[Volaire] Social Strata

There are three classes, rigidly stratified within the population of Volaire. The aristocracy, the citizens, & the peasantry. Overall, the aristocracy compose of 5% of Volaire's population, while the citizens comprise another 8%, & the peasant class make up more than 83% of the population. The remaining 4% consist of outsiders. This of course does not account for the transient population, which fluctuates the number of bodies in the asteroid cluster that is Volaire.

Aristocrat/Nobility
The aristocrats are the ruling class, whose strictly patrilineal membership is archived upon the pages of the Book of Names, guarded carefully in the Golden Temple of Waukeen. Exceptional circumstances exist for new admissions, usually when an entire family is wiped out. An additional exception exists among male papermakers of the Artoa district: those who marry an aristocratic woman ensure that their children enter the aristocracy.

As the men of the noble families can pass on their membership, their political value is tightly understood, which has led to an inflation in dowries such that a number of seemingly ideal marriages don't happen at all because neither family can afford each others' dowry (see below for the groom's dowry). Volaire has stepped in with a legal limit on dowries to not exceed in value 500 times the annual salary of a manual labourer, though it's clearly possible for this restriction to see some circumvention. Ultimately, there is a surplus of unattached bachelors & many an unwed noblewoman joins one of Volaire's convents.

Dowries & Magic Rings
While the marriage ceremony itself is certainly expensive in a noble family, the lion's share of a marriage's expense is the dowry. Volaire's own culture has a nuance that needs to be included. One, the bride retains/regains the dowry in the event of the husband's death, regardless of any additional endowments in said groom's will. Secondly, the groom's family is expected to provide the wife an enchanted item, typically in the form of a ring. Variations exist, typically as an amulet or tiara, but exceptions do exist. In one wedding, the patriarch of the Vincere family bequeathed the wife wedding gauntlets of ogre power.

Citizens/Middle Class
Citizens are barred from political office, but they do serve in bureaucratic positions. While this means none can wield executive power, that is not to say they're powerless. The appointment of a judge can be measured in months, yet their support staff will have been in the same positions for years, wielding considerable experience & institutional memory. Membership is matrilineal, with an additional exception: proving to the city that both your mother & grandmother have been residents of the city with none of them being manual labourers allows for one to gain citizenship. The traditions of marriage, while similar to that of the nobility, are not as socially enforced.

Peasants/Lower Class
Collectively, citizens & aristocrats make up less than 12% of the population of Volaire. The next social class down, & by far the largest, are the peasantry. Peasants are the people who live & trade in Volaire have no formal political rights to speak of. Certain subgroups have their own privileges. Workers for the Armament (where Volaire produces its star ships) provide a ceremonial guard to the Rao as well as a number of prominent members for various public events, & the Foreman of the Armament is achieved through merit rather than birthright or even appointment of the Senate.

Outsiders
Outsiders, those without real position in the social hierarchy, make up the remaining population as long-term residents of various demographics. These include (but not solely consist of) foreign merchants given leave to live in Volaire (usually as a quid pro quo with the merchant's homeworld to allow for Volarian merchants to live & operate abroad), Athasians, & slaves. Slavery was abolished approximately thirty years ago in Volaire, but some number of foreigners from worlds that retain the practice have been given a special dispensation (in the interests of diplomacy) to have their slaves accompany them in the city; but this permission is at a cost of greater supervision & must provide a minimum quality of life to said slaves.

Please note, these classes are one of political representation. While aristocrats are predominantly wealthy, there certainly exist poor ones. Most of the merchants are members of the peasantry, but wield economic power that puts some of them higher than many patriarchs. One's separation from each other is ultimately just a social one, rather than geographic, as space is at a premium among the multistory buildings packed on the asteroids of Volaire. Barring the ghettos of the Athasians, a single neighborhood can hold the full range of social strata, with nobles living adjacent to peasants.

Gender Roles
It is the view of the Sikato Church that women be concerned with matters of the material plane. This has led to skilled artisans, engineers, soldiers (except knights & similar positions of command), & doctors to be predominantly performed by women. Female convents, which are frequently 75% upper class, are some of the best known martial dojos in the Mondrian system. Women of the upper class generally retain influence over their dowries, leading to them frequently co-partners of the marriage & generally wielding considerable power. Additionally, women are expected to (at minimum, if not outright lead) participate in the political negotiations between families, generally acting as the ultimate deciders of who marries whom & how dowries are arranged (controlling the destiny of the family is a very material concern).

Men are viewed as masters of people & the mind, leading to them holding the role(s) of leadership & scholarly pursuits. Positions of authority are nigh-exclusively male, especially within the political positions (bureaucratic positions, held by the middle class, are more egalitarian, though still favoring men) of Volaire's government or the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Sikato Church. While martial prowess is not frowned upon among the menfolk, it is expected that they practice those of more meditative or performative nature, or in accompanying positions of leadership such as generals or knights.

Professions associated with the peasantry have no expectations of gender; be it labourer, infantry/militia, merchant, performer, servant, & even adventurer. In many ways, peasant is the person's gender, leading to such activities as to hold neither masculine nor feminine connotations.

[Petals & Thrones] Session 4: Tourneys & Tarantulas

Session IV

During the week, Victor practiced the policy of it being better to ask for forgiveness, & sought out Caspar from the Order of the Third Eye. Thus, he traded the shoggoth tentacles for the three wands (he kept the web & paralysis for himself, Bridgitte got the lightning wand).

Both Orders, Lion & Wyrd, approach Ramshorn in their full array. Their's some initial concerns among the players, but they ultimately decide to go forward with all three events. All three proceed to fail to get past the preliminary rounds at the archery round, the rangers trouncing each of them.

The mêlée portion is interesting, as to be able to hit someone, the subsequent Constitution save is exceptionally difficult to overcome. Bridgitte, surprising everyone with zero proficiency in great swords, somehow manages to be the last person standing and wins this round of the tournament. The jousting tournament results in Victor & Bridgitte losing against their respective Lion Knights, but Roland manages to overcome his opponent.

While waiting for the hunt to organize and announce the intended quarry, I resolve the conversation opportunities available. Their three Persuasion checks are reasonably successful, Roland doing remarkably well for his -1 Charisma modifier and lack of training. Victor increases his boasting of their prior fights pretty well for joining in the boasting with Dame Leona & Talon.

Vincent is chosen as the person to accompany in the hunt for the male huntsman (Roland preferred Dame Leona, but was outvoted). They follow Vincent's lead, ultimately slaying the three wolf spiders and the male huntsman with surprising ease. After a short conversation with Vincent & Prince Darius as part of the victory acceptance for their group success at the tournament, they head back to the Accidental Gryphon to nap.

Before the name, they are approached by Trym Tosscobble, who is currently not doing anything for the upcoming week due to Goldblum experiencing some financing trouble. They hire her bardic services for the standard 15gp rate, enjoy a lullaby (Victor's still hurt from the fight huntsman's bite), and set out for their mission (with a short interruption of Goldblum offering them a 600gp reward for taking out the goblins).

While searching for the goblins, they are ambushed by two tiger spiders & a tarantula, their ambush lead to a remarkably potent damage output. All three of the PCs were bloodied before the second round. Roland practically solos the rest once he starts swinging. Exploring further, they walk around the territorial owlbear and run into the werewolf pack again. Roland, still decently smelling of huntsman ichor from the prior night, gets the werewolf's attention; Victor throws down some Persuasion, convincing the werewolf to lead them to the goblin camp as thanks for slaying the beast that killed the werewolf's mate. En route, the werewolf warns the party that the hobgoblins & bugbears smell "wrong," warning them that they have made dark pacts with the humans.

Takeaway
Our players are disappointed that practically the entire session was taken up with this tournament, and that they aren't any closer to advancing to the next level.

[Volaire] Languages of the Tapestry

D&D assumes a default linguistic standard of racial tribalism. Walking into a village, you would expect it to be an "Elf village" or a "Goliath village," and this was how D&D presented the setting - in 1977. Since then, the presentation of randomly generated communities are no longer homogeneous tribes, but comparatively much more metropolitan. Your enemy warcamp will have orcs, hobgoblins, and kobolds.

While Volaire is exceptional in its racial demographics, the setting as a whole absolutely supports a diverse distribution of races. People are culturally raised in and subsequently identify with their community more than their species. An orc raised in Volaire finds more familiarity and understanding with a fellow Volarian elf than he does with an orc from one of the Soltsa worlds. Subsequently, languages are instead separated by cultural groups.

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Common/Mondrian: The lingua franca for travelers throughout the Mondrian system.

Athasian: A complex language, with heavy variation based on spatial context; there's a literal linguistic difference between their indoor and outdoor voices. This is known by the people of the planet Athas, and cannot be fully spoken by those without telepathy.

Laadan: Primary trade language of the Greater Fratol Co-Prosperity Sphere, an expansionist empire with a strong dueling culture. Not on friendly terms with the Mondrian system, except for Volaire, who are more concerned with profit.

Tir'Su: Language of nobility & scholars for the Grand Visory, who are economically entwined with the Fratolian Sphere.

Qualith: The braille-like written language of the now-shattered Illithid Empire.

Zakhod: Trade tongue of the Soltsa, a series of dark colony worlds who retained a fair bit of autonomy even when they were under the control of the Illithid Empire.

Utu: The language of academia with the Sikato Church and the Celm Faith, the two being different enough to notice, but not enough to meaningfully preclude understanding from the other side.

Ichtacan: Language of the scholarly moons of Ichataca, allies of the Grand Visory.

Vulgar Tongue: Not a single language, but a catch-all term for the local language of whatever community is encountered, including isolated races/tribes who have not developed the means to leave their world. Volarian is a vulgar tongue, but its relevance/prominent is obvious in a campaign set in Volaire.

• Volarian: Commoners of Volaire and its colonies.
• Speronese: Commoners of Speron, a Mondrian nation with a love for masks.
• Kanei: Indigenous tribes of Mondria's moon.

Vulgar tongues tend to use the same alphabet/script as their local trade tongue, other than Kanei, which uses its own unique script. Contrariwise, each of the major trade tongues listed above use their own alphabets other than Ichtacan, which uses the same as Utu.

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Secret Messages

The purpose of language is to ease the conveyance of information. For many situations, this is too easy, and thus hurdles have been instituted by various people to make certainly only people they want get the information. There are numerous ways for communication to be shrouded, and can easily be the subject of an entire sourcebook. Suffice it to say, a single blog post is not a sourcebook, and so I will only provide a few samples for surreptitious communication.

Obscure Script: A catch-all term for ciphers created for use between spies of Volaire, and in fact, there's a secondary meaning behind which cipher is used to encode a piece of text. In 5E, each cipher can be cracked with an Intelligence check, the DC listed with the cipher below. It is known among the spycraft community of Volaire that Comprehend Languages is an absolute key against obscure scripts, & therefore knowledge of this spell is closely guarded/monitored by multiple factions. It is not unheard of for courier to be assassinated simply for transporting a written copy of the spell, & wizards who are overly open with their use of the spell are a short-lived phenomenon.

• Sunlight (DC 7): A low-effort cipher more often than not used to keep messages from being read over your shoulder or to make a message look more important than it actually is.
• Semaphore (DC 14): Used for surreptitious communication within the Armament, Volaire's star ship construction district.
• Trick (DC 20): Popular among the arcane, this cipher uses sigils and scripts normally reserved for use in spellbooks, seeing use throughout the Mondrian system. What makes this cipher unique is that it can be read with read magic.
• Vinegar (DC 15): Used by those who feel their messages are getting intercepted.
• Lily (DC 12): Popular among lovers, it is exceptionally common to douse the message in a particular scent to serve as the key.
• Habit (DC 18): Predominantly used by members of the clergy, especially between the numerous monasteries of Volaire.
• Scicolo Major (DC 25): The personal cipher of the Rao, established for use in personal correspondence with foreign officials, and is reset to a new key with every new Rao. Named after a famed cryptographer, and is known for being nearly impossible to decipher. Even with the key, it's a DC 5 Intelligence test if you don't have a cipher disc (specialized cryptography tool).
• Scicolo Minor (DC 18): The cipher used by secretive agents of the Volarian government, a different key being used within each city district.

Learning an obscure script is a simple matter of picking it up from your background or making the associated check past the DC.

Code: Whether it's Thieves' Cant or a prearranged list of code phrases/words with specific meanings, this method is proof against comprehend languages. It does require either foreknowledge of the specific code, via memorization between the two parties or a written primer that can be referred to, depending on the code's complexity. Of course, an understanding that code is being used can be inferred through keen social awareness (5E's Insight or 3.X's Sense Motive, opposed by Deception & Bluff respectively).

Telepathy: This method of communication is remarkably effective, so long as your target is within range. The hindrance in its use is social, as people who are known telepaths (especially Athasians) are severely distrusted & frequently barred from even entering various establishments.

[Volaire] City of the Stars

Fueled and fed and fought over by a hundred worlds, dozens of species gather to live, work, compete, love, and finally die. The shining jewel of the Rings of Mondria, the asteroid cluster of Volaire sees countless ships sail in from other stars. A swirl of plots, factions, and sedition that leaves even the hidden cults’ heads spinning. Tattooed paladin wizards enforce the will of the Sikato Church, spies trade secrets between merchants and clergy and nobles alike, and orcs scrawl anti-telepath slurs on buildings. Adventurers come, drawn by Volaire’s wealth and the factions at play for power and influence. It is a place where there is much opportunity for a sharp blade, a quick mind, as well as constant danger.

What is Volaire? Volaire is the focal city for a custom fantasy setting where travel across the Tapestry is an integrated trait of society. Aboard flying ships, ala Spelljammer.

What is the Tapestry? It is the setting's colloquial term for outer space. I feel it's important that the in-universe natives don't use the term "space" because their space isn't our space.

How is space not space? Because it's not empty! This is a fantasy setting, with wizards and dragons, so physics is already on vacation. In Volaire, physics largely follows the same rules, except the phrase "nature abhors a vacuum" is taken to its logical extreme. The entire void between worlds is, generally, breathable atmosphere.

Can a bird fly to the moon? Depends. African or European? But more seriously, probably not. I'm not changing the distances between celestial bodies, so it's still literally hundreds of thousands of miles between a planet and its moon. Your typical bird is likely to die of starvation.

What about gravity? Ah, now there's a question with some weight to it. Gravity isn't changed in this setting, broadly speaking. Obviously it's adjusted a little to handle the atmosphere. You otherwise still experience microgravity in orbit, orbital mechanics of planets largely follow the same rules, people jump farther on smaller worlds, etc.

What rules/system does this setting use? Strictly speaking, the material I'm providing is system-agnostic, but it was originally designed for a the E6 variant of D&D 3.X. So while it can be used with essentially any fantasy system, it will experience some internal inconsistencies the farther you stray from the original. So, while it's absolutely compatible with 5E, adjustments need to made around the fact the setting (for PCs) does not allow for planar travel, interplanetary travel & interplanetary communication, and resurrection magic is unavailable.

Planar Travel is probably the most important restriction. The setting allows for summoners and warlocks to function, so calling upon the other planes for energy or even minions is permissible. But exploration should be about going to other planets, not other dimensions.

Related to the fact exploration in the setting should be about going to new worlds, interplanetary travel is equally verboten. Even spells such as teleportation circle should not allow for distances past a world. I would allow for major infrastructure projects to create something analogous to star gates, but those should be considered major architectural projects just to be able to reach that planet's moon, maybe another planet within the same solar system if you're wanting a particularly large work. At the minimum, neither Volaire nor its host planet Mondria have any such gates.

Interplanetary communication was presumed unavailable in its original design, barring physically going to said planet with the message in your hand. Now, it can certainly be introduced, as I've done in my own campaign as a major plot point, but it's presence would be considered disruptive to the status quo. It's not something that should be introduced casually.

Cheating death with resurrection magic is probably the most flexible restriction on this list. The core conceits of the setting do not hinge on its absence, so any restrictions would be to enforce the narrative weight of death. I would personally use something akin to what's been used in Critical Role.