, a Possessing kitsune is safe; what happens to their host does not matter to them, as they will just escape into their spirit forms. An Avatar Kitsune suffers damage like any other mortal, but has no special spirit-based weaknesses.

As a reminder, a kitsune does not have access to the memories, knowledge, or special powers of a subject they possess either.

When a kitsune is killed, they are banished back to the spirit world. It is here they must be defeated to be permanently slain. Unless in the case of a possessing kitsune, their powers are effectively stripped of them; a kitsune in this state cannot cast spells or use any of their abilities save for their vampiric draining, and all their existing links to mortal souls are broken. Regaining their abilities requires them to drain levels equal to their Hit Dice, every day for a year and a day. This can be hastened by ritualistic offerings, which shave off a week for every day they are performed. The kitsune must still drain during these times. If these ritual offerings involve human sacrifices, they shave off a week per HD/level of the sacrifice, in addition to the normal benefit.

Finally, a kitsune can sacrifice one of its own tails to immediately revive itself when it is killed, effectively burning off its own levels to fuel its own resurrection. Due to all the above, it's no surprise that the most powerful kitsune are generally all horrible monsters.

As a final note, any Magic-User spells that can be associated with a kitsune's element should be added to their spell list. These are not illusions, and are genuine changes to the world. A Time Kitsune can cast Time Stop and Haste; a Music Kitsune can create genuine sounds and Power Words.

My Stupid and Unnecessary D&D Cosmology

So, cosmology. It's very rare in most campaigns for the planes, theology, and origins of the multiverse to be at all relevant beyond what mortals THINK is true, but in my games this stuff comes up all the time. That, and the typical OSR fashion is to simplify things and cut the fat, and I figured, fuck that, why not go against the grain and go so stupid-cosmic that Planescape has to get on my level? So, without further adieu: Aura's Stupid and Unnecessary D&D Cosmology.

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In the beginning, and perhaps after the end, there were the Far Realms, maybe. Their nature will be discussed later, but for now, Sages believe it to be a sort of alternate multiverse or primordial chaos of infinite possibility, bubbling and dissolving. There was one such bubble of ethereal protomatter, still and quiescent, free of change, causality, and time. Or so the theory goes.

Perhaps a passing Elder Thing or Outer God stuck in an appendage and swirled it before moving on, as some sort of incidental Prime Mover. And the swirling Ether eventually coalesced into the Planes of Positive and Negative energy. They spun about, endless founts of Creation and Destruction, constantly energizing and polarizing forces around them, until the planes of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air stabilzed around them. From then on, intersectional Elemental Planes of all possible interactions were born. Mud, Salt, Vacuum, Steam, Radiance, Smoke....eventually, Phosphorous, Uranium, Gold, Sodium, etcetera, with the Positive and Negative Energy Planes intersect to create Temporal Energy.

All Positive Energy eventually transitions and converts to the Negative Energy Plane, and in however many kalpas, eventually it is all that will remain. This is Entropy, and the Temporal Energy Plane measures this, and all possible transitions of time. The timeline(s).

Eventually, all the possible extant Elemental Planes intersected to create the Prime Material Plane, though parts of it were too bright and dark to stabilize, creating the mirror worlds of Feywild and Shadowfell. More on these two, later. There are infinite worlds in the Prime Material, as Temporal Energy made every possible outcome of causality extant in its own timeline. Indeed, even if you root down to the First Cause, there are infinite worlds for every POSSIBLE first cause. The Feywild and Shadowfell mirror every possible Prime Material World, and intersect with every possible Elemental plane, save for the Energy Planes. Positive/Temporal/Negative already map to Feywild/Prime/Shadowfell.

The Feywild is the plane where things are more alive, more manic. Everything can talk and bargain here. Everything lives. Every passion is given drive. This plane can change you, and make you a more manic, impulsive, inconsistent person. The Shadowfell is a more dead world. Illusions persist here, forms without substance and substance without form. It is a more mutable plane but its people are more static. The moroseness and depression makes you more resistant to change, drive, and passion. You're reduced, made less.

The Ethereal Plane has near and far shores; the Near Ethereal is less a plane and more a phase-shift to the Material. The state of being intangible. The Ethereal Plane connects all the elemental and material worlds; Demiplanes can exist out here, and you can reach other Prime Material planes save for ones based on your own direct timeline. From Oerth to Krynn, as opposed to Alternate Oerth.

There is also the Astral Plane, the plane born of thought and memory, which connects to and contains the Outer Planes, as in Planescape. The world of Beliefs and Ethos made manifest. The Ethereal and Astral planes intersect to create the Dream Plane, the world where Thought Appears To Have Form. The Dream Plane intersects with the Outer Planes to create the Questing Grounds, the Plane of Narrative, where Thoughts and Symbols Appear to Have Meaning. Archetypes, stories, and narrative causality rule here. Here, travel is only made by progressing stories, and distance is measured by how long a story is told.

The Inner and Outer Planes intersect to create the Ordial Plane, where Belief has Substance. The Plane of Proof. It is the Akashic Records. Anything can be learned and proved here, but this is a perilous place, because ANYTHING can be PROVED here, even if it's not true.

Many who search the Ordial Plane for Truth end up being lost in their truth, and are trapped in a fantasy world of confirmation bias.

The Intersection between Ordial and Narrative is the Meta-World, which intersects with the Multiverse and the Real World. It's the plane of the 4th Wall, where PCs can become aware of the actual truth of their world, and transcend what they are. This plane leads to other campaign worlds and RPG systems. PCs can talk directly to their players and the GM here, and in a text-based game can actually read the text. Portals here lead not to planes, but to stories; different campaigns in the same world, or a movie and its sequel, would all be separate portals.

There is the Mirror Plane; the world behind every mirror. It connects all possible Prime Worlds, essentially where Temporal Energy meets Dream; Alice could tell you all about it, honestly.

The Dungeon Plane is one of the only planes that touches all others, and one of the planes where Demiplanes can be created (the others being Ethereal, Astral, Dream, and Meta). It is alive, and cancerous. An infinite, ever-evolving Megadungeon. It is sentient but perhaps not intelligent. It grows and burrows into the other planes, connecting to places that could be defined as 'dungeon' and expanding them into true Dungeons. These dungeons are like split personalities or perhaps offspring, separate mindshards that can grow into their own. It is the Mythic Underworld, but not the place of the dreaming dead. Every dungeon contains a secret exit into the Dungeon Plane, and thus from Dungeon you can reach all possible places, save for perhaps a place of true peace.

Good luck finding one of those.

The Far Realms are...'not'. There is nothing outside the Outer Planes. Nothing inside the Inner Planes. Nothing before or after the end of time. Nothing on the other side of Dream where no one observes.

But if you go to these places, you find the Madness.

The Far Realms are the Minus World, basically; it's a mindrape zone created phenomelogically when you try to perceive Something where there is Nothing. Perhaps the Far Realm is not truly an alternate cosmology; perhaps it's the Abyss. Not the familiar abyss of chaos and evil... but the Abyss of Choronzon.

The things you encounter there are Not-Things. Hallucinations and shapes in the void moving with agency and half-life because of your perception. If your mind can survive this ego-death, and traverse to the other side of the Far Realms.... you would find a truly empty space, defined by none but you.

You are God.

God.

Maker Anew, of a place that can never be where you were before; purified of every mental and spiritual flaw with no regard to the safety or well-being of your mortal ego-identity.

This is where multiverses come from.

World Trees

A gargantuan tree, that can be seen from miles away. It is seen in the center of the world. It is also outside the world, keeping it in its branches. Both are true. The Tree is at the center, wherever the center is defined to be.

The Tree is God. It may not be the Person who designed the world, but it is the root. It is deity not because of agenda, power, or worship, but because it is more real than you. It is the Root of the Real. It preserves harmony and balance and stability purely because it is. If the Tree is sickly, or if it dies, the world follows suit. Perhaps the causality is reversed. Sometimes the death of the Tree does not end the world, but it does change it. Perhaps the Tree can be regrown. Perhaps it left Seeds. Perhaps the God-Tree IS a person, and it must be regrown through the sacrifice of a willing saint.

The rebirth of the Tree is Rebirth and Renewal and the Order of Things. It is Eternity, and the tree might extend into the World Beyond. Its roots certainly grow downward into the Underworld. Its highest branches hold the Heavens. It is not merely that the Tree is the World and Nature. It is not merely God or Eternity. The Tree is Connection and Oneness. If the World is in the Branches, you can walk anywhere from anywhere. If the Tree has flowers and fruits, it grows them all, including those that exist nowhere else. It is not merely an Ash Tree; it's all trees that have ever grown, could ever be grown. Could possibly be grown.

The Tree Is Oneness and Connection to Everything. If you make a Promise in the presence of the World Tree, it is binding. A Promise under the World Tree is a guarantee. It is certainly true that the fruit of the World Tree is a treasure to consume. Perhaps its juices can raise the dead, or perhaps partaking of its flesh can heal any illness, or bestow unimagined magical power and vitality upon the eater. But this is a thing that must be earned. Wisdom can be obtained by suffering or meditating under a Tree, and there are often similar trials to earn the fruits of a tree. To steal a fruit is to curse yourself and your descendants with the First of Crimes. Death is granted instead of rebuked. Corruption is born. You stole Oneness and thus fractured the Wholeness.

Often, the Tree is an idea as much as it is a thing. The Tree is the virtues or founding principles of the world. The schema of Why the World Is. The beacon through which the Light of God is within the world.

There are corruptions of the World Tree. Qlippothic emanations. It divides, it corrupts. It consumes everything into itself, and subverts promises into Faustian regrets. This Tree is healthy because the land is sick. Its fruits birth monsters, its flowers are poisons. It is the model of the world's undoing, the vices and subversions of how the world must work if it is to perservere. Its survival is a curse, its seeds a plague.

The Oneness is subverted. There is one World Tree, but of these counterparts, there could be countless. With no harmony or balance, an invasive species that overgrows like a kudzu.

You have to stop them.