The Others— Pariah, City of Ghosts

PARIAH, in the early stages of its development was known as City of Ghosts, as it was imagined that the principal focus of play would be around haunted cities in a fertile river valley abandoned by a precursor civilisation known as The Others. Originally beginning as an exaggeration of the our elves are different trope cross-fertilised with the sidhe of The Gardens of Ynn and with a little bit of spire's aelfir thrown in... but they took a turn.

Besides, everyone's redoing elves now:

https://knightattheopera.blogspot.com/2020/12/elves-part-1-reconstructing-fantasy.html 

All images by Kylli Sparre/Sparrek https://sparrek.org/

The Others are young spirits, though they have existed longer than humanity. The possess powers that can only be ascribed to the Dawn or even the Beyond, yet they dwell in the Here and Now. Once they built great cities but, having solved the problem of subsistence and needing nothing, found there was nothing left that they wanted.

All that they have left is the Work.

Appearance

• To humans The Others appear dazzlingly beautiful.
• They must save vs. spells (19) or be awestruck (paralysed).
• The pariah may overcome their paralysis by taking 1d4 CHA damage.
• A successful save renders them immune to the effects of the Other One's beauty for ten minutes.
• They may re-save each round until they pass.

https://sparrek.org/

Skin (1d6)

1. White and luminescent as the moon.
2. Deep indigo like the void between the stars.
3. Covered in tiny iridescent scales like the wings of a butterfly.
4. So perfectly smooth it has a reflective sheen. It is the colour of lapis lazuli.
5. Covered in a fine down of tawny fur.
6. Like the bark of a banyan tree, and similarly dripping with aerial roots descending to the ground.

Build (1d6)

1. A decadent mass of folds and folds of fetching  flesh.
2. An alluring array of voluptuous curves.
3. Lithe and slender. It moves with terrifying grace.
4. Almost skeletal... yet somehow presenting an image of exemplary health.
5. Muscular and athletic: the epitome of physical fitness.
6. A bulging mass of muscles and veins, biceps upon biceps upon biceps.

Hair (1d6)

1. Yards of spider silk extend from its scalp in a flickering mantle, though no wind is felt.
2. A great globe of tightly coiled silver curls.
3. No hair anywhere on its body (unless it has a fine covering of down, see above)
4. Thick extensions of flesh extend from its scalp and hang in thick ropes all the way to its feet.
5. Trailing vines thick with green leaves grow from the top of its head. Birds and insects make their home there.
6. A writhing mass of brightly coloured serpents. They hiss and spit.

https://sparrek.org/

Eyes (1d6)

1. Entirely black eyes yet slightly reflective.
2. Violet flames flickering at the points where one would expect eyes to be. 
3. At first it appears to be sleeping, for its eyes never open. Nonetheless its gaze can be felt.
4. Crimson tears stream from its mournful eyes: blood?
5. An enormous pair of eyes testify its beauty: brilliant white sclera surround dazzling emerald irises and pitch-black pupils.
6. Its eyes are a pair of empty pits from which billows a steady stream of sweet-smelling smoke.

Face (1d6)

The Others do not experience human emotions, but their faces are human-like and seem to express them. When they speak their mouths do not move.

1. An expressionless mask.
2. Beaming a perpetually radiant grin.
3. A constant expression of beautiful sorrow.
4. A sensitive countenance of gentle benevolence.
5. An ecstatic expression teetering on sexual climax.
6. Occasionally shifting set of fixed expressions, a series of performative masks with no perceptible transition between states.

Height(1d6)

1. 1d2 feet.
2. 3'6" + 4d4 inches.
3. 4'6" + 6d4 inches.
4. 2d6+7 feet.
5. 1d10+19 feet.
6. 3d12+27 feet.

https://sparrek.org/

Behaviour

• The Others have little patience for anything interfering with the Work (see below).
• They are solitary, but that does not mean that they are only ever encountered alone: they may visit others of their kind to criticise their work.
• They have their own reaction table: it is modified by circumstance only, not by human charisma or social skills.

2d6 Reaction Table

2: It is absolutely disgusted with anyone that has actively disturbed it, and will attempt to annihilate them and will not stop until the most active individuals have been destroyed. Once this occurs, re-roll again (-4) to see if it has calmed itself.

3-5: This Other One is angered by the human presence before it. It presents itself in its most intimidating fashion (everyone must save against its awesome beauty again, even if they passed previously). Reroll reactions: modify if the party's gift is suitable (see below), -2 if anyone attempts to address it directly during this time, -4 if anyone speaks to any else that is NOT the Other.

6-8: Mildly irritated, it turns to address whomever presented themselves as party leader (if relevant) and awaits the inevitable presentation of a gift. Reroll as above, modifying according to the quality of the gift and -2 if no gift is presented (there are no penalties for talking this time).

9-11: Neutral. The Other One resumes whatever it was doing, taking any gifts and ignoring the pariahs unless they approach it again (automatic -2 to reaction roll).

12: Curious about one of the pariahs, the Other One will speak with a randomly determined pariah, almost as equals! If the pariah proves to be as interesting as it anticipated, it will use charms or even illusions to manipulate them into staying. If the pariah turns out to be boring or resists joining the Other in the creation of their work, the Other One will attempt to destroy them.

They're not very nice. 

https://sparrek.org/

The Work

• All of the surviving Others have found meaning in their existence through the creation of incredible objects that they individually refer to as The Work. 
• Each project is unique, and is never collaborative (though The Others may employ/enslave mortals to assist in its creation, they will never join with others of their kind: they are always the sole auteur) 
• The Work sits somewhere between contemporary art installation, magical artefact and technological marvel, but its true purpose is opaque.

Describing the Work

Roll once for a descriptor or process and once for the medium or format. Most of these words/concepts will be utterly foreign to the pariahs: this is as it should be.

1d20	Process/Descriptor:	1d20	Medium/Format
1	abstracted	1	array
2	complex	2	art installation
3	crystalline	3	biome
4	cybernetic	4	city
5	enchanted	5	dimensional gate
6	endless	6	earthwork
7	fractal	7	landscape
8	formalist	8	manufactured disaster
9	gargantuan	9	musical instrument
10	iterative	10	opera
11	labyrinthine	11	performance piece
12	mechanical	12	plague
13	microscopic	13	poem
14	procedurally generated	14	sculpture
15	psychedelic	15	song cycle
16	recursive	16	spacecraft
17	sapient	17	structure
18	sophisticated	18	temple
19	timeless	19	text
20	vast	20	weapon of mass destruction

https://sparrek.org/

Naming the Work

Roll once for a descriptor or process and once for the medium or format. Most of these words/concepts will be utterly foreign to the pariahs: this is as it should be.

1d20	The...	1d20	...of...
1	Archive	1	Atrocities
2	Ballet	2	The Beyond
3	Chorus	3	The Black Star
4	Dance	4	Blood
5	Eidolon	5	Bone
6	Exhibition	6	Daemons
7	Gallery	7	The Damned
8	Garden	8	Flesh
9	Library	9	Forever
10	Orchestra	10	The Forgotten Dead
11	Machine	11	Infinity
12	Museum	12	Nightmares
13	Radiance	13	Nothing
14	Realm	14	Oblivion
15	Song	15	Pain
16	Sphere	16	Souls
17	Spiral	17	The Unspoken
18	Symphony	18	The Veiled
19	Telling	19	The Void
20	Theatre	20	The Yellow Moon

Sometimes it sounds better if you swap the words around: Atrocity Exhibition sounds better than Exhibition of Atrocities.

Materials

What comprises this great work? Roll 1d66 (1d36?) until bored. Reroll repeats or intensify.

1d6 X 1d6	Materials Comprising the Work
1-1	Ashes stolen from funeral pyres
1-2	the brain of a great cephalopod
1-3	a bolt of lightning thrown by the spirit of the Sun & Heavens
1-4	bound animal spirits
1-5	a loyal cult of [cultists]
1-6	the corpses of livestock
2-1	a demon of The Beyond fused to a piece of star metal.
2-2	an elaborate lattice of glass and metal
2-3	fossilised trees
2-4	a gate to the Realm Beyond Death
2-5	human bones
2-6	the heart of a titan still beating due to powerful sorcery
3-1	human corpses impaled on great metal spikes
3-2	human souls
3-3	laughter
3-4	the leathery wings of an enormous bat
3-5	living songbirds twittering discordantly
3-6	mammoth tusks
4-1	a meadow of colourful, fragrant flowers always in full bloom
4-2	megaliths erected 1000 years ago
4-3	memories long forgotten
4-4	metallic mechanisms from an alien culture
4-5	multiple boneswords stabbed firmly into the ground
4-6	Nameless Ones fused to unidentifiable machinery
5-1	a moth as big as an eagle trapped in a sphere of glass
5-2	piles and piles of stone tablets etched with curious symbols
5-3	a pipe organ crafted from the ribs of a whale
5-4	a sentient lichen colony
5-5	sapient fungi
5-6	the still-screaming head of a human sorcerer
6-1	a series of petrified humans and animals immortalised in stone
6-2	sheets of human and animal skin stretched to the point of translucency
6-3	the spirits of  The Dawn
6-4	a throne of skulls
6-5	unidentified plant matter resembling the interior of an orange yet pumping blood.
6-6	the wisdom of a still living shaman

I had intended to add some hints as to what you could do with all of this, but I think I'll follow it up later.

* * *

Special note: mention must be made to the Dvargir of Veins of the Earth: though their work is for the benefit of their community collective rather than an abstract ideal, the concept of an intelligent species with a singular focus is partly inspired by them.

Buy a digitally printed copy of PARIAH VOLUME ONE here:
https://soulmuppet-store.co.uk/products/pariah-volume-1

PARIAH VOLUME 2: CITY OF GHOSTS coming later this year.