Only when they had slept for fourteen hours and eaten the last of their provisions did the travellers continue their journey west, across Daricia now with the ocean at their backs. The green plains of Daricia stretched ahead of them, featureless as far as the eye could see, framed southwards by the mountains. Far to the northwest, dark thunderheads gathered above the peaks of Mount Karonan. Closer but still many leagues distant, Dor Edlis stood like a white needle against the plains. The Dagon River was a wavering sword-wound of silver blood across the country, clotted at the river mouth with the streets and fortifications of Daricia’s largest city. Somewhere in the mountains to the south, beyond the river, lay the hidden valley and fastness of Avellar.

Introduction

Daricia is a land of open plains, hedged north and south by mountains and bordered on the east by the sea. The western border is heavily forested and little-explored. The chief cities of Daricia are Dor Edlis, Dor Avellar and Dagon Firth, with numerous lesser settlements and towns.

Dor Edlis lies in sight of the western forest, a walled city built on the ruins of an older fortress. The city houses Daricia’s libraries and museums, but is better known as the City of Law for the Provost Academy and main barracks within the keep. From Dor Edlis, the Provost police all of Daricia.

Dor Avellar is in the mountains to the south, a remote fastness on the absolute edge of Daricia. Very few have ever travelled far enough into the mountain passes to set eyes on the castle itself, and the inhabitants of this region manifest all Darian characteristics in excess; Avallians are larger, more aggressive and more judgemental than any of their countrymen. Avellar is the region of Daricia most famous for swords and swordsmen; the best Darian swords come from this region, but the Avallians themselves are secretive even within their own kind and rarely stray far from their birthplace.

Between Dor Edlis and Dor Avellar runs the River Dagon, cutting Daricia in two from the western forest to the eastern coast. Where the river meets the sea stands the Dagon Bastion, a fortress straddling the Firth and overshadowing Dagon Town. All traders arriving by ship must pass beneath the guns of the Dagon Bastion before they set foot on land; the Darician coast is sheer cliffs north and south, with no other harbors within Darian territory.

Inhabitants

The rulers of Daricia are the Darians, a morphic species that has evolved to mimic human form and society. Darians outwardly resemble humans, but are substantially larger and stronger. The reproductive cycle of the Darian race is a closely guarded secret, but it is common knowledge that Darians are an exclusively male species; there are no female Darians. Due to their evolutionary mimicking of humanity, Darians are sexually functional with human women and imitate human sexual behavior. Nevertheless, they are sterile and cannot father children.

Beside their great physical strength and agility, Darians have exceptional healing powers. Minor wounds disappear in a matter of hours, mortal wounds close up over night and even lost Darian limbs can be regenerated. Darians are immune to all natural illnesses and have a high tolerance for most poisons, including alcohol and narcotics. Outwardly, Darians do not appear to age; they do not need to shave and never experience the effects of ageing; unless felled in battle, Darians are effectively immortal. As a result of their regenerative powers, Darians have no concept of medicine or surgery; they cannot study medical skills or pursue healing careers.

Darians are extremely aggressive and territorial; strict military training from their first waking ensures that they are highly disciplined and self-controlled, but all Darians are prone to outbursts of temper and violent resolution to disputes. As a result, rivalry between military units is common, while dueling and brawls are an everyday occurrence.

Darian language is a military battle-code, making Darian speech extremely direct. The language is structured in such a way as to preclude vagueness or duality of meaning, with the result that it is almost impossible to lie. Darians have difficulty lying in any language, but are highly sensitive to the slightest deceit in their mother tongue. Darians can be both highly suspicious and laughably gullible, but always respond violently if they detect falsehood.

Culture

Daricia is a settled, feudal society where the Darians form a warrior elite while the human Daricians predominate in the peasant population. Traders in towns can come from either background, but there is no merchant class; international trade is the preserve of the Darian navy. Apart from the few Darian blacksmiths and innkeepers, contact between Darians and Daricians is limited. The peasants live rural lives tilling the fields and raising crops, from which their Darian overlords draw a generous living in taxation.

Darians themselves are strictly militarist. Born fully adult in secret rites, each young Darian is immediately inducted into a military discipline. Most regions of Daricia specialize in raising a particular type of soldier; the regular army is drawn from the coast and the central plains; Darians from the vicinity of the River Dagon form coastal defense and the nation’s small navy; Police and Provost officers are despatched from Dor Edlis in the west while tacticians, smiths and master trainers come from southern Avellar.

Daricia is isolationist, preferring to have no contact with the outside world and only grudgingly consenting to trade with its neighbors. Travelers in Daricia rarely receive a warm welcome; the Darian manner is generally terse and they are easy to offend. To the Darian mind, settling an issue by combat is as natural as having a conversation; any two Darians left unoccupied for long enough will inevitably come to blows. All Darians are highly trained killers; they have the luxury of immortality to pursue perfection in combat skills, and hone them with frequent practice on one another.

Religion

Darians practice no religion and build no temples or places of worship. Instead, they are rigidly secretive about the breeding cycle and practices of their race, constructing deep networks of tunnels beneath their castles and cities to conduct these rites.

Darician peasants pursue various forms of local paganism partially based on folk-tales about their Darian masters.

Law and Order

Fortunately for their neighbors, Darian aggression is inwardly focused. In line with their military society, most conflict is conducted in a relatively orderly manner. Two Darians fighting a duel begin with excessive macho posturing, to make clear to all witnesses that a fair and legally-permissible duel is about to ensue. Anyone then caught up in the fight was, ipso facto , a combatant; anyone not involved had ample chance to clear the arena.

Daricia’s Provost police rarely deal with the peasantry; disputes involving the lower classes can be summarily dealt with by any Darian on the scene, regardless of his rank or position. The Provost are chiefly concerned with the rebellion that constantly brews in Daricia. The Separatist movement consists of organized Darian rebels dedicated to a military coup. They operate from the forested western regions of Daricia, and are more open to commerce with non-Darians, trading for weapons and supplies and sometimes allowing human outlaws entry to their bands.

Adventure Hooks

Trade Negotiations: The difficulties of negotiating with Darians presents options for the GM to introduce the race as NPCs, with players part of a trading mission to secure Darian goods. A mission to buy arms would be particularly suitable, possibly complicated by the revelation that Darian arms and armor are too large and heavy for normal human use; this fact should naturally be withheld until trade negotiations are complete.

Provost: Players can explore the Darian Provost either through a “Dor Edlis Blues” set-up in the roles of urban Darian Police officers, or by taking to the road in pursuit of Separatists and outlaws. As Darian cops, the players can deal with drunken soldiers, Separatist spies, corruption within their own ranks, murder mystery or any police show plot seen through Darian eyes.

Escape from Dor Edlis: As a small band of condemned criminals, the players must escape from Dor Edlis jail and flee the city. This scenario begins in the dungeons, with the players disarmed, and has the potential for a mixed party of Darians and other characters. For good role-playing, Darian players should be well briefed on their attitude to other races.

Joining a Separatist Band: Alone or as a sequel to the scenario above, players form a band of outlaws seeking the protection of the Separatists in Daricia’s western forest.

Separatists: As members of a Separatist Outlaw band, players are pitted against the Provost and dangerous creatures inhabiting Daricia’s borders.

Special Rules

Most published Roleplaying systems will already incorporate rules to cover the majority of Darian abilities. The specific abilities of Darians characters and NPCs are:

• Regeneration
• Unaging
• Immunity to Disease
• Resistance to Poison
• Enhanced Strength & Agility

Only Darian Enhanced Strength should require any new rules for most published systems:

Darians are hugely muscled and should have all physical attributes in the high upper range of any system (15 – 20 in d20 and similar systems). However, Darians employ their full strength in bursts; systems with any form of “fatigue” or “exhaustion points” should allow Darians to temporarily increase their strength by expending additional effort, potentially exceeding the normal human range of attributes.

The GM is free to tailor house rules to fit the system in use; some systems will support a new Advantage or Ability, others might find Darian enhanced strength easier to phrase within their rules as a spell or magical effect.