Scatterpoint Overview for PCs

Overview

Once the jewel of a star-spanning empire, the city is now a crumbling macropolis held together by ancient runes and lost technologies fighting against the entropic push of chaos. The city is now the world. The skies shudder with the runestorms that power the very city. Most never see the sky, however, and instead dwell forever in the factory-towers spending bone-crushing days maintaining the city’s needs. Trees are legend. Flowers are forgotten. Demons walk the streets in human guise and ancient Andari, once men themselves, rule over the remnants of humanity. Ferren, ratlike creatures from another plane, have carved out a niche of their own. The most poverty-stricken and criminal elements of man have surrendered themselves to the city and let themselves be recreated into living tools - the Overwrought - who toil in the most difficult and dangerous conditions for little wages and less thanks. Beyond the flickering lights of the city districts lie the barrens, abandoned lands where the half-demon Malakar wait to lay waste upon any that venture into their territories.

• ScatterPoint is the name for the city in its entirety. It spans hundreds of miles in all directions from the central point of GreyMesa, the ruling district. Beyond the boundaries of ScatterPoint are mists and constant storms referred to as Zurvan’s Veil (where the party emerged from). Any that have dared venture into the Veil have never been heard from again.
• Districts and Barrens: The city consists of two main divisions, districts and barrens. Each district is a metropolis in its own right with upwards of a million people typically working within a block of their residence. Buildings tower hundreds of stories into the air. A central runetower in each district protects the people from the runestorms and provides a constant energy supply upon which the city is dependent. Each city district is physically connected to another by rail lines that run through the barrens. The barrens are the unsheltered parts of the city where pockets of civilization attempt to make a living and there is little law to be found. Tribes of Malakar wander across the ancient rubble and take shelter in the shells of crumbling buildings. Runestorms strike without warning, providing little opportunity for rebuilding these areas.
• The City Districts: Thirteen major districts exist. Chief among them is GreyMesa: the center of ScatterPoint, its bureaucracy, and the residence of the Autarch. Each district has its own distinct character but shares the common element of a tall centrally located runetower. Each district consists of a downtown, midtown, and uptown area and is further divided into the political subdivisions of boroughs.
• The Barrens: Nine barrens exist and are the broken bits of the city where no runetowers exist and lawlessness rules. The barrens are the homes to outlaws, Malakar tribes, and the legendary Demon Lords, the Talus. Some of these areas have been reclaimed by what passes for nature; witchgrass forests and tanglevine covering over what might have been a great mansion in centuries past. The barrens evoke the sense of great age as monolithic ruins abound and the uneven ground still speaks of lost greatness.

Prominent Leaders, Factions and Groups

City Authorities

• The Autarch: Commonly referred to as the Eternal, the Autarch is the supreme ruler of ScatterPoint. His word is absolute law. Succeeding Tanryn during the closing years of the Time of Madness, a far door accident transformed him into an Andari (See history below). Prior to that time, the potential of an Andari was never fully explored or appreciated. All political positions at the district level and above are direct appointments made by the Autarch himself with recommendations from the Grand Council. Governors: Elected by the popular vote within each district, the position of governorship is unique in the political structure of ScatterPoint as it is the only opportunity for people to express their collective will. Once elected, however, a governor holds his post for life or until deemed unfit to govern by a majority vote of the regents
• The Grand Council: A committee of 13 regents, each regent representing an individual district. They serve the Autarch as advisors and are his primary contacts with the outside world. As such, they pass on the Autarch’s rulings to each district’s governor.
• Governors: Elected by the popular vote within each district, the position of governorship is unique in the political structure of ScatterPoint as it is the only opportunity for people to express their collective will. Once elected, however, a governor holds his post for life or until deemed unfit to govern by a majority vote of the regents. All positions above and below are appointed. They handle the day-to-day issues of particular concern to their individual districts and are chiefly responsible for appointing and managing the magistrates.
• Magistrates: Lowest on the political chain, the magistrates wield tremendous power as they deal with the citizens of the boroughs directly.
• The Sequitors: the elite protectors of the city and step in when situations demand. Their presence alone is often enough to defuse dangerous situations. They wear dark purple cloaks and shadowmetal armor.
• The Cloaks: The city guard, referred to collectively as the cloaks, is comprised of three major divisions: whitecloaks, redcloaks, and captains of the guard for each borough. The borough captains report directly to the city governor.

Major Races

• Humans: Humans dominate ScatterPoint in number, but no longer in power or strength. They derive their strength from their tenacity. They are capable of altering the odds to make fortune favor them. Through focus and training, humans have the capacity to bring out the best in themselves. Humans do not have the time or the inclination to doubt. Whether they are a broken beggar lying in an alleyway or the mightiest cloudbreather, they all share the common bond of greatness. Although their once noble bloodlines are no more, once in a rare while the blood comes together again and a great runecaster or inventor is born. Humans draw their strength from their discontent. The ones that break away to become bounty hunters or wayfinders or half a hundred other things do not forget their heritage. Sure, they once worked in factories or broke their backs in the great stone quarries in the barrens, but no more. They have suffered those indignities and now seek to blaze their own path into the future.
• Andari: Known to most as shifters and ghosts, the Andari are an elite number of humans whose lives were forever altered by the Tempest. They are either those people who were caught in the flux when the rune towers first went into place or, perhaps, a subsequent casualty of a rare far door failure. Others are purported to have become Andari through especially tumultuous runestorms, while some suspect that a segment of the Andari are entirely unworldly. In any case, those known as the Andari were once human. They are easily recognizable though, as all have extremely pale white skin, a lean look about them, and their eyes constantly shift color and intensity.
• Ferren: Pulled into ScatterPoint during the Time of Madness, the Ferren were intimately familiar with the otherworldly runestorms and managed to establish the runetowers. They are a slender rat-like people complete with claws, fur, and tails. Ferren have light builds and stand about shoulder high to most humans. They are physically weak compared to the other races and they compensate for this by using mechanical means to accomplish the most mundane of tasks. Most typically dress in a similar fashion to humans although some of their attire is more outré.
• Malakar: The grey-skinned Malakar arose as a people when the Talus, the Demon Lords, wished to raise an army to overthrow ScatterPoint. In those early days, the Talus seduced humans with their demonic wiles to create their progeny. However, the Talus did not consider the fact that their offspring might prove to be so difficult to govern. The Storm Lords could do little to control the chaotic Malakar and, despite their great numbers, they fell beneath the disciplined forces of the city districts (in the Great War of the Stormlords, see below). Their unholy army shattered, the Talus retreated to their hidden homes, leaving their progeny to make their own way in the Abandoned Lands.
• Overwrought: Hulking unions of machine and man, the Overwrought are the labor caste of ScatterPoint. Once as human as anyone else, those who elect to become mechanized abominations are driven to the factories out of poverty, necessity, or as an opportunity for some sort of life outside of the prison districts of BlackShackle.
• Everything else: though relatively few in number, countless other races have been drawn in and trapped in ScatterPoint by runestorms.

(Some) Other Factions and Groups

• The Talus: The Demon Lords of the barrens, the Talus are immense beings of great power and malevolence. Originating in the Void, they were all trapped in ScatterPoint those many long years ago and have each subsequently developed their own agendas and carved out their own niches in the barrens. Some say that the pact of the Stormlord Accord cannot hold, and another war between the Talus and the city districts is inevitable.
• The First Church of the Converted: With its seat in Cog Castle, the First Church aggressively recruits followers and welcomes all comers, but primarily the Overwrought. The leader, Lord Ashmoore, promises immortality to those who embrace their spiritual link to their machine brethren and transform themselves into his vision of the future of humanity, the Converted.
• The Church of Twilight: The leading organized religion in ScatterPoint, it is city-sanctioned with its temples located throughout the breadth of the city and even in some remoter places in the barrens. Here people come to worship Umbriel, the Lady of Twilight, under the direction of her servants, the shadowpriests. Commonly referred to as the Temple of Twilight, its greatest temple is located in GreyMesa where the Church’s spiritual leader, the Maegas, resides. Shadowpriests maintain a watchful eye over the city and rarely directly intervene between scientist and sorcerer. They feel the battle between magic and technology happened to bring them closer to the bosom of Umbriel, Queen of Twilight, and they strive for balance. They claim the Severing arose to show the devout the error of their ways and to teach all that harmony must be preserved at any cost. While shadow temples usually dominate the temple square in every city district, the Children of the Four Gods have a respectful presence and political clout. It is unwise to bring the disfavor of any gods, especially angry ones.
• (There are more, but these are some of the ones the party hears about from Root's group)

History

The Severing and the Time of Madness

• Over a thousand years ago, ScatterPoint was the greatest metropolis in the Empire. The runecasters and scientists that governed the city lived in relative harmony until such time as the scientists’ “Great Breakthrough” promised to shift the balance of power. A fearful group of runecasters used more magics than the world had ever seen and crushed the scientific revolution with their runestorms, sealing the city’s fate. (The party has heard a similar story, from the captain of the ghost ship Resolution, and the priest of Zurvan in the temple at Grantz).
• Arcane energies creased the sky in an array of unearthly colors while the great Stabilizers, towers of science, stood untouched and unharmed. Finally, an arc of the ancient magics struck these massive towers and amplified these magical energies a hundred fold. Law and Chaos howled in unholy unison as the world went black. The very fabric of space and time was torn. This pivotal moment became known as the Severing.
• During this time, ScatterPoint was shaken to its foundations and all but the most powerful of towering buildings toppled to the ground, killing millions. The runestorms swelled and ebbed and each wave of reality washed people through from different times and places and each wave took them away again. The people called this period the Time of Madness and few, if any, thought they would survive.
• For a hundred years, the people lived like beasts; scrabbling and fighting for scraps of the past, for food, for protection from the relentless storms. The areas nearest the Stabilizers were the least affected, so people from outlying areas began congregating near them in what became known, in later years, as the city districts. These sanctuaries were not without trouble. Tyrants arose and drove people into slavery. The dark ages had arrived upon the city.
• The outlying areas fared far worse. Some of the Talus, ancient Demon Lords, found themselves trapped upon this unknown plane, as helpless to leave as the rest. Some believe that the Talus--the Demon Lords--were the cause of this severing, but if so, why are they trapped here with the rest of the inhabitants? They howled and gnashed their teeth and began to set up petty realms, breeding with the stock of man to create their brood, the Malakar, to set upon the city districts. The storms bent reality and broke the boundaries between dimensions. Creatures and things were cast from one continuum into another. Most became victim of the Talus’ insatiable appetites or their pets, but a handful became the saviors of man

The Rebuilding in the Time of Toil and Tears

• Some Ferren, a clever ratlike folk, fell victim to the grasp of the great runestorms and were pulled through from their world to the city. They were the first to call the city ScatterPoint, the place between places. They helped assess the situation and set to work on establishing some anchors so the city would not tear itself apart. A humble engineer named Tanryn, a human, with a host of his men, aided them in their efforts in converting the Stabilizers into what became known forevermore as the runetowers, the great shadowmetal towers of conjoined magics and ancient technologies. Thus Tanryn the Builder found his way into the archives as the Founder. The storms became less frequent as the runetowers absorbed the energies, and the factories and foundries, dormant for a century, began to come alive. People began journeying up the high plateau of GreyMesa looking for work.
• The early days were hard and many of the changes made then stay with us today. Tanryn grew to be even harder. He gathered together his most loyal protectors and bid them don the ancient flowmetal armors and carve law from the chaos. These executioners took to their tasks with zeal and evolved into the elite cadre of swift justice in the city, the Sequitors. Overwrought, volunteer workers converted into machine-men, were designed by Tanryn’s own hand to work the demanding hours needed to rebuild the city. Many died until the process was refined, but the hard work killed many more. Things grew worse. The people of ScatterPoint threatened to destroy themselves and the Founder could not allow it. He hardened the city like a piece of raw iron until it rang like steel, cannibalizing parts of it with his scavengers, the reapers. These scavenged lands became known as the barrens for they were deemed unfit for human life and were sacrificed to the Talus and their kin. Some heroes and fools attempted to administer justice in these lands and the Order of the Blade arose. Swords not forged in centuries were manufactured by the thousands and dispatched across the land. Order of a sort slowly took root in the ashy remains of a broken civilization. This time is known as the Time of Toil and Tears and heralded in the New Age.
• With the passing of Tanryn, his bookish assistant became the Autarch, adopting the title from recovered historical files. The storms had calmed, the city had taken the rough outline of its modern form with trains connecting the major city districts and the last of the people born in the other world were already dead or dying. The past became a forgotten thing, the newness and strangeness of the world faded into memory as well, and people began to accept the world for what it is- a mishmash of technologies and magics irrevocably intermingled. Yet, few expected the most bizarre twist of all.

The Coming of the Others

• The Far Doors: As past technologies were uncovered and inventors discovered new and different scientific principles existed in ScatterPoint, the far doors came into being. Simply put, they allow instantaneous travel from one point to another. The energies required to do this are tremendous and thus are generally restricted to certain points in city districts in close proximity to the Runetowers or in areas of great runic activity, like ScarFall. These far doors sometimes run afoul of runestorms and, thus, a separate people of ScatterPoint arose, children of the shift, the Andari.
• The Andari: While the probability of transport errors through far doors is remote, it does happen and, when it does, it is usually with fatal consequences. Survivors, however, emerge reborn, recast, as though a part of them is phased away forever. In even rarer cases, some survivors of runestorms have met with the same fate. Theologians and scientists debate whether it is the shedding of the soul or the replacement with some of the ephemeral energies abounding in ScatterPoint. It matters not, for these people, dubbed the Andari, the Others, are transmuted in many ways, some obvious, some subtle. At first, no one knew what occurred other than some lucky bureaucrat survived an accident, but then, after a period of years, it became evident. These faceless bureaucrats became known powers for they did not age, they did not die, and their long experience in the maze-like administration became invaluable to the Autarch and the city. They became the life blood of the city and they very well may have stayed relegated to such a state if were not for the uprising.

The Uprising of the Overwrought

• The Overwrought, known more commonly as cogs, serve the city in the laborious, daily tasks of running the machines of the city. They are typically reserved for the most fatiguing and dangerous jobs, but their assignments run the gambit from strip miner to political bodyguard. One Overwrought in particular, Kabel-18, had a fierce spirit and great skills in the Bloodcircle, a place where Overwrought often battled for the pleasure of the citizenry in the early years of ScatterPoint. He came to the attention of the Autarch who selected him to serve as his personal bodyguard against the warnings of his advisor. Had he heeded the warnings, the city might have turned out to be a different place. Instead Kabel-18, given the taste of power and freedom, began to seek it out for all Overwrought.
• At a predetermined time, they shut down the city, just as the Autarch entered a far door. This caused a far door malfunction, transporting the Autarch into the barren region of BentShadow not far from Stone Manor. The residents of Stone Manor cared for him even as chaos erupted throughout ScatterPoint. Overwrought battled man and the streets ran in blood for two weeks until the Autarch returned under the protection of Stone Manor. He ordered summary execution of Kabel-18 and agreed to spare all others if they submitted to a regulator, a device that required them to recharge daily. This device is now part of each Overwrought’s design. Kabel-18 attempted a final assault on GreyMesa, but succumbed to the newly developed runeguns wielded by the Sequitors.
• He didn’t announce his transformation, but the Autarch holds his position for life and he has yet to die. It is known but rarely said publicly that the Autarch is an Andari and that the Reign of Man is at an end. Andari have risen to prominent positions throughout ScatterPoint and most are content to have the wise counsel and long view of such esteemed citizens.

The Great War of the Storm Lords

• Five hundred years ago, the Great War took place. This battle was initiated by the Storm Lords, a group of men and Malakar under the direction of the Talus who had, by this time, established their own kingdoms in the barrens. The Storm Lords congregated in the western regions near the Abyss. ScatterPoint’s spies learned that the Malakar sought MossMetal and its precious stores of water. When the Storm Lord army of 10,000 strong reached the high walls of the district, they were flanked by a force of 1,000 battle-hardened men of the Order of the Blade. The Order’s initial onslaught so demoralized their enemy, that enough time was made for reinforcements to come in and contend with the threat. Despite their heavy losses, the Order was commended by the Autarch and credited with saving the city district from the demonic threat.
• Since that time, chapter houses of the Order are found throughout the city districts and all knightly members are given special dispensations from the Autarch on the anniversary of their victory. The war lasted twenty-seven years and is estimated to have killed over 400,000 between the warring factions before the Storm Lord Accord was signed and the barrens earned the nickname of the Abandoned Lands. In exchange for turning a blind eye to future atrocities from the Talus and their kin, the council recommended that the Autarch cede his dominion over the barrens and open up the borders between the walled districts and the lands beyond. This pact, known as the Storm Lord Accord, preserved the peace between the city districts and the barrens.

The Present

A thousand years have passed since the Time of Madness and the storms do not subside. The city now is as dependent upon the runic energies that course across the sky as a cotter is to glee. That’s just how things are today.
Technology is an integral part of life in ScatterPoint. Clanking, creaking, and the hissing of steam can be heard everywhere. Arc-lights flicker in the damp of the lower levels and fungus thrives in the abandoned recesses where the forgotten homeless starve. The common man rarely travels more than a mile from his home, ever. Instead, most are content in their overcrowded subsidized apartment of the factory, getting their pittance of pay to spend at the factory store on such things as glee, the cheapest and most potent rotgut ever developed by Tannenbel.
While the world has changed, the people have changed as well. Expansion into the barrens is underway. Citizens understand and fear runestorms, but also know their fortunes could lie in their wake. Sifters, fortune hunters, brave the lost lands of the barrens seeking fame and fortune in the form of uncovered artifacts or other random bits of ancient history, knowing that the rich cloudbreathers pay top coin for their efforts.
This trespassing breaks an uneasy peace. The Talus, long content to let their ire simmer, now turn a more watchful eye from their hiding places while their Malakar lap dogs gather in dark places and whisper words of pending war. Already, overland travel worsens and more bureaucrats rely on far door transport than train. The City, once fearful of the Talus, has few residents that remember the ancient power of the Demon Lords, and is preparing to reclaim the barrens and eliminate their presence for good.