Wings of the Ocean

 Flocks of Ylimancha

Illustration by Luis Perez

The coastlines of the world bring a majestic beauty and a home to many creatures. It is a safe haven for the birds that fly out over the oceans to catch their meals. This natural perfection has been embodied in the divine for of Ylimancha, the Empyreal Lord of coastal waters, fisherfolk, and flying creatures. Little is known about her or her followers except for her constant war with Pazuzu. This week we take a look at three possible sects of the Empyreal Lord known as Harborwing.

As always, let us imagine we are sitting at our theoretical gaming table. Our imaginary GM sets out the rules for the game we will play. In this game, we are to make a follower of Ylimancha. The character does not need to be a divine caster, just a devotee of Harborwing. What character do you make?

For more information on Ylimancha

Ylimancha’s Pathfinder Wiki Page

Ylimancha’s Archives of Nethys Page

The Aviary

This sect of followers Ylimancha sees birds – especially sea fowl – as the children of their patron. They have set up a large aviary on the coast north of Magniamr in which to protect these creatures. Although they mainly deal with sea birds like gulls, ernes, albatross, and puffins they occasionally take in something much rarer. They have been known to help griffons and pegasi regain their strength if injured, and rumor has it that a phoenix even calls the sanctuary home.

Membership in the sect is a lax affair. The desire to help the creatures associated with Harborwing is usually enough. However many of the sect members are naturalist who specialize in avians. Healers – both divine and mundane – are also common among the members of the Aviary.  Ylimancha has been known to call some of the common members of this sect to her divine flock granting them clerical or oracular powers.

Andoran Coast Guard

Andoran has one of the largest fleets that sail the innerseas. They are defenders of their nation and consummate hunters of the slaver ships that haunt the waters.  But slavers and pirates are not the only things that threaten the citizenry, and Andoran boasts many fishing fleets. To protect these folk from the monstrous predators beneath the waves the followers of Ylimancha – many former Andoran naval personnel – have taken it upon themselves to patrol the waters closer to home.

Reefclaws and giant flying piranha are constant threat. Fishing can also draw a large number of sharks to an area. The Andoran Coast Guard deals with these common threats but it is the uncommon threats – which thy try and keep quite lest promote panic – where they really excel. The small coastal fleet has defeated at least one scylla and negotiated with a nest of water naga disturbed by a careless fishing trawler.

Sky Warriors

The battle for control of things that fly has been long and hard fought. The Demon Lord Pazuzu is a tireless opponent to Ylimancha in the outer planes, and their followers clash often on the material plane. The Sky Warriors are a sect of the Empyreal Lord’s church whose only mission is to battle against the minions of the King of the Wind Demons.

This sect is one of the most martial of the otherwise peaceful Empyreal Lord. Consisting mainly of warpriests, clerics, paladins and rangers the sect will also accept the occasional warrior not granted divine power by their patron. Almost every member of this sect also has a natural means or attempts to find some way to fly. Many aasimar whose divine blood has manifested in the form of wings become members of this sect.

The bounty of the water and the freedom of the sky call the followers of this Empyreal Lord. Who is your disciple of Ylimancha? Why have they chosen to dedicate themselves to Harborwing? Where does their devotion come from? Let me know in the comments.

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The opening illustration was created by the fine artist Luis Perez. You can find him on Twitter, Tumblr, and on Instagram at luisperezart. 

Character Exploration 60 - Neeter

Random rolls sixty brings us our second ratfolk and another one I really enjoyed making. The pieces seemed simple enough, nothing over the top like the divine touch from last week’s character. Everything except charisma being decent, with a good intelligence left a lot of choices. But what character I should make is always the tough question.

Picking a class is the hardest part. I didn’t want to go straight up arcane caster. The last ratfolk was a wizard and I wanted to move away from that. Looking at ratfolk characteristics, they get a bonus to craft (alchemy), Perception, and use magic device so that gave me an idea. Investigator is a class I really love and I thought fit the stats of the character well. The next question was how to tie it altogether. The answer was like this:

Neeter

Illustration by Luis Perez

Although Winterbreak is the only city on Acuben Isle it is not the only settlement. A number of small fishing villages dot the coast of the forty-five mile long island. One of these villages was where young Neeter was born. The bastard son of his father and some woman in Port Ice, his dad took him to live with the rest of the family, which at the time included two older sisters.

Although most of the village lived off of fishing and crabbing, Neeter’s father was a salvage and repair specialist. The young ratfolk grew up around ships and the docks that housed them. Sadly his home, the boats, and many of the people he knew were demolished when he only five. A particularly harsh winter brought storms across the Lake of Mists and Veils and hurricane force winds destroyed everything in sight, killing over three quarters of the small settlement. The family of ratfolk was saved only by the cunning use of some of his father’s inventions.

Many of the former townsfolk, including Neeter’s family, made their way to the large city of Winterbreak, the center of power for House Ludovka. The much larger city already had a thriving port with many established repair facilities. Finding work was difficult for his dad and that left Neeter on his own a lot of the time. Somehow, despite his mangy look and a lack of social ability, he soon made a friend.

Burkin Hiefender was a half-elf who seemed to know just about everyone in town. Where Neeter had  problems with everyday conversation, often coming off as rude or disinterested even when he wasn’t, Burkin had a knack with people; from the former pirate captain who now owned a dockside tavern to even some of the Ludovka children. If you needed something, anything, Burkin could find it for you.

With his father’s fourth child on the way, Neeter asked Burkin to help him find his father some steady work. It came down to dealing with some of the less reputable folk dockside, but to Neeter’s family was very important. As was typical of the socially inept ratfolk, the meeting didn’t go well. Feeling cornered, Neeter attempt to manipulate one of the crime bosses, a mistake he tries to forget although the scars on his face won’t allow him to.

Dockside became his home even after his father found work with one of the repair companies. The piers, taverns, fish markets, and hoists and pulleys all felt like a part of him. Like many of the fisherfolk of the small village Neeter paid homage to Ylimancha and these coastal waters were all he needed to feel alive. But the docks weren’t all fun and games. In the shadows, hidden from the sight of man, bad things happened.

As he grew older Neeter became protective of Dockside. The facts his family lived there added to his need to keep it safe. Even the the guards of the Ludovka family kept commerce moving they didn’t always keep people safe. Humans had a hard time seeing into the darkness but ratfolk could see just fine. When the city guard left dockside at night, that’s when Neeter took over.

Even if he couldn’t talk his way out of a fishnet, Neeter had a remarkable intellect. He could piece a puzzle together quicker than most. His reflexes were about as quick as his mind as well. Combine all of that with his ability to read people - even if he had a hard time talking to them - and Neeter started solving more crime than the guard ever did. Sometimes known as “The Dockside Detective”, many of the locals would come to him if they had a problem. He was their light, and he would drag the bad things from the darkness for them.

From the darkness there is light and that light is Neeter. But is this the character you would have made? What class would you have chosen? What disaster would your character have survived? Would you have chosen Winterbreak or Port Ice as his home? How was he a bastard? It’s never too late to let us know in the comments.

Just like Neeter, I seek to bring more light to your gaming experience.  Contributions to my Patreon or Paypal help me be able to invest more of that time into creation instead of worrying about keeping the lights on. If you’d like to support your favorite content provider – come on, that’s me, admit it – please consider contributing. If you’re enjoying the blog, why not join the rest of the fans of the CRB on our social media hangouts? Facebook, Google +, Tumblr, and Twitter all have a CRB presence and my inbox is open on all forums for questions, comments, and discussion.

The opening illustration was created by the fine artist Luis Perez. You can find him on Twitter, Tumblr, and on Instagram at luisperezart.