Scarred Lands

A grimbright Dungeons & Dragons setting released by White Wolf under their OGL license subsidiary/front "Swords & Sorcery". Involves a world devastated by the war between the Titans (immensely powerful "Elder Gods") and the Gods (younger, weaker but more mortal-friendly deities), with the various mortal races having to live in it. Features one of the coolest twists on dying elves ever (they're dying because they took down a Primordial, something that mortal races should fucking not be able to do, and it cursed them all in its death throes), a sea polluted with blood because a Primordial's still-living sundered halves are buried in it, a swamp region filled with utterly psycho faerie-creatures & mutants, and is generally a "the world has gone to shit, but it can get better and it is getting better" kind of place.

White Wolf pushed the Scarred Lands out of the door as quickly as it could, and this led to various problems. Most notably, their stuff was incredibly disorganized. The very first book - Creature Collection - was borked, and had to be republished. We'd suggest they learn to code except that rushing buggy shit to publication doesn't fly in that profession.

Lords of Creation

The Scarred Lands is defined by its Greco-Roman battle between elder deities called the Titans and their God progeny. But who are they?

Titans

The Titans were primordial beings, drawing their power directly from the elemental essences of the planes themselves. Petty, short-sighted, callous and cruel, they consisted of the following:

Chern, also known as The Scourge and The Last Great Sicknes and Suffering, was the creator of plagues, vermin and disease. He was slain by the High Elves of Termana, his body entombed beneath the Mourning Marshes. His dying curse transformed the surviving High Elves into the Forsaken Elves. His symbol is a braided rope adorned with bone figurines.

Gaurak, aka The Glutton and The Voracious One, was a 100-toothed eating machine who devoured every scrap of life upon the once-verdant moon. The gods ripped out his teeth and scattered them across the world, where they turned into mountains, monoliths and even trees that blight the lands around them, before burying him deep in the earth. His titanspawn creations seek to feed his hunger, metaphorically or literally. His symbol is a fang.

Golthagga of the Forge, also known as the Shaper, was a misshapen brute who loved to meddle with the "toys" - sapient races - created by his fellows, spawning horrible aberrations out of his whimsy. Some still worship him for his talent of shaping the world around him, or his elemental affinity for earth and flame. His symbol is a forge or anvil.

Golthain the Faceless was a Titan with a vague compassion for the life-forms that the Titans created. For this, they mocked him and stripped him of his senses. In return, he betrayed them during the Divine War and then requested a merciful death. His symbol is a blank-faced mask.

Gormoth the Writhing Lord spent centuries in poisoned agony after incurring the wrath of his sister-wife Mormo. He ultimately recovered and began venting his spite and hatred on the world, targeting individuals rather than working on the grand scale. Defeated in the Divine War by Vangal and Chardun, they split him down the middle from skull to crotch and then dumped each still-flailing half on opposite sides of a great chasm. His followers still fight a vendetta against his three great enemies. His symbol is a two-headed flail.

Gulaben, Lady of the Winds and Mistress of Madness, is an obscure Titan about which nobody knows anything. Her symbol is a swirling cloud with a blue eye set at its center.

Hrinruuk the Hunter relished the challenge of hunting, and created many of the most lethal monstrosities to ever stalk Scarn just to give himself something better to hunt. This chucklehead basically triggered the divine war when he decided to hunt his own daughter, Tanil, brutally rape her, and then leave her to die. This was the last straw in a string of abuses for the gods. Tanil and Corean slew him during the Dawn War, giving his still-living head as a gift to Hedrada, whose daughter Miridum he had killed for sport. His symbol is a broken bow.

Kadum, the Mountainshaker, the Bleeding One, the Father of Monsters. Implied to resemble/be this setting's version of the Tarrasque. The Blood Sea exists because the best plan that the gods could come up with for defeating him was to cut out his heart, chain him to a rock, and throw him into the deepest ocean chasm, and his ever-bleeding wound poisons the sea. His symbol is a bloody heart.

Lethene, the Dame of Storms, the Untamed One, is another mysterious Titan who may have actually been one and the same as Gulaben. Her symbol is a whirlwind or whirlpool.

Mesos, Sire of Sorcery, the Disrupted, was the Titan most associated with arcane magic and is reputed to be the ultimate creator of all forms of sorcery. He was the first to be slain by the gods during the Divine War. His symbol is six arms clasping each other to form a six-pointed star made of two overlapping triangles.

Mormo, Mother of Serpents and Queen of Witches was one of the most prolific of all Titans, creating hags, asaatthi, medusae and gorgons amongst dozens of others. Hacked into pieces during the Divine War, her blood transformed the Hornsaw Forest into a homeland for mutant terrors. Her symbol is a serpent.

Thulkas, Father of Fire, also known as the Iron God, was an elemental force of flaming metal. So durable was he that Corean could not slay him, instead forcing him onto Golthagga's own anvil and hammering him with the Shaper's tools into the form of an arrow, which Tanil then shot into the sun using the bow she had taking from Hrinruuk. His symbol is a red sun with a black eye in the center.

Gods

The progeny of the Titans, the Gods found they drew their power from the belief and worship of the mortal races. This made them naturally more empathetic to the suffering of mortals, and so, ultimately, the abuses of the Titans roused them to put an end to it. That said, not all of the Gods are nice people - many of them are fucking assholes in their own right. They consist of the following:

Corean: God of Law, Protection, Chivalry, Wisdom, Craftwork, and Strength.

Madriel: Goddess of the Sun, Light, Sky, Redemption, Healing, and Agriculture.

Tanil: Goddess of Chaos, Music, Good Fortune, Trickery, Travel, Freedom, Hunting, Forestry, and Archery.

Hedrada the Lawgiver: God of Law, Order, Protection, Judgement, Justice, Knowledge, Cities, and Wealth.

Denev: Titaness of Earth, Nature, The Seasons, and the Cycles of Life.

Nemorga the Gatekeeper: Neutral psychopompic demigod of Death, Executions, Funerals, Judgement, Underworld, Portals, Gateways, Travel, and Knowledge.

Enkili the Shapeshifter: God/dess of Chaos, Storms, Trickery, Luck, Misfortune, and Travel.

Idra: Demigoddess of Chaos, Sexuality, Physical Affection, Carnal Knowledge, Passion, Entrancement, Prostitutes, Secrets, and Health.

Chardun the Slaver: Lawful god of War, Domination, Slavery, Bindings, Conquest, Avarice, and Pain.

Belsameth the Slayer: Goddess of Darkness, Death, Nightmares, Deception, Witchcraft, Magic, and Madness.

Vangal: God of Destruction, Pestilence, Famine, Bloodshed, Thunder, and Disasters.

Ushada

According to their worshipers, the Ushadan, the Ushada are the spirits of all things. And they mean ALL THINGS. In a forest, every tree, animal and rock have its own Ushada, and the forest itself have an Ushada. All Ushadan see the Titans as abnormal forms of Ushada, and respect them even if they also see them as corrupt and evil. In the matter of the gods the Ushadan are divided. Most see them as an unusual form of Ushada, but other believed to be not a part of the world and fear them.

The deities and faiths of the Scarred Lands
The Gods & Demigods
Belsameth - Chardun - Corean - Enkili - Hedrada - Madriel - Tanil - Vangal
Ashumas - Aspharal - The Beastlords - D'shan - Drendari - Elámash - Erias The Flayed God - Fraelhia - Gamgal - Goran - Hwyrdd - Imal Wheatsheaf Immatuk - Idra - Jandaveos - Kadeshu - Katashama - Laathsaal - Luchanig Manawe - Nalthalos - Nemorga - Otossal - Sarhari - Sethris - Subastas Syhana - Tamul - Trelu - Tukulti - Volskalka
The Titans
Chern - Denev - Gaurak - Golthagga - Golthain - Gormoth - Gulaben Hrinruuk - Kadum - Lethene - Mesos - Mormo - Spiragos - Thulkas
Other Faiths of Scarn
Agency of the Emperor - Ushadani

Races of the Scarred Lands

As part of the charm of this chaotic imprint, instead of the common races appearing in either the "Campaign Setting: Ghelspad" or "Scarred Lands Gazetteer: Ghelspad" sourcebooks like you'd expect, they only showed up in the DM's Companion, the last place any player would think to look! Luckily, 1d4chan is the internet's #1 source of obscure D&D racial crunch, so you can get the basics here and go looking for the pdfs of lore and other goodies on /tg/.

It bears mentioning that, of these races, the Forsaken Elves and the Charduni Dwarves were apparently the most popular with the fanbase, even getting their own dedicated sourcebook ("The Faithful And The Forsaken"). This may have something to do with their unique takes on the iconic "dying elf" and "dwarven" archetypes... or the Charduni Dwarves being represented by a curvaceous dusky-skinned female in a dress she's almost falling out of, fishnet stockings and high-heels.

Mountain Dwarves are native to the mountainous areas of Ghelspad, especially the Kelders, and so are sometimes named after that. They are pretty much your typical dwarf, save for one key difference: as part of their superior craftsmanship, mountain dwarves possess strong natural traditions of wizardry, and readily embrace magic as one of their strengths. They are particularly known for the art of runic magic, which they invented during the Divine War. Also, they care a lot less about their beards than most standard dwarves do. They have the following racial traits:

+2 Constitution, -2 Charisma

Medium

Base speed 20 feet

Darkvision 60 feet

Stonecunning: +2 racial bonus on checks to notice unusual stonework, including things disguised as stone, always considered to be actively searching for unusual stonework that is within 10 feet, can use Search to find stonework-based traps as if they were a Rogue, can always intuit depth underground.

Runic Heritage: Can cast Detect Magic and Arcane Mark 2/day each, both as if cast by a sorcerer of caster level equal to the dwarf's character level.

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison, disease, spells and spell-like effects.

+2 dodge bonus to AC against Huge or larger foes.

+2 racial bonus to melee attack rolls if another allied dwarf is within 5 feet.

+2 racial bonus on Appraise and Craft checks relating to stone and metal.

+2 racial bonus on Handle Animal checks with dwarf hounds and related creatures.

+r4 racial bonus to Will saves against the deafening bark of the dwarf hound.

Favored Class: Fighter and Wizard.

Charduni Dwarves are natives of Termana who invaded southwestern Ghelspad before the Divine War, where they inadvertently became unlikely saviors by fighting the asaatthi empire to mutual destruction during that time period. As their name suggests, the Charduni worship Chardun, God of Domination and Conquest - in fact, it's implied he made them as mockeries of the original Mountain Dwarves to be his perfect slave soldiers, then abandoned them when he realized that this made them struggle to recover from social upset; independent thought isn't their strongest point. They are effectively a dwarven analogue to drow, complete with being born a sickly gray and darkening to increasingly deep blacks as they age.

-2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma

Medium

Base speed 20 feet

Darkvision 90 feet

Stonecunning: +2 racial bonus on checks to notice unusual stonework, including things disguised as stone, always considered to be actively searching for unusual stonework that is within 10 feet, can use Search to find stonework-based traps as if they were a Rogue, can always intuit depth underground.

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison & disease.

+1 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects.

+2 dodge bonus to AC against Huge or bigger opponents.

+2 racial bonus to Profession (Mining) checks.

+2 racial bonus on Appraise & Craft checks relating to stone or metal.

Skin of Rock: +1 natural armor bonus at 40 years old, with a further +1 every 40 years, maxing out at +6 at 240 years old. A natural armor bonus of +4 or high gives a charduni a Level Adjustment of +1.

Favored Class: Cleric and Fighter

Forsaken Dwarves are an offshoot of the mountain dwarves whose homes in the World's End mountains were destroyed during the opening volleys of the Divine War. Refusing to get along and traumatized, these dwarves fled to the shelter of Krakadom, tallest and most treacherous mountain in all of Ghelspad, where they have pursued a strict doctrine of isolation and slowly begun to degenerate, losing ever more of their traditional crafting skills and slipping into madness.

+2 Constitution, -2 Charisma

Medium

Base speed 20 feet

Darkvision 120 feet

Stonecunning: +2 racial bonus on checks to notice unusual stonework, including things disguised as stone, always considered to be actively searching for unusual stonework that is within 10 feet, can use Search to find stonework-based traps as if they were a Rogue, can always intuit depth underground.

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison or disease.

+1 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects.

+2 dodge bonus to AC against Huge or larger foes.

+2 racial bonus to melee attack rolls if another allied dwarf is within 5 feet.

+2 racial bonus to Intimidate checks.

+1 racial bonus on Appraise & Craft checks relating to stone and metal.

Trap-Mastery: +2 racial bonus to Craft (Trap-making), which stacks with the bonus for Craft checks relating to stone & metal, and can make Disable Device skills even when untrained.

Favored Class: Fighter and Rogue

Dark Elves are a mysterious race of malicious, cruel, black-skinned elves from below the peaks of the Kelder mountain range, who routinely war on their dwarven neighbors and any other surfacers. Unlike standard drow, they don't worship Lolth, nor revere spiders, nor are they a matriarchy. They do wear luminescent tattoos though.

+2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma

Medium size

Base speed 30 feet

Darkvision 120 feet

Immune to Sleep spells and magical effects that induce Sleep.

+2 racial bonus to saving throws against enchantment spells and effects.

+2 racial bonus on Listen, Search and Spot checks, is always considered to be actively searching for secret & concealed doors within 5 feet.

+2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities.

Spell-Like Abilities: Blur and Mirror Image, both 1/day, with caster level as per a sorcerer of the dark elf's character level.

Favored Class: Rogue and Sorcerer

Forsaken Elves are the cursed remnants of the High Elves; afflicted with a divine malady that renders it impossible to produce children, and also suffer from an inability to access the true power of their patron deity, Jandaveos, who was slain in the battle against Chern. With most of their youngsters slain in that same battle, the Forsaken Elves are a dying race. With little else left, they cling to what they have left, mostly pride, giving them a reputation as arrogant, cynical, fatalistic bastards. So stubborn are they that they refuse to abandon their dead god, and thus potentially save themselves by embracing a new patron.

-2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence

Medium size

Base speed 30 feet

Low-Light Vision

Immune to Sleep spells and magical effects that induce Sleep.

+2 racial bonus to saving throws against enchantment spells and effects.

Proficient with 1 of longspear, shortspear or rapier, proficient with all of shortbow, longbow, composite shortbow and composite longbow.

+2 racial bonus on Listen, Search and Spot checks, is always considered to be actively searching for secret & concealed doors within 5 feet.

Chern's Curse: Cannot produce living, viable, Forsaken Elf offspring. Should start play as at least a middle aged character.

Curse of the Forsaken: Forsaken Elf clerics of Jandaveos can never advance in spellcasting ability higher than 2nd level, regardless of character level. Those who forsake Jandaveos for another patron god lose this trait, but are outcast from their society.

Wealthy: Begin play with +50% gold and one masterwork weapon or suit of armor.

Favored Class: Cleric and Wizard

Wood Elves are pretty much your standard elves, with little to differentiate them from their standard portrayal. Except maybe their love of tattooing themselves as a racial art form.

+2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution

Medium size

Base speed 30 feet

Low-Light Vision

Immune to Sleep spells and magical effects that induce Sleep.

+2 racial bonus to saving throws against enchantment spells and effects.

Proficient with longspear, shortspear, quarterstaff, shortbow, longbow, composite shortbow and composite longbow. Wood Elf Druids can use these weapons without violating their druidic oaths.

+2 racial bonus on Listen, Search and Spot checks, is always considered to be actively searching for secret & concealed doors within 5 feet.

+2 racial bonus on Craft (Tattoo) checks.

Favored Class: Druid and Ranger

Half-Elves in Scarn have a really awful sense of luck; whilst the comparative minority born of wood elven blood is welcomed and accepted, the vast majority are born of forsaken elf parents. The forsaken have taken to buying human slaves as breeding stock (or kidnapping children for this purpose) in hopes that crossbreeding will free them from the Curse of Chern. And, in fact, it works; Forsaken half-elves are healthy, strong and full of life. So the Forsaken Elves treat their halfbreed progeny like absolute shit for being half-human, and are then surprised when they tend to run away in huge numbers to Ghelspad, where they are treated decently.

No ability modifiers

Medium

Base speed 30 feet

Low-Light Vision

Immune to Sleep spells and magical effects that induce Sleep.

+2 racial bonus to saving throws against enchantment spells and effects.

+1 racial bonus to Listen, Search and Spot checks.

Elven Blood: Treat as an Elf for all special abilities and effects that key off of race.

+1 skill point at each level from level 2 onwards.

Favored Class: Any

Half-Orcs are typically either bred for slave labor or the victims of orcish raids upon settlements outside of the orcish homeland of the Plains of Lede. This builds a certain amount of sympathy, although just enough that they are allowed to make their own way in the world on their own merits rather than being harassed just for being part-orcish.

+2 Strength, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma

Medium

Base speed 30 feet

Darkvision 60 feet

+2 racial bonus to Bluff, Intimidate and Sense Motive checks.

Orc Blood: Treat as an Orc for all special abilities and effects that key off of race.

Favored Class: Barbarian and Rogue

Halflings are basically your standard peaceful, agrarian little people. It's just that, in a grimbright setting like this, they've basically been kicked around for generations and are mostly a race of slave-laborers.

+2 Dexterity, -2 Strength

Small

Base speed 20 feet

+2 racial bonus on Climb, Jump, Listen and Move Silently checks.

+1 racial bonus on all saving throws.

+2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear.

+2 racial bonus on attack rolls with thrown weapons.

+2 racial bonus on Bluff checks.

Impoverished: Start the game with -25% of the normal starting gold.

Favored Class: Rogue

Humans are everywhere in Ghelspad and Termana alike, with dozens of unique cultures, because of course that's what any setting does with them.

No ability modifiers - or use the "Humans By Region" variant and gain ability score modifiers based on region of origin.

• Calastia & The Sweltering Plains: -2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma
• Gascar Cities & Dunahnae: -2 Strength, +2 Intelligence or +2 Wisdom
• Karria, Darakeene & Albdia: +2 Strength or +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence or -2 Wisdom
• The Plains of Lede: +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
• Vesh, Cordrada & The Repose Peninsula: -2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom
• Durrover & the Kelders: +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma
• Crilos & The Gray Isle: +2 Strength, -2 Intelligence
• Kingdoms of the West: -2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma
• Tehlasos: +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma
• Tepuje Cities & Gamulganjus: +2 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom

Medium

Base speed 30 feet

+1 extra feat at first level

+4 extra skill points at first level

+1 skill point at each level from 2nd onwards.

Favored Class: Any

Gnomes are indigenous to the jungles of southern Termana, living a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Intensely xenophobic, their innate mystical connection to the animals of the jungle means that whilst many gnomes are vegetarians by default, a good number of them may also consider the meat of sapient races to be an acceptable source of protein. May possibly be dark skinned, but this is never mentioned.

+2 Constitution, -2 Strength

Small

Base speed 20 feet

Low-light Vision

+2 racial bonus on saving throws against Illusions.

+4 dodge bonus to AC against giants.

+2 racial bonus on Listen checks.

Animal Tongue: Cast a variant of Speak With Animals as a 1st level Sorcerer 1/day, which lasts 1 minute and allows for communication with any jungle bird or tiny-sized mammal.

Spirit Weaving: A jungle gnome with Int 10+ can cast Dancing Lights, Ghost Sound and Prestidigitation 1/day each, all as a 1st level caster.

Favored Class: Druid and Illusionist

Gnolls are pretty much the standard savage nomadic raiders of every setting, although there are multiple tribes who have settled down to a more peaceful existence and adventuring gnolls are surprisingly common.

+4 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma

Medium

Base speed 30 feet

Darkvision 60 feet

Tough Hide: +1 natural armor class bonus

+3 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks

Start play with 2d8 Hit Dice (apply Con modifier to both rolls), +1 BAB, +3 Fort, and Power Attack as a bonus feat.

Level Adjustment: +2

Favored Class: Barbarian and Ranger

Terali are a race of catfolk native to the southern jungles who resemble humanoid leopards. Deeply spiritual, they have an extremely complex culture revolving around ritual cleansing and taboos. The rare (1 in 20) melanistic "marked ones" of their kind have an innate affinity for sorcery.

+2 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom

Medium

Base speed 40 feet

Low Light Vision

Natural Weapons: 2 claw attacks (1d3 damage each) per round, or 1 bite attack (1d4 damage) per round; a terali cannot use these when armed with a weapon or carrying a shield, and still provokes attacks of opportunity when using them unless it has the Improved Unarmed Strike feat.

+2 racial bonus to Listen, Search and Spot checks.

+2 racial bonus to Wilderness Lore checks in jungle and forest terrain.

Favored Class: Druid and Ranger for normal terali, Sorcerer for marked one terali.

Regions of the Scarred Lands

The Scarred Lands are divided into two major continents, each of which has its own Campaign Setting book and its own Gazetteer, and three minor ones, crammed into a single book.

Ghelspad is the more "traditional" of the two continents, being your standard human-dominated pseudo-European sort of setting. It was the site of the Divine War and the big ongoing conflicts today still often echo the machinations of God against Titan and God against God.

Termana, conversely, plays with the traditions; it's a tropical-themed region where demihuman races rule, and where the Gods & Titans have drastically less impact.

Asherak is almost entirely desert and is the literal birthplace of the gods, with a far larger pantheon of demigods.

Dragon Lands is where your standard D&D dragons live along with their worshippers.

Fenrilik is Termana, except it's arctic instead of tropical and has more Titan worshippers.

• 

  Map of Ghelspad

The Relaunching

In 2017, having acquired the rights when they took everything else from White Wolf, Onyx Path Publishing decided to create a "2nd edition" Scarred Lands setting, which they proceeded to release for both Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition and Pathfinder rulesets. As of October 2017, only two such books exist; the Player's Guide, and an updated version of "The Wise and the Wicked", a splatbook examining notable figures from Scarn.

An unusual decision made for this 2nd edition was to convert a number of Titanspawn races from mere antagonists to viable player races, via the addition to the setting of "The Redeemed". The races that've received this treatment so far are Asaatthi, Hollow Legionnaires, Manticoras, Slitherins, Sutaks (calling themselves "Ironbred") and Orcs.

External Links

• Scarred Lands Wiki (badly in need of love)

Roleplaying games made by White Wolf
Exalted - Human Occupied Landfill - Scarred Lands - Scion - Trinity World of Darkness - World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game