The Empire of Mazr

Starting ability: ✪Farsight, ✪Keen Senses, OR ✪ Jaws.
Start items: 1 keepsake, 2𐤑 credits
Language: Mazrian, Common

Mazr is—was—a powerful empire located beyond Tel-Kanan’s cyclone. Its envoys, soldiers, artisans, traders, and tax collectors are common sights in larger Kananite settlements. Mazrians speak their own language and are extremely easy to spot in a crowd.Mazrians have the heads of animals and otherwise ordinary-looking human bodies. Their heads always resemble birds, reptiles, or (nonhuman) mammals. As a Mazrian, your head gives you special abilities, but comes with a drawback: many Kananites will try to waylay, capture, or kill you once they learn the powerful empire behind your back has collapsed.

Ask the Guide:

What's that Mazrian's status in the imperial hierarchy?
What reports or rumors have I heard about this island?
How familiar is this person with imperial implements or other trappings of advanced civilization?

Mazrian Lore

Starting as a Mazrian

You start with 2𐤑 imperial credits. Choose one of the following abilities and an animal head to go with it.

✪ Farsight

Possible heads: Eagle, falcon, hawk

Your eyes can make out details at great distances. In battle, your Ranged Attack penalty is reduced by 1 when you are on high.

✪ Jaws

Possible heads: Crocodile, hippopotamus, lion, snake

You bite. (Most Mazrians view this ability as uncouth at best.)

When you hit with an unarmed Attack, you can ➟Restrain the foe as a following action.
If you’re already grappling the foe, your unarmed attack inflicts +3 life damage.

✪ Keen Senses

Possible heads: Cat, Ibis, jackal, oryx

Your heightened sense of smell, hearing, or both makes you difficult to sneak up on or deceive. When a character attempts to hide from you by Evading behind cover, or when they try to Deceive you, their roll suffers a -1 penalty, applied only to you.

Mazrian Names

Pick one: Ahmose, Ammeris, Bunefer, Djoser, Imhotep, Khafre, Menwi, Merneptah, Nakht, Necho, Osorkon, Pipi, Ramesses, Sabu, Satiah, Senneferi, Shoshenq, Sinuhe, Tey, Tia, WazadOr invent your own. You may draw inspiration from the names of ancient Egyptians, the main culture that inspired the Mazrian origin.

Mazrian Keepsakes

Choose one or roll from the table, or invent your own.

About the Empire

Mazr is a group of city-islands that float upon the Great Belt, a vast band of wind and cloud that flows westward around the entire Skysea’s circumference. The Great Belt flows near the southern boundary of Tel-Kanan’s cyclone, bringing the Empire’s city-islands into relatively close proximity with Tel-Kanan roughly once a year.High-magic civilization. Hundreds of years ago, Mazrians mastered the “high magic” of gravity and light. Harnessing this theoretical knowledge, Mazrians developed magitech implements—a vast variety of devices ranging from playful gadgets and mighty weapons of war. Implements are so common in Mazrian society that they’re said to hold the home islands aloft. They also enable the Empire to sail their skyships across the Chaos that separates the Belt from Tel-Kanan and project power there.The origin of animal heads. Mazrian babies are born with human heads. On their fourth birthday, they’re ritually submerged in water collected from the Dreamriver, a vast filament of Chaos-tinged freshwater that flows deep beneath the cloudtops of the Belt. The ritual amplifies the influence of the Dreamriver, causing the child to undergo an irreversible magical transformation. They emerge from the water with the head of an animal that represents their fundamental nature.The Empire’s fall. Light-magic implements provide long-range communication across the Skysea, but these signals have failed of late. Rumors swirl about a calamity, with some saying the Empire’s magnificent city-islands have literally fallen into the Sea of Death. Many rumors tell of an attack from Chaos-dwellers, the Zordin, long dismissed by the Empire as backwards barbarians.

Backstory Prompts

Use these tables to flesh out your background, either by choosing answers you like, rolling randomly, or inventing your own answers.

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