CardName: Challenge # 170
Cost:
Type: Challenge
Pow/Tgh: /
Rules Text: Read about Gwanhoz and come up with a top-down card design
for the plane.
Flavour Text:
Set/Rarity: Multiverse Design Challenge None
Challenge # 170
Challenge
Read about Gwanhoz and come up with a top-down card design for the plane.
All creatures of flesh on Gwanhoz have the potential to awaken either Ascendant or Cursed blood.
Ascendant blood shortens one’s life by about half of one’s normal lifespan. The trade for a shorter lifespan is guaranteed physical and mental health and prowess. From a more positive perspective, one’s own life is simply too short to mourn. Those with darker tendencies sometimes seek to extend their own life, though not in fear or cowardice, but as any normal living creature eats something that is or once was living to gain nutrients as is basic organism survival.
The vampire coven of Zogai are exclusively Ascendant-blooded individuals who feed from other Ascendant-blooded individuals. Rumors suggest that the leadership of Zogai coven are over one-thousand years old, and that the Zogai leadership harvests their own, for how else could such impeccable creatures ever disappear.
Several goblin groups, most notably the Warren of the Ahd Awelk promote any goblins who awaken Ascendant blood to the roles of Mother and Father. Mothers and Fathers continuously reproduce children, in the hopes that stronger genetic lineage of Ascendant-blooded individuals will yield offspring more likely to awaken their ascendant blood. Rather than force sterilization, the Warren of Ahd Awelk constantly sends those without Ascendant blood on raids, in hopes that those unawakened will will awaken Ascendant blood or otherwise die.
In metropolitan areas, mostly home to orcs and humans, Ascendant-blooded individuals often become local heroes or artists. Ascendant-blooded animals are often either beasts of legend that terrorize people until an Ascendant-blooded hero defeats the animal, or valuable steeds or animal companions. Some Ascendant-blooded elves leave the wooded borderlands to be braggarts in cities.
Cursed blood beings can only be killed by another mortal. While Cursed blood individuals physical age more slowly than normal or Ascendant blooded individuals, their bodies and psyches are otherwise frailer. Many an aged person with Cursed blood takes to wandering in a state of insanity until a predator makes a meal of them.
The Weepers are a group of Cursed-blooded vampires who have given in to their fate and submit themselves to misery in every aspect of unlife. The Weepers take the role as peacekeepers, only feeding to maintain order and stability. A long enough peace, means that a Weeper won’t feed, and can crumble to dust, for those who have unlife have one exception to the stressful and painful near-immortality of the Cursed-blooded. The Weepers have a network all across Gwanhoz.
The Warren of Ahd Awelk’s Cursed-blooded individuals have an elevated role as Uncles and Aunts who lead raids above ground.
Among metropolitan areas, Cursed-blood individuals often account for most suicides, usually non-violent, though some choose to meet their end by the Weepers. Those with Cursed blood who are lucky to have people who love them will often request a loved aid in their suicide when life becomes to miserable to bear. The send-offs are somber and quick. The unfortunate reality is that due to the longer life of those who are Curse-blooded, they are less likely to have anyone who cares about them when they finally choose to leave life. Metropolitan areas have grappled having assisted suicide businesses for this reason, as people without cursed blood who were not seeking suicide have been victims of fraud and killed by enemies or rivals this way in the past by claiming the victims were Cursed-blood individuals. Few have sought to study Cursed blood in animals, but there has been conjecture that animals showing more extreme irritability and aggression but without any danger greater than a typical specimen of their species have awakened their Cursed blood.
In the deep wilds of Jongmarn, Vestol, and Briddemaur, reclusive elves believe that those who awaken Cursed blood and live for over a thousand years become trees.
Many borderlands elves are aggressive and seek to subjugate humans and orcs as servants, believing that regardless of blood status, elves are superior to other races. While some borderlands elven communities are peaceful, none tolerate vampires, not even the Weepers.
The Vedalken Heretics exterminated their own flesh to purge the imperfect risks of Ascendant and Cursed blood, creating inorganic, artificial bodies. The Heretics are met with aggression throughout most of Gwanhoz, as they are seen as abominations of life’s divine gifts and curses. The freedom from blood is the Vedalken Heretic’s greatest pride, but they lament no longer being able to procreate a new spirit into existence. Rumors exist that the Heretics have bound angels and demons into metal as they did their own spirits in an attempt to propagate their race as they cannot create souls, though any evidence of such would only be found within their remote, isolated compounds.
Aside from the Zogai and Weepers, most vampires in Gwanhoz live in isolation, being predatory creatures that feed from communities they can find. The exact origins of vampires on Gwanhoz has long been lost, though it was almost surely based on blood magic. Several small “gourmet” covens exist, but these groups are closer to clubs in actuality, lacking any true social coherence outside of their organized feasts. Leaders of such clubs claim to be able to identify the potency of Ascendant and Cursed blood, and are sometimes sought by those who believe that Ascendant and Cursed bloods are genetically linked.
I am ripping off Link's top-down design ideas.
All creatures of flesh on Gwanhoz have the potential to awaken either Ascendant or Cursed blood.
Ascendant blood shortens one’s life by about half of one’s normal lifespan. The trade for a shorter lifespan is guaranteed physical and mental health and prowess. From a more positive perspective, one’s own life is simply too short to mourn. Those with darker tendencies sometimes seek to extend their own life, though not in fear or cowardice, but as any normal living creature eats something that is or once was living to gain nutrients as is basic organism survival.
The vampire coven of Zogai are exclusively Ascendant-blooded individuals who feed from other Ascendant-blooded individuals. Rumors suggest that the leadership of Zogai coven are over one-thousand years old, and that the Zogai leadership harvests their own, for how else could such impeccable creatures ever disappear.
Several goblin groups, most notably the Warren of the Ahd Awelk promote any goblins who awaken Ascendant blood to the roles of Mother and Father. Mothers and Fathers continuously reproduce children, in the hopes that stronger genetic lineage of Ascendant-blooded individuals will yield offspring more likely to awaken their ascendant blood. Rather than force sterilization, the Warren of Ahd Awelk constantly sends those without Ascendant blood on raids, in hopes that those unawakened will will awaken Ascendant blood or otherwise die.
In metropolitan areas, mostly home to orcs and humans, Ascendant-blooded individuals often become local heroes or artists. Ascendant-blooded animals are often either beasts of legend that terrorize people until an Ascendant-blooded hero defeats the animal, or valuable steeds or animal companions. Some Ascendant-blooded elves leave the wooded borderlands to be braggarts in cities.
Cursed blood beings can only be killed by another mortal. While Cursed blood individuals physical age more slowly than normal or Ascendant blooded individuals, their bodies and psyches are otherwise frailer. Many an aged person with Cursed blood takes to wandering in a state of insanity until a predator makes a meal of them.
The Weepers are a group of Cursed-blooded vampires who have given in to their fate and submit themselves to misery in every aspect of unlife. The Weepers take the role as peacekeepers, only feeding to maintain order and stability. A long enough peace, means that a Weeper won’t feed, and can crumble to dust, for those who have unlife have one exception to the stressful and painful near-immortality of the Cursed-blooded. The Weepers have a network all across Gwanhoz.
The Warren of Ahd Awelk’s Cursed-blooded individuals have an elevated role as Uncles and Aunts who lead raids above ground.
Among metropolitan areas, Cursed-blood individuals often account for most suicides, usually non-violent, though some choose to meet their end by the Weepers. Those with Cursed blood who are lucky to have people who love them will often request a loved aid in their suicide when life becomes to miserable to bear. The send-offs are somber and quick. The unfortunate reality is that due to the longer life of those who are Curse-blooded, they are less likely to have anyone who cares about them when they finally choose to leave life. Metropolitan areas have grappled having assisted suicide businesses for this reason, as people without cursed blood who were not seeking suicide have been victims of fraud and killed by enemies or rivals this way in the past by claiming the victims were Cursed-blood individuals. Few have sought to study Cursed blood in animals, but there has been conjecture that animals showing more extreme irritability and aggression but without any danger greater than a typical specimen of their species have awakened their Cursed blood.
In the deep wilds of Jongmarn, Vestol, and Briddemaur, reclusive elves believe that those who awaken Cursed blood and live for over a thousand years become trees.
Many borderlands elves are aggressive and seek to subjugate humans and orcs as servants, believing that regardless of blood status, elves are superior to other races. While some borderlands elven communities are peaceful, none tolerate vampires, not even the Weepers.
The Vedalken Heretics exterminated their own flesh to purge the imperfect risks of Ascendant and Cursed blood, creating inorganic, artificial bodies. The Heretics are met with aggression throughout most of Gwanhoz, as they are seen as abominations of life’s divine gifts and curses. The freedom from blood is the Vedalken Heretic’s greatest pride, but they lament no longer being able to procreate a new spirit into existence. Rumors exist that the Heretics have bound angels and demons into metal as they did their own spirits in an attempt to propagate their race as they cannot create souls, though any evidence of such would only be found within their remote, isolated compounds.
Aside from the Zogai and Weepers, most vampires in Gwanhoz live in isolation, being predatory creatures that feed from communities they can find. The exact origins of vampires on Gwanhoz has long been lost, though it was almost surely based on blood magic. Several small “gourmet” covens exist, but these groups are closer to clubs in actuality, lacking any true social coherence outside of their organized feasts. Leaders of such clubs claim to be able to identify the potency of Ascendant and Cursed blood, and are sometimes sought by those who believe that Ascendant and Cursed bloods are genetically linked.