A city-state of the Sidhe, capital of Albion
Score: 1189 | 5/4/23 |
Aldea
Population: Elves, Sidhe, Fauns, Pixies, Nixies, other feys
Government: monarchy
Religions: Tuatha de Danaan
Export:
Import: firearms, iron ore, grain, olive oil, spices
Alignment: chaotic neutral to true neutral
Language(s): Sidhe, Melian Elvish, Liathic Elvish, Pixie, Nixie, Faunish
Classes Available: Rogue, swashbuckler, sorcerer, warlock, ranger, druid
Favored Weapons: long sword, spear, sling, longbow
Standard Armour: elvish mail
Cultural Skills: singing, dancing, weaving, bluff, diplomacy, intimidation
Cultural Feats: fey courtier, Gift of the Hidden World
Additional Gear:
Who Rules: King Oberon and Queen Titania
Who Really Rules: sidhe nobility
Armed Forces: (level and gear)
Notable Mages: Nearly everyone.
Notable Churches: The Blue Henge (a circle of standing stones built around an ancient sacred spring.
Notable Rogues’ and Thieves’ Guilds: None, but the aristocracy regularly trains and employs spies and thieves as part of their political schemes.
Equipment Shops:
Adventurers’ Quarters: (inns and such)
Important Characters: Puck, Queen Mab
Important Features in Town: Every building in the city is hidden by illusion and/or partially transdimensional.
Local Lore:
Description: Aldea, the Hidden City of the Fey, is hidden behind layers of illusions, only the inhabitants know its true location. Many individual buildings are covered in illusions for further protection and most of the "buildings" are extra-dimensional spaces enchanted into rocks or trees. The elite of Aldea are the Sidhe, but elves and feys of all types populate the city. No other races are allowed to know the location of Aldea, and anyone who reveals this information is subject to the fatal ire of the Sidhe.
Aldea, the Hidden City, is in an impenetrable forest, hidden behind layers of illusions and false terrain. Aldea is unlike any other city, having no visible buildings, roads, or outer walls, or gates. Many outsiders claim it does not even exist. The city fills an entire vale of verdant woodland. The forest drips with dew and the soil is rich beyond compare. The Sidhe graft fruit to nearly every tree in the forest, and every form of berry known grows wild in the heather of the vale. Once it was the capital of Albion, one of the few nations never completely ruled by the Kironan Empire, but now the masses of immigrants from other nations have fractured this kingdom. The mass of Sidhe and other feys have retreated to this hidden city from the rest of the Last Lands.
Aldea, the Hidden City of the Fey, is hidden behind layers of illusions, only the inhabitants know its true location. Many individual buildings are covered in illusions for further protection and some “buildings” are extradimensional spaces enchanted into rocks trees. The elite of Aldea are the Sidhe, but elves and feys of all types populate the city. No other races are allowed to know the location of Aldea, and anyone who reveals this information is subject to the fatal ire of the Sidhe.
A city of deep magic, Aldea is full of strange wonders. Pixies, grigs, nixies, and other feys abound, each using their magic to do the daily tasks others use hard work to complete. Oberon and Titania are the absentee rulers of Aldea, spending most of their time in the realms of the fey. Various Sidhe nobles administer the city as they have done for untold centuries, and ensuring the city is one of eternal beauty and power. At the center of the city, in the royal palace of Oberon and Titania, is a permanent portal to the Outer Planar realm of the Fey, a realm known to some as Arvandor.
Each clan in Aldea has a unique pattern of tartan cloth they use for woolen kilts, shawls, and blankets, making the identity of the wearer known to those familiar with tartans. Wool cloth is exported to other cities, but only the members of a clan can wear its tartan, exported fabrics are always given solid colours. Rumour has it that the sheep and cattle in Aldea came from the land of the dead and were brought to the land of the living by the Tuatha de Danaan.
Pixietouched
One of your ancestors was a pixie, so you have some fey blood.
Prerequisites: 1st-level only, must be from Aldea, Cha 13+.
Benefits: You have fey blood, for all effects related to race you are considered a fey. You gain Invisibility as a spell-like ability, usable for 1 minute per level each day. Hide, move silently, spot, and listen are always class skills for you. You may switch your preferred class to Illusionist, Sorcerer, or Warlock. Once you choose a preferred class you cannot change it.
Fey Courtier
Your family is part of the Fey elite, you grew up in a world of allegiances, scheming, and betrayal used to the finer things in life…
Prerequisites: 1st-level only, must be from Aldea, Cha 13+.
Benefits: You have fey blood, for all effects related to race you are considered a fey. Appraise, bluff, diplomacy, innuendo, intimidate and perform are always class skills for you. If you have at least 3 ranks in perform you may Fascinate as a bard at your character level. You can switch preferred class to Bard, Ranger, or Warlock. Once you choose a preferred class you cannot change it.
Gift of the Hidden World
Dwelling in the land of the Sidhe has given you a measure of their power, so you have a lesser form of their Blessing of the Hidden World. Prerequisites: Must be from Aldea, Cha 13+, must be an elf or fey, level 3. Benefits: you act as if they are under the effect of a standard invisibility spell and may suppress this ability at will. This is not a spell so effects such as an anti-magic field have no effect on it. Creatures with the Gift of the Hidden World can see other creatures with it. Sidhe who see you using this feat recognize it and know you are not Sidhe.
Nixietouched
Your family mixed with nixies, so you have some fey blood.
Prerequisites: 1st-level only, must be from Aldea, Con 13+.
Benefits: You have fey blood, for all effects related to race you are considered a fey. You can breathe water as well as air. Hide and swim are always class skills for you. You can switch your preferred class to Ranger or Sorcerer. Once you have a chosen a preferred class you cannot change it.
Grigtouched
Your family mixed with grigs, so you have some fey blood.
Prerequisites: 1st-level only, must be from Aldea, Dex 13+.
Benefits: You have fey blood, for all effects related to race you are considered a fey. Hide, jump, move silently, and perform are always class skills for you. You can use Jump and Ventriloquism as spell-like abilities for 1 round per level each day at your character level.
Sidhe
Personality
The sidhe are very close to nature, and when left alone they are a very wise and docile people. However, when faced with enemies – which means just about anyone who isn’t a sidhe – they are terrifyingly vicious and will annihilate anyone or anything that threatens their woodland homes.
Physical Description
The sidhe are about 6 to 7 feet tall, and they are slightly thinner than humans. They are built like long distance runners and they may look weak but are amazingly strong because their muscles are more compact and efficient than those of human beings. These muscles, coupled with their slim build, also give the sidhe supernatural agility and grace. The sidhe are also tougher than humans and can recover from wounds that would surely kill a human.
Relations
The sidhe find everyone else inferior to them, much as elves do. Unlike elves, however, the sidhe are usually violent to those they see as inferior due to their famous tempers that flare quickly and take a long time to die down. The only race that sidhe do not openly find distasteful are elves and half-elves. They especially like half-elves because they don’t butt heads over who is superior and half-elves have generally diplomatic demeanor. Sidhe are usually friendly to green dragons in their lands and as long as the dragons are not violent to the sidhe they are welcomed because of their agreement on how to deal with trespassers. Sidhe relate well to fey that know their place, but tend to patronize sprites and other fey races.
Alignment
Most sidhe are true neutral in accordance with their devotion to nature, though some of the more radical ones are chaotic neutral. Rarely sidhe are so obsessive over hating outsiders that they are chaotic evil, but those sidhe are usually banished, becoming outsiders themselves. Adventuring sidhe are sometimes chaotic good because their open nature leaves them disliked in sidhe culture. The sidhe prefer good allies over evil ones because good allies are less likely to break treaties and threaten sidhe lands.
Lands
The sidhe live in dense forests in moderate and northern climates. Woe be to the unknowing traveller who intrudes upon sidhe lands and especially sidhe mounds. The Hidden City, Aldea, is ruled by the Sidhe.
Religion
Little is known of sidhe religion. What is known is that they worship a nature deity that they call Aos Sí, which translated into the common tongue literally means Green Man. They seem to make mounds in devotion to this deity, but it is not known what purpose these mounds serve. There revere the Tuatha de Danaan, but see them more as paragons of their own races than as gods.
Language
The sidhe speak their own language, and they also speak the languages of other fey creatures. The few less hateful sidhe who actually venture beyond the borders of their well protected realms usually pick up other languages with great ease though.
Names
These are some common sidhe names. Female: Bláthnaid, Caoimhe, Eibhlín, Máiréad, and Siobhán. Male: Aodán, Caoimhín, Feidhlimí, Murchadh, Stiofán
Racial Traits
• +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, +2 Constitution
• Fey Type
• Medium Size
• Sidhe base land speed is 30 feet
• Sidhe have supernatural senses and get a +4 bonus on listen and spot checks.
• Sidhe have had special training in forested areas so they gain +4 on move silently and hide checks in areas of forestation.
• Blessing of the Hidden World (Su): The sidhe act as if they are under the effect of a greater invisibility spell and may suppress this ability at will. This is not a spell so effects such as an anti-magic field have no effect on it. Creatures with the Blessing of the Hidden World can see other creatures with it.
• DR 10/ Cold Iron
• Automatic Languages: Gaelic, Sylvan, Common. Bonus Languages: Elven, Draconic, Gnome, Orc, Giant, Gnoll.
• Favored Class: Ranger.
• Level Adjustment: +2
Liath Elves
Size/Type: Medium Humanoid (Elf)
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hp)
Initiative:+1
Speed:30 ft.
Armor Class: 15 (+1 Dex, +3 studded leather, +1 light shield), touch 11, flat-footed 14
Base Attack/Grapple:+1/+2
Attack: Longsword +2 melee (1d8+1/19-20) or longbow +3 ranged (1d8/×3)
Full Attack: Longsword +2 melee(1d8+1/19-20) or longbow +3 ranged (1d8/×3)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: None
Special Qualities: Elven traits
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +1, Will -1*
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 11, Cha 8
Skills: Hide +1, Listen +2, Search +3, Spot +2
Feats: Weapon Focus (longbow)
Environment: Temperate forest
Organization: Squad (2-4), company (11-20 plus 2 3rd-level sergeants and 1 leader of 3rd-6th level), or band (30-100 plus 20% non-combatants plus 1 3rd-level sergeant per 10 adults, 5 5th-level lieutenants, and 3 7th-level captains)
Challenge Rating: ½
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually chaotic good
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +0
Personality
Dour and serious, Liath Elves are known for their gallows humour and shyness around new people. They do however have a gift for expressing themselves and take pride in their eloquence and quick wit. Many find Liath Elves can be extremely persuasive.
Physical Description
Liath Elves average 5 feet tall and typically weigh just over 100 pounds. They are mainly shepherds and fishermen, though they occasionally hunt for fresh meat. Elves prefer pale hues of green, gray, and white, usually with a green-and-gray cloak that blends well with the colors of the forest. Liath Elves are known for their pale yellow hair that is nearly white and their milky skin. Most have light blue to grey eyes.
Relations
Liath Elves strive to avoid conflict and build consensus, many of them being skilled diplomats, and have few enemies. The result is they have no real enemies and are generally on good terms with all other races in their area. Sophisticated and worldly, they are tolerant of foreign cultures and ideas, although they may seem patronizing.
Alignment
Liath Elves value individuality, freedom of expression, and tolerance so few are Lawful. They avoid conflict and mind their own business, so they tend to be Neutral more often than Good or Evil.
Lands
Liath Elves love forests and the sea, and most settled the western coasts of the Last Lands, where they settled around the lagoons of Ys. A growing number now live in Aldea as well.
Religion
Liath Elves revere the Tuatha de Danaan and have many druids and sacred bards among their clergy.
Language
Liath Elves speak their own language, which is similar to Sidhe, many know Bullywug as well as various fey languages. Most elves encountered outside their homes are warriors; the information presented here is for one of 1st level.
Names
Liath Elves generally adopt names from their own language.
Combat
Elves are cautious warriors and take time to analyze their opponents and the location of the fight if at all possible, maximizing their advantage by using ambushes, snipers, and camouflage. They prefer to fire from cover and retreat before they are found, repeating this maneuver until all of their enemies are dead.
They prefer longbows, shortbows, rapiers, and longswords. In melee, elves are graceful and deadly, using complex maneuvers that are beautiful to observe. Their wizards often use sleep spells during combat because these won’t affect other elves. Because of their trade relationship with the city of Burghausen many Liath Elves have started to learn how to make and use simple firearms.
Liath Elf Traits
Elves possess the following racial traits.
• +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Charisma. Liath Elves are nimble and slender, but have a gift for words.
• Medium size.
• An elf’s base land speed is 30 feet.
• Immunity to sleep spells and effects, and a +2 racial saving throw bonus against enchantment spells or effects. (Not reflected in the saving throw modifiers given here.)
• Low-light vision.
• Weapon Proficiency: Elves are automatically proficient with the longsword, rapier, longbow, composite longbow, shortbow, and composite shortbow.
• +2 racial bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks. An elf who merely passes within 5 feet of a secret or concealed door is entitled to a Search check to notice it as if she were actively looking for it.
• Eloquent: Liath Elves receive a +2 bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and language based Perform skills such as Poetry, Singing, and Oratory.
• Automatic Languages: Kironan or Valoran, Liath Elven. Bonus Languages: Faunish, Centaur, Minotaur, Iron Dwarf, Burghausen
• Favored Class: Wizard.