Building Bhakashal - What is Bhakashal?
At its base Bhakashal is a retroclone of 1e AD&D and a setting along the lines of Tekumel or Blackmoor. It will be broadly compatible with any early edition of D&D or any OSR style game. Bhakashal will be about 30% mechanics and 70% setting, so even if you are using a completely different rule set, there will be plenty of material here to mine.
The setting is a hybrid of Vance, Zelazny and Howard, set billions of years in the future when the sun in the sky has turned red, Bhakashal exists at the end of time, one of the last of the great cities of Earth. “Civilization” has risen and fallen thousands of times before, humans ruled the Earth, then they fell, later frog-people created the next civilization, it fell, and so on, so many times that no one knows which civilization was first.
Twelve “playable groups” live within the walls of the city of Prophecy, Humans, Chitin (insect people), Garudin (bird people), Jugyi (turtle people), Kutya (dog people), Malu (fish people), Rakasta (cat people), Saan (lizard people), Togmu (frog people), Vodnik (castor people), Wythir (lion-people) and Yalan (snake people).
There are 20 playable classes in Bhakashal: Beastials (druids), Cavarals (monk/magic-users), Chimerists (specialist - alteration magic), Conjurors (specialist - conjuration magic), Gyres (“generic” magic), Jinxes (thief/druids), Justiciars (paladins), Mercenaries (fighters), Myrmidons (fighter/magic-users), Necromancers (specialist - necromantic magic), Phantasmists (Illusionists), Seers (priests), Slayers (ranger/assassins), Spartans (monks), Spellbinders (druid/magic-users), Spiders (thieves), Thaumaturges (thief/magic-users), Theurgists (fighter/illusionists), Voxes (bards) and Warlocks (magic-users).
There are no “barbarian hordes” in the setting, no “uncivilized” peoples pressing against the edges of civilization. There is the city, and the surrounding agricultural lands, but there are no savages waiting to bring down the walls of society. Nor are there any “inherently evil” humanoid groups. Evil lives in the heart, not in collectives.
Bhakashal is a city, located on an island in a river, surrounded by marshlands. The weather is tropical, hot all year round, rain happens daily, moreso in certain seasons, and the animal and plant life are typical of hot, tropical environments. Hundreds of years ago the lands surrounding the city were the location of a vast civilization ruled by venal sorcerers and corrupted priests, they created powerful items of magic and spawned strange, twisted creatures that survived them and multiplied in the marshes for centuries. Their towers and temples are long sunken into the swamp, but hold treasures many adventurers have died to retrieve.
The marshlands closest to the city are the home of a large population of Saan (lizard people) who ride black dragons (the secret of their domestication is known only to the Saan). The marshes are also filled with farmers and fishermen, thousands of small villages dot the marshes, the Saan keeping back the horrors of the past from destroying them.
The city of Bhakashal is ruled by 54 Noble Houses, each one ruled by Lords (warriors) and Warlocks (magicians). Each Noble House controls a portion of the lands in the marshes, and vie with each other for power and prestige. In Bhakashal, repute reigns supreme, honor, courage, martial skill, no one leads in Bhakashal that hasn’t felt the sting of steel. Honor duels are common, arena fights moreso. There is a mechanical system for repute in the game that impacts how the PCs interact with others in the setting. Most groups will find a patron when they begin their time in Bhakashal, and their patron will enmesh them in the factions that rule the city. Bhakashal is a city of intrigue, factions, alliances, enmities, all are part of the ebb and flow of the setting, and the PCs will become a part of them.
Unbeknownst to the majority of the city’s inhabitants, Bhakashal is built over the body of the slumbering god Iallus, god of plants, the Moon and creativity. The presence of Iallus draws the most creative, the most skilled practitioners of all of the arts to the city like moths to the flame. Some of the greatest weaponsmiths, the finest musicians, the most renowned warlocks live in the city, Bhakashal is a delight for the senses. The presence of Iallus under the city also fuels life, the marshes are teeming with creatures fantastic and natural, so much so that the city hunt is never sated. Not only that, but the city itself is overgrown with plant life, so much so that salt is spread on the roads daily to keep the plants from overgrowing them, and canopies of multicolored plants hang between many of the hundreds of rooftop gardens, an series of elevated bridges known to many an adventurous thief.
Technology is late Renaissance level, spyglasses exist alongside swords and bows. Firearms are also present, but their spread and use is tightly controlled by the Warlocks who rule the city Houses, only Warlocks have guns, and very few of them.
Magic is also tightly controlled by the city Houses, each House ruled by a Magus Warlock and a Ur Lord. Magic is not ‘common’ in Bhakashal, though the setting has over 400 new spells and several hundred new magic items, these are the provenance of the warlocks and the Noble Houses. There are no “magic shops”, no “magic garbage disposals” or “magic street lights”, magic is power and repute, and it is guarded greedily by the warlocks who wield it.
The Gods of Bhakashal were once AI, created millions of years in the past. These AI evolved to the next level of existence, and disappeared for millions of years, only to return to the setting several hundred years ago for unknown reasons. The gods of Bhakashal are inscrutable and strange, enigmatic and opaque, and they walk the Earth like mortals, dwelling in the most remote places, though on occasion they have set foot in the city.
Bhakashal will contain a custom city map, rules for prophetic dreams (the presence of Iallus under the city leads certain people to have prophetic dreams), a system for generating building types and NPCs, custom rules for levelling, random encounter tables for the city and the marshes, examples of prominent NPCs, details of the factions that populate the city, rules for repute, rumor tables, information on flora and fauna, a unique pantheon of gods, details on the city watch and hunt, 8 sample scenarios, rules for patrons and parties, descriptions of customs (fashion, hairstyles, weddings, funerals and festivals), a list of ghosts found in the city, detailed descriptions of the 12 playable groups and 20 classes, dozens of new monsters, more than 100 new magic items, 400 new spells, new weapons, new rules for combat and weapon criticals, location of hit tables, and a custom initiative system that makes combat exciting, fast and handles large groups with ease.
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