Dominion

Do not mourn my passing. There will come a time when new gods once again come forth in the birthplace of the old:

when earth and stone move on their own,

when the exiles are unmasked,

when tribes stretch from the isles to the streams.
Another such as I will lead you there:

born facing the sun,

sharp in mind as well as claw,

the strength of all the tribes beneath their wings.

— the dying words of Baizhan, Father of Storms and last of the gods

The last dominion over the Bracaran Peninsula came to an end 178 years ago at the Patrian city of Telemon. Under the command of the dragon Daniyar the Dark, amassed kobold armies besieged the city for three days, laying waste to the defending humans and Therians of the Fourth Legion as Daniyar demolished their fortifications with talon and flame. Tragically, at dusk on the third day of the siege, Daniyar was beset by the whole of the remaining legion as she attempted to bring down the wall surrounding the inner city, and was slain before reinforcements could come to her aid. Her premature death brought an end to Daniyar's Dominion after scarcely four generations, forcing the surviving kobolds back into the exodus of their remote villages.
In the years since her death, nearly twenty generations of kobolds have lived and died entirely within the Patrian Forbearance. The changes of the past two centuries—the rise and fall of cities and even kingdoms—have had no impact on those kobolds. From birth to death, they have known nothing but toil, hunger, and the silent, futile prayer to gods long dead that a new dominion might soon begin; if not in their lifetime, then at least that of their children.
172 years later, the prayers of all those kobolds were finally answered. More than answered, for the elders of the tribe have proclaimed that the fledgling dragon newly-born into your tribe fulfills a prophecy over three millennia old, a prophecy regarding the birth of new gods and an end to the Long Forbearance.
Your tribe has done its best the last few years to hide your fledgling dragon from the world, for humans have eradicated villages before in order to massacre scarcely-hatched dragons, and this dragon in particular was far too vital to risk. At long last, after six long years, the dragon has come of age and your silence is at an end. The time has come to march forth: to recruit those who would join you, defeat those who would oppose you, and establish a dominion in which your descendants can live and die in prosperity, a dominion the elders say will be without end.
Before any of that can happen, though, you need to find the other tribes, and there isn't time to waste looking. There are kobold tribes scattered all across southeastern Aedes, and while your tribe recalls the locations of the nearest and the largest, the majority of their locations have been lost to your tribe for over a century. As a result, your first destination isn't a kobold village. Instead, you've begun making your way to a nearby friendly city, the only city on the peninsula containing residents who were alive during the Dominion of Daniyar; ironically, though it has since been conquered and renamed, the very city that proved her demise nearly two centuries ago: Caryatis.

Setting Information

Dominions, Forbearances, and Kobold Culture

On very, very rare occasion, a kobold egg will hatch a dragon instead of an ordinary kobold. Dragons are identifiable even in youth—they are larger, and most are born with wings—but the differences become extremely pronounced as they grow. Dragons never stop growing throughout their lives, and while kobolds live around 25 years on average, dragons can live up to 150 years and become truly colossal with age. In contrast to kobolds, who are too weak to perform any individual magic, dragons are capable of more powerful magic than humans, a prowess that becomes even more pronounced when they are supported by kobold ritualists.
The lives of kobolds are immeasurably superior when a dragon is alive, as it enables them to extend their territory into quality farmland, forge advantageous trade deals, or defeat foes in battle that would otherwise be far beyond them. As a result, kobold history is notably divided into periods with a dragon, or dominions, and periods without a dragon, or forbearances. Dominions are referred to by the name of the dragon presiding over them (e.g. "the Dominion of Daniyar"), while forbearances are named according to what killed the most recent dragon (e.g. "the Patrian Forbearance"). Kobolds have the longest oral history of any sentient race in Aedes, dating back 3000 years; though it is relatively simple, consisting of dominions and forbearances and their lengths, they claim to have kept it all the way back to the creation of Aedes itself.
Dragons are incapable of reproduction, even in the rare case when two dragons of opposite sexes happen to exist in the same part of the world at the same time. Because of this, and because of how substantially the lives of all kobolds in a region improve while a dragon lives, much of kobold culture and society is dedicated to maximizing the chance of birthing a dragon. Kobolds tribes establish villages in locations that are known to have yielded dragon children in the past, and there is a strong social pressure on kobolds to continue reproducing for the entirety of their fertile years.
Kobolds believe the world to have been shaped by massive, mighty dragons. Their claws and talons scraped across the land, creating rivers and canyons; from the frost, flame, and lightning of their breaths came the weather and the seasons and the heat beneath the earth. Theirs was the Dominion of Creation, and it was blessed, for they could not be slain. When they passed, the Long Forbearance began, in which we are all now living. The last of them to pass spoke a prophecy with his final breath; kobolds hold that the prophecy will one day be fulfilled, and new dragons will arise of stature and power equal to the first dragons, ushering in a new dominion extending across all of Aedes.

Geography and Politics

The Bracaran Peninsula

Open full size

A zoomed-in map of the southeastern portion of Aedes.

This campaign will take place in the Bracaran Peninsula, in the southeast of Aedes, just over a century after the events of Decadence. The dwarves hold all territory within the heart of the mountain range; Beletsun, their closest city, marks the approximate end of their claim. The borders of the Patrian Empire once encompassed the entire remaining peninsula, but over the past century, Patria's eye has been on the north and west; while the Empire has formally ceded nothing, the Legion presence in the southeast ends at the hills south of Capanaea.
In the absence of Patrian control, the peninsula has become politically fractured. Caryatis was the first city to break lose. Peacefully taken four years prior to the events of Decadence, it has been a predominantly-Caryatid haven for over a century, but all races are welcome: it holds a small population of humans and Therians, has a dwarven embassy, and even boasts the occasional goblin, gnome, or kobold. As the empire has withdrawn, the Free City of Bracara, only ever loosely under Patrian governance, has assumed control of all land north of the Srydari River (between itself and Caryatis), a change that the formerly-Patrian villages in the region have accepted without incident. Meanwhile, shielded from retaliation by these two entities, the Kingdom of Acatha has seceded from Patria, reestablishing itself as an independent nation for the first time in 300 years and laying claim to all land south of the caryatid city.
At the outskirts of these nations, largely unaffected by these changes, are the more marginalized races of the peninsula. Most prominently (both in population and relevance to this campaign) are the kobolds. During a forbearance, kobolds live in small, remote villages on scarcely-arable land that is of no interest to the inhabitants of these nations. There are a few outcroppings of goblins as well, similarly isolated, and from time to time orcish raiders establish outposts on the nameless isles off the southeastern tip of the peninsula.

Additional Information

Below are a few links to existing parts of the wiki that might inspire your character creation process. None of them are required reading, although I'd recommend at a minimum taking a look at the page for the race you're playing.

• Dominion's playable races: kobolds, dragons, and caryatids.
• The (oral) history of the Bracaran Peninsula, as known to your tribe! In order to leave room for improvization during play—and because I'm lazy—it isn't fully fleshed out; however, it contains the timing of recent dominions, forbearances, and local events. (For reference, years are numbered starting from the revelation of the Final Secret, which is to say, the end of Decadence; years either Before the Revelation or in the Age of Light.
• The map, which is embedded above. I'm lazy-initializing the world map to some degree; your tribe doesn't know where everything is yet, and neither do I. As we discover more, I'll keep the wiki updated. In the meantime, everything you know is on the map, and should eventually also be available through the Bracaran Peninsula page.

Finally, don't be afraid to explore this wiki further! Any and all spoilers should be concealed until we enable them. It's my sincere hope that this ends up being a useful resource during the course of Dominion (and future games), so if there's anything that I could do differently to make it more useful to you, please let me know!

Character Creation

PCs, Tribes, and Dominion

Surprising absolutely nobody, Dominion is going to be run in Fate Core. We've all played at least a little of this, but the rules can be found on the SRD in case anybody needs a refresher.
This campaign is going to incorporate both the concept of units (as in Division) and of a crew sheet (as in BitD), which leads to three levels of mechanics.

1. Each player will control a single PC throughout the campaign.
2. There is one starting tribe of kobolds, the tribe that produced the dragon and from which most PCs originated. Over the course of the campaign you will recruit other tribes of kobolds. Tribes will serve as units for the purposes of the mass combat rules. They have aspects and skills, but no stunts.
3. The entirety of your assembling pro-dragon faction—your dominion—is the final level. Your dominion has aspects to characterize it, but no skills. It also has a special variety of stunts, called rituals, which we'll get to in a bit.

Narrative action will focus on the PCs, but battles can involve tribes as well, and both tribes and the dominion will add mechanically to the game. With luck, it'll be straightforward while adding flavor and mechanical depth to the game.

Races and Roles

We'll be making characters (and a tribe/dominion) in a session zero, but it'll help if you come to that session with a concept or two, or having determined in advance who wants to play what roles.
This is a very kobold-centric game, and the default option is definitely to be a kobold. A kobold PC is different in some way from the average kobold in at least one way, something that elevates them into the same circle as the other PCs. Maybe you have an important role in the tribe, or a personal relationship with the dragon, or knowledge or expertise not possessed by the others... that sort of thing.
The second playable race is a dragon (technically still a kobold—shh). As you would be the first dragon hatched on the Bracaran Peninsula in nearly two centuries, there's definitely only room for one dragon in the party. Dragons are the only playable race that can use magic as individuals. A fully mature dragon would be leagues more massive and powerful than any of the other party members, but as the dragon is quite young, they should fall roughly between the kobold and caryatid PCs. Similarly, their youth and inexperience means that the dragon will be relying on their older, wiser allies and friends for advice, so there shouldn't be a power imbalance with decision-making.
Caryatids are the final playable race. By the time Dominion takes place, they will have lived in Caryatis for just over a century. A caryatid PC is almost certainly at least a century old and directly liberated from Patria/the River Kingdoms, though playing a more recently-made caryatid without a history of servitude is an option. Caryatids are large, fully sentient, and made of stone and clay. They cannot perform magic. A caryatid PC would have to have some reason why they want to travel alongside this fledgling dragon and support him in his cause, but there are myriad reasons that could be the case, from a desire to see and record history to a desire to learn more about magic to a desire to earn goodwill from the dragon toward Caryatis in order to ensure the wellbeing of the other caryatids.
(I've been envisioning a party composition of two kobolds, a dragon, and a caryatid, but there's definitely room for that to change. If nobody wants to play the dragon, we can have an NPC dragon; the tone of the game would be a little more The West Wing, and I would tweak a few of the rules in that case, specifically regarding how rituals work. Similarly, if nobody wants to play a caryatid, they'll be slightly less relevant to the story, and if two people want to play caryatids, they'll be slightly more relevant.)

Aspects

Players have 5 aspects: the High Concept, the Trouble, and three additional slots. I recommend using 1-2 of the remaining slots to emphasize your relationship with one or more of the other PCs, because that tends to produce well-connected parties.
Your tribe starts with 2 aspects. These should characterize the strengths, culture, and failings of the kobolds within the tribe. (e.g. "Trade with Most Other Tribes," "Never Fought a Battle," "Excellent at Ritual Magic"). Recruited tribes will have 1-3 aspects depending on their size.
The dominion starts with 2 aspects. These should focus on your collective aims as a party, your leadership style, and your progress so far (e.g. "Terrifying Mob," "We Come In Peace").

Skills

To roll a skill, you roll 4dF and add your modifier to it. For example, if I have +2 in Charm, a roll of would add 1, for +3 total on the roll.
Players start with 10 skills, arranged in a pyramid (one at +4, two at +3, etc.) All skills not taken are rolled at +0.
The tribe starts with 3 skills, arranged in a pyramid (one at +2, two at +1). Recruited tribes will have 1, 3, or 6 skills upon recruitment, depending on their size.
All skills are available for both PCs and tribes except where noted otherwise.

Skill List

• Charm: Invoke joy or trust in a target.
• Clash: Attack with a melee weapon; defend in melee combat (blocking attacks). Tribes: Drive another unit out from your zone.
• Command: Rally and direct troops; intimidate through strength. When stacked with a tribe, the tribe's skills below the PC's command get a +1 bonus as long as the PC is attached. Can also be used to remove consequences from stacked tribes. Only available to PCs.
• Deceive: Disguise; conceal motivations. PCs: Tell a convincing lie. Tribes: Deceptive stratagems.
• Discern: Identify tells or intentions. PCs: See through lies. Tribes: See through feints.
• Evoke: Perform rituals en masse to bring about magical effects. Create ritual boosts (see below). Only available to dragon PCs and tribes.
• Fortify: Set up traps or fortifications. Tribes: Set up a camp.
• Lore: Knowledge of history, geography, and regional tribes and factions.
• Maneuver: Defend in either melee or ranged combat (avoiding attacks, using maneuvers like a shield wall to protect against ranged fire).
• Provoke: Invoke fear or anger in a target.
• Resolve: Hold fast against attempts to alter your emotional state; maintain purpose through adversity.
• Scout: Determine the location of enemies, identify potential terrain advantages, search for food.
• Sneak: Move without detection.
• Volley: Attack with a ranged weapon.

Stunts

PCs start with 3 stunts each (rules here, advice). If you are playing a non-kobold race, I would recommend designating one of more of those stunts to emphasizing elements of your race that you particularly care about for your character. For instance, a caryatid PC might want to spotlight the degree to which their stone bodies can resist harm, or the wisdom they've gained from a life that could potentially span multiple centuries.
Your dominion starts out with a single ritual, and gains more as is narratively appropriate.

Rituals

In-universe, rituals are the only magic kobolds are capable of performing: large-scale, coordinated magic, nearly all of which exists with the purposes of empowering a dragon in one way or another. Rituals that are not dragon-centric do exist, but are very rare.
Mechanically, rituals are dominion-level stunts that define the details of a "ritual boost," a special variety of boosts: (a) how to create it, (b) the permissions of who can use it, and (c) what the effect is of using it. Consider as an example this ritual, which gives the dragon a breath weapon:

Maw of Storms. Damira may spend the corresponding ritual boost to unleash a crackling bolt of blue lightning from her maw with Volley (Weapon:2). Hitting a target with a centralized nervous system also creates a boost, Briefly Paralyzed. Ritual boosts are created by Creating an Advantage with Evoke, DC 3.

Creation

Ritual boosts are created by rolling Evoke; as a result, they can only be created by tribes of kobolds or by a dragon. Each ritual establishes the difficulty necessary to create its variety of ritual boost. Success with style will always create two ritual boosts instead of one.

Permissions

99% of the time, the dragon will be the only unit in the game capable of spending ritual boosts. Narratively, this permission is unlocked by means of crests—arcane sigils permanently etched onto their scales that allow them to channel energy (either their own or that freely given by the kobold tribes) for the ritual.

Effect

The bit that varies the most from ritual to ritual. Traditionally, kobold rituals empower a dragon by granting or enhancing prowess in something we traditionally think of as draconic. Dragons can be made to fly faster (or a wingless dragon given the power of flight), given fire or some other elemental breath, made stronger, fiercer, sharper... the list goes on. In the example stunt above, the dragon is given lightning breath.
Compared to Fate stunts, rituals will fluctuate in mechanical power. Some rituals produce stronger effects than other, but at a higher DC. Other variations might exist, as well; for instance, a ritual might provide a conical breath weapon as opposed to linear.
If your PC is a dragon, one avenue you may wish to consider for your personal stunts is combining, modifying, or cheapening access to rituals in some way.

Changes to Fate

I'm hacking Fate more than usual this time. In addition to the aforementioned mechanical changes, I've also tweaked milestones, hacked in BitD-style long-term projects and downtime, and added a pre-combat posturing phase.

Milestones

Fate has three types of milestones: minor (~1/session), significant (1/scenario, or every 2-3 sessions), and major (1/arc, or every few scenarios).

Minor

A minor milestone happens at the end of every session, or following a particularly impactful narrative moment. Upon reaching a minor milestone, PCs may do up to one of the following:

• Reword a non-High Concept aspect
• Switch the ranks of any two skills
• Replace a stunt with another
• Buy a new stunt for a point of refresh.

Significant

A significant milestone happens at the end of every scenario (roughly every third session). It confers all of the benefits of a minor milestone, as well as the following:

• PCs can advance a skill (within the PC skill cap).
• Tribes can advance a skill. If this is their first skill at this new level, they gain an aspect and a consequence slot. (All tribes except the initial tribe have a maximum skill level of +3.)

Major

A major milestone happens at the end of every narrative arc (roughly every third scenario). It confers all of the benefits of a significant milestone, as well as the following:

• PCs gain an extra point of refresh.
• PCs can rename their high concept, if desired.
• Tribes can rename an aspect, if desired.
• Gain a new dominion aspect.

Long-Term Projects

A project has a High Concept aspect, a Trouble aspect, and a stress track associated with it. When a player works on a project, they describe what they're doing, and eventually the GM calls for a roll. A success inflicts 1 stress on the project, and success with style inflicts 2. On a tie, a boost is created, which can be used the next time somebody works on the project.
When the stress track advances, the aspects get renamed as appropriate, reflecting both the progress made so far and some of the difficulty currently faced.
When the stress track is completely full, the project is completed. The mechanical effect of this may vary, but most likely manifests as creating a new aspect on the player or party. An aspect so created begins with a free invoke on it.

Downtime

Fate has a unit of gameplay called a scenario, which is roughly a single movement of plot within an arc; it's comparable to a Blades score, albeit longer, in being a discrete unit of narrative time. In Dominion, scenarios are most likely based on external threats or aims, such as defeating humans or recruiting kobolds.
Between every scenario, I'm going to set aside a little time (half a session? A session? We'll see) for downtime. During this time, each player can work on a single long-term project. There will also be time for slower-paced scenes with NPCs, internal trouble with the dominion, and so on.

Roar Phase

I'm introducing something called a "Roar Phase" prior to certain combats. When narratively appropriate, all combatants (PCs, their kobold tribes, NPCs) will have a round in which to take any action except attacking. This can be fortifying, posturing, casting buffs, positioning troops, and so forth.
If you roll to Create an Advantage during the Roar Phase and fail, the advantage is still created, but you take a mild consequence related to the advantage you created—if you're "Promising Certain Death", you might take the consequence "Reputation on the Line". On a tie, the GM gets a boost instead of inflicting a consequence.

Scheduling

This is going to replace Decadence on alternate Wednesdays. Joe's going to still be running Morituri on the other Wednesdays for the foreseeable future, so your lives shouldn't change too much.
If you've made it this far, thank you! Can't wait to start!

Starting Year

102 AL

System

Fate Core

GM

Michael

Campaign Type

Primary

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