New Player Primer, Fifth Edition

What's Familiar?

From Aaracokra to Zombies, you will find nearly all of the monsters and playable races you're familiar with in the Sundered Ring setting (though there are some notable exceptions). Nearly all of them have histories and cultures unique to the Sundered Ring setting, but they're all in here somewhere, along with some new faces as well.

What's Different?

Despite the above similarities, the Sundered Ring is home to plenty of new and different features, including new player options and variant rules.

New Player Options

In addition to the options provided in official materials, the Sundered Ring setting provides opportunities to explore new subraces and subclasses. Information on these, as well as guidelines for how the standard options fit into the culture of the Sundered Ring, is provided in the Creating an Adventurer article.

Character Background: The Murada

Those who are resurrected after particularly traumatic deaths, or having been dead for years, can sometimes be changed by the experience. Their passions, ambitions, and even memories can be dulled or completely absent.

Otherworldly Patron: The Oracle

Paladin Oath: Oath of the Wyrm

Restricted Player Options

Style of Play

The Role of Magic

For most of human history, the only magic that the common man interacted with was that which came from the Church. It was only a thousand years prior to present day that the Church openly acknowledged the existence of magic outside the control of the gods. As such, non-divine magic is still deeply mistrusted outside of the most cosmopolitan regions, and is even openly criminalized in some smaller populations.

Variant Rules

Luck Saving Throws

Luck can play a dramatic role in the course of a person's life, and this is as true in the Sundered Ring as anywhere. Luck saving throws are rolls the DM can call for when the outcome of an event is uncertain, but not within the character's control. For instance, determining whether a falling character lands on the hard stone street or in the back of a hay wagon, or whether a character has an article of clothing in their posession that fits a certain dress code.

Luck saving throws are modified by any passive abilities a character has that affect saving throws (such as a Luck Stone or a paladin's Aura of Protection), but not anything that a PC must actively choose to use (like a fighter's Indomitable feature). The DC for such checks should typically be not much more than 10 to 15.

Resurrection

Thanatology in the Akregian Church

When a person dies in the Sundered Ring setting, their soul undergoes a process that strips away their memories and personality before being reincarnated. This process takes ten days, during which the person can be resurrected without consequence (besides the sizeable cost of such rituals). After these ten days, however, the soul is no longer tethered to the mortal world and even the most powerful clerics cannot bring it back. If the person has been dead for long enough, the soul may well have already reincarnated into a new mortal body.

When this is the case, resurrection spells cast on the person instead bring back the Spirit, which is in essence the earthly memories and personality that were stripped from the Soul during its passing. These people are outwardly identical to who they were before, down to the smallest detail. The only difference is that of the afterlife; their moment of judgment has already been had, and their Soul has already been sent on to its reward. Nothing the person does after the moment of death can alter this fate, for better or worse.

In some cases, a player may not find the idea of a soulless character appealing. In this case, the DM should work with the player to find a solution that facilitates the story they want their character to be part of. Perhaps a sufficiently powerful priest can make use of divine intervention to circumvent the reincarnation process, or role-play a scenario from the deceased PC's point of view in which they can bargain with the gods of death for their return. In a high-level campaign, it is not out of the question for the party to venture into the Lands of the Dead and rescue the character's soul themselves (though the Powers that Be would certainly not make such a quest easy).

People and Places

Nations of the Akregian Empire

Akregia

Velaria

Espiria

Kingdom of Ogria

The Fennlands

Factions

The Akregian Church

History of the Sundered Ring

History of the Akregian People

The Ascension Wars

The First Human Empire

The Church of Dragons

Table of Contents

Glossary

• Celestials Astral beings that ruled the northern half of Vecrona before the Ascension. They were exiled across the Misty Sea at the end of the war.
• The Church The only organized religion in the empire; it is devoted to venerating the Dragons and ensuring the populace keeps their laws.
• Dragons The gods of the Sundered Ring, who conquored Vecrona from the Fiends and Celestials thousands of years ago.
• Drakes Creatures conjured from thr ether to act as beasts of burden for the Church and the Empire.
• The Empire The collection of nations that rules the northern half of Vecrona.
• The Saints Those humans who have been elevated by the Dragons as a reward for living an exemplary life. They act as intermediaries between the Dragons and the Church. There are currently eighteen canonical Saints, though some sects recognize more.
• The Sundered Wheel The various realms ruled over by the Dragons; when drawn out on a map, they resemble a four-spoked wheel with a missing portion.
• Fiends Ruled the southern half of Vecrona before the Ascension, mysteriously vanished into the Ether along with their entire empire.
• Jotun Immense ancestors to present-day giants, they were wiped out by the Dragons ages ago.