Nemnosti game introduction

Nemnosti is a game using heavily modified Pathfinder rules. It builds on the same world as Ashnabis, and is set around two years after that game ended (768 IE), but is based in a very different part of the world (rural, mountainous Khutu) and the themes and goals will be quite different.

All of your characters will begin at 4th level in their chosen class (or some combination, if multiclassed). Advancement will be relatively slow and largely based on milestones rather than a set timeframe.

The game is set at the saintly cloister (ulajeta) of Nemnosti, high in the Pardopasu valley in southwestern Khutu, home to the saint Nemnu Ula. You are acolytes (alelur) who have undergone training in Nemnu's Courses (lelutte) during your youth, a specialized set of philosophical and practical learning for those who serve Her. You are joined together in common interest in serving Her and the various people who work at the ulajeta.

A Meta Promise

There will be lots of nastiness, conflict, tension, etc. in this game, just as in any game. But one thing I want to assure everyone at the start is that while Nemnu, your patron saint, is not perfect by any means, She is on your side. While I'm sure She has secrets, She is not secretly the villain of the campaign, and She is fundamentally loyal to her acolytes. Others around her: who knows? I'm giving you this promise at the beginning because I think this game is more interesting if you buy in to the premise that you are acolytes at Nemnosti, that you care about this place and its saint, than if you start with the idea that you're going to end up in opposition to it / rejecting it.

Themes

Here are some big conceptual themes and issues that inevitably will come up and that you might think about how they relate to your character's goals and development:

• What is it like to be a saint?: Of the six Kinds, saints are especially interesting because they once were ordinary people and now have almost impossibly long lives and exceptional powers, but are cut off from a lot of the ordinary experience of humanity. What's the experience of being a saint, of being physically static, removed from your former humanity, but surrounded by your cult of followers?
• Death as transformation: Death is of course a big theme of almost all literature. Here, the big questions relate to the changes of Kind that occur with death - not just an end, but a changing of state. In a world where death does not cut you off from your relationships automatically, where personhood doesn't end, what's that like? Not just saints, but revenants, ancestors, and others, change the meaning of death in important ways.
• The flow of history: Nemnosti is a very old place, a place that sometimes feels timeless, but it has a very real history, and your saint has lived through a lot of it. It's probably better to say that the past here is layered upon layers, that it is not even really past, because its traces survive in the present. History leaves its traces, just as a river leaves sediments as it flows.

The Action

"But what are we going to do?" I hear you ask. Fair enough. I want people to know what they're getting into before character creation. This game will involve a lot of the following:

• Investigation, learning about the world, and uncovering secrets
• Interacting with members of various of the Six Kinds
• Protecting Nemnu and Nemnosti (physically and otherwise)
• Engaging in social, family, and relationship drama with other acolytes and folks at Nemnosti
• Discovering the secrets of Naftusa Province, its historical sites, and its people

It will involve less (though not none) of:

• Combat, especially against random creatures
• Long-distance travel / wilderness exploration