Editing Kisarta

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'''Kisarta''' is a third-party setting for [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]] characterized by [[grimdark]]. Sporting the tagline "A setting of damned souls and unearthly horrors for 5th Edition", Kisarta is... well, it's kind of like if [[Planescape]] and [[Dark Souls]] got drunk and had a one-night stand.

Currently, it consists of three [[splatbook]]s; a corebook, "The Lost Codex of Kisarta" (a kind of Player's Handbook, offering new PC-focused material), and "Tales from Kisarta" (an anthology of short stories, with sample magic items & adventure seeds inspired by each).

==In Their Own Words==
Welcome to Kisarta, a setting of damned souls and otherworldly horrors for the 5th Edition of the world’s most famous RPG! You will stand before dangerous creatures straight from a nightmare, terrifying and forbidden knowledge, and ancient secrets which might lead you to insanity.

But the true question is: what is Kisarta?

It is the Pale Sun that shines dim over each of the Dominions you will explore during your travels.

It is the centerpiece riddle, the key to everything.

It is the crux of the Great Game, that is to say, the complex plot weaved by the local gods.

It is a universe of its own, where life and death, purity and corruption, hope and despair bleed together in tangled and contradictory schemes, while hoping to give meaning to a dull and dying existence.

Exploring Kisarta means not only traveling through places full of dangers, but also walking in search of the meaning of your own existence, in the shadows of the strange and awesome powers of these lands which might be crucial to your success, or failure. Your weapons will be not only literal weapons and arcane spells, but also forgotten lore, pacts with unfathomable beings and your skill in navigating the intrigues of these dark corridors of powers.

The true rule is that there are no rules, only plans of distant deities, whose designs are alien to mortal minds.

So prepare yourselves and pray for your salvation, since in these lands you will find neither hope nor pity.

==A Basic Summary==
The basic idea behind a campaign of Kisarta is that your player is a Soul, the spirit of a dead being from somewhere in the [[multiverse]] that has awoken in the self-contained realms of Kisarta, which consists of a dying star (the titular '''Kisarta'''', also known as '''The Pale Sun''') hovering over a mystical city - '''Limbo, City of the Dead'''; a [[Sigil]]-like realm that lies at the center of seven planes - '''Dominions''', all of which are contained inside a nothing-realm called '''The Void''' that bars access to the wider [[multiverse]]. Souls, like all things in the Realms of Kisarta, are comprised of a magical matter-analogue called ''Aether'' and sustained by a mystical energy called ''Ichor''. Souls awaken to their new lives in Limbo's '''Cemetery of the Lost Ones''' and must then figure out what to do with themselves. Each of the seven realms is ruled over by a powerful god-like being known as a '''Guardian''', who jealously consolidates power over its realm; Limbo is ruled instead by a conclave of god-beings known as the '''Lords of the Black Circle''', who are the only beings more powerful than the Guardians. Both are served by legions of Souls and native fiends, "Kisarthi", resulting in an ever-shifting array of schemes, feuds and conspiracies known
as the '''Great Game'''.

And now your players must make their way through the Great Game, or die again. Good luck...

==The Black Circle of Limbo==
Nobody knows who or ''what'' the Black Circle are, or even how many of them there are. It's commonly held that the number actually fluctuates and changes. The Black Circle's members are fiend-gods so powerful that they are only known by titles, monikers and nicknames, which of course makes it harder to figure out what the hell is going on. Four members of the Black Circle are "named" in the corebook:
* '''The Unredeemed Patriarch''', high priest of the widespread Church of the Dying Saints.
* '''The Weeping Widow''', caretaker of the Cemetery of the Lost Ones.
* '''The Shadow of a Hundred Eyes''', an arcane entity which seems to have a particular interest in Souls able to use magic and in the manipulation of Ichor. 
* '''The False Demiurge''', said to be the true mastermind and real power behind all the political games played between the many factions the City of the Dead is split into.

==The Seven Dominions and their Guardians==
'''Malphas the Cruel''' is the lord of the '''Crucible of the Damned''', an infernal expanse of sulfur and flames where Souls are treated like slaves and only the hardiest can keep themselves together.

In the darkness of the '''Howling Forest''' hides '''Yuul''', the primordial nightmare that made its Dominion into a horrifying hunting ground for itself and the creatures under its command.

'''Ylluvethar the Eternal''' watches over the Dominion of the '''Nameless Abyss''' and tries to gaze into the destiny of his plane by interpreting the signs of the False Stars lighting and wandering the sky.

The enigmatic and aloof '''Lyriash''' is the Guardian of the '''Ocean of the Lost Souls''', a boundless cavern on the bottom of which is found an endless sea punctuated with islands covered in mysterious ruins of past civilizations.

The '''Pit of Eternity''', a dark chasm which seems to go on forever, is the twisted Dominion of an entity known only as The Devourer, said to consume everything falling inside the Pit.

The '''Radiant Citadel''' Dominion is ruled with fire and an iron fist by the tyrannical '''Cyrthiur the Shining''', whose existence is devoted to destroying all the traces of the previous Guardian.

The mysterious '''Whispering Desert''' is looked after by the enigmatic creature known as '''Mal-Val’ahm, the Keeper of a Hundred Misleading Truths''', who is the political and spiritual leader of a prosperous and elaborate civilization.

==Native Races==
Whilst Souls can take on the forms of any humanoid race they originally belonged to, the Dominions of the Pale Sun are also home to a number of stranger, more unearthly races.

'''Bygones''' are Souls who have been incarnated on Kisarta for so long that they have completely forgotten everything about their old life, almost completely dissolving into raw Aether and Ichor as they fade away into mindless shades that endlessly re-enact some meaningless circle of events... but surviving, and eventually reawakening consciousness as living tabula rasa. Bygones appear as slender, androgynous, large-handed, gray-skinned humanoids with no facial features save a thin, lipless slit of a mouth. To compensate for their dearth of distinguishing physical traits, most Bygones are fascinated with creating unique outfits and/or ornaments to try and cement their identity as "themselves". Medium sized and with a base speed of 30 feet, Bygones get +2 Wisdom, +1 to two other ability scores, and the racial traits A Simple Life (gain double-bonus proficiency in one skill or tool), Resilient Body (you need only sleep for 8 hours out of every 72 to avoid gaining exhaustion), and Enduring Toughness (1/day, spend 1 Hit Dice to remove 1 exhaustion level).

'''Disembodied''' are Souls who awaken in Limbo's Cemetary having forgotten what they originally looked like. As a result, they possess one of the countless statues in the cemetary, giving them an idealized form made of living stone, riven with cracks that reveal the flows of Ichor within. Disembodied are Medium sized with base speed 30 feet. Their ability scores are +2 Constitution/+1 Charisma, and they have the racial traits Darkvision 60 feet, Stolen Body (Creature Type is Humanoid AND Construct, Advantage on saves vs. Poison, Resistance to Poison damage, immune to diseases, don't need to eat, drink, breathe or sleep, can't be put to sleep by magic), Stone's Rest (trance like an [[Elf]]) and Animated Body (Immune to Paralysis and Petrification).

'''Dream Eaters''' are not Souls, but a kind of lesser fiend native to the [[Plane of Dreams|Oneiric Space]]. They are "born" as immaterial entities that feed on nightmares, negative emotions and other dark thoughts until they reach criticial mass and can manifest themselves physically, assuming a personalized and often alien or nightmarish humanoid form. In this state, they seek to experience the wider world for as long as they can, until eventually they lose cohesion and become mindless specters haunting Oneiric Space again, at least until they can once more consume enough nightmares to incarnate as a new Dream Eater. Medium Sized with a base speed of 30 feet, Dream Eaters get +1 Int/+1 Cha, Darkvision 60 feet, and the racial traits Telepathy 5 feet, Oniric Creature (don't need sleep, immune to sleep, can "rest" by spending 8 hours relaxing), and Pathophagy (must enter the dreams of a willing creature to gain the benefits of eating and drinking). They have two subraces:
* Ravenous Dream Eaters continue to prey on the Souls around them. +2 Strength and Torture the Sleeping (as an action point, deal 1 Psychic Damage to each sleeping, unconscious or dying creature within 10 feet; this can only affect a given creature 1/day, restores 1d6 HP to you for each point of "torment" damage dealt,  andusing Torture the Sleeping on at least 3 creatures counts as a full day's nourishment for you - critters aren't wakened or forced to make Death Saves as a result of this damage).
* Simphrenic Dream Eaters take a more benevolent approach, becoming defenders of small groups and communities as well as therapists. +1 Wisdom and Oneiric Sanctuary (whilst conscious, all allies within 30 feet can reduce any Psychic or Force damage they take by an amount equal to your Proficiency bonus).

'''Effigies''' are a kind of living elemental that appears spontaneously within the Dominions, when Aether in one of those realms spontaneously colaesces into a sapient humanoid. The precise shape of the effigy depends on its Dominion of origin:
::The Crucible of the Damned’s effigies are made of dirt, their skin covered with bright red and acid green spots. They have lanky bodies. On their chest there is a hole, between 4 and 8 inches wide, inside of which there is an absolute darkness. Physical things can pass through the hole without any resistance.
::The Howling Forest’s effigies are the least human-like: they are barely humanoid and instead of an actual head they have tangles of brambles, vines and other plants, from which appear, here and there, bird-like beaks and animal-like snouts. These mouths change in number and position all the time and they are used by these effigies to eat and talk.
::The Nameless Abyss’s effigies have bodies of hard stone, with broad shoulders and slim legs. Their arms looks like stalactites when kept alongside their bodies. They have short necks and empty eyes sockets. Sometimes a piece of the rock they are composed of falls off and starts orbiting around them.
::The Ocean of the Souls’ effigies are the largest and sturdiest. Their bodies, made mainly of water, are interspersed with blocks of rocks similar to cliffs, that emerge in those places where a human would have joints. The water of their bodies is always dark and murky, like the depths of their Dominion.
::The Pit of Eternity’s effigies are the tallest of them all. The stone they are made of is full of holes that, when studied closely, seem to lead to a complex labyrinth of internal pipes, from which comes out a malodorous air. Their faces have holes instead of eyes and noses, but their mouths are their most peculiar trait: they can be opened disproportionately, becoming a single, gaping maw across the effigy’s chest and revealing an infinite void where one can see a single faint light, like a star reflected at the bottom of a well.
::The Radiant Citadel’s effigies have a peculiar way to mirror the appearance of their Dominion: even though their bodies resemble soil covered with a thin layer of green grass, their hands and heads are made of white stone finely carved. They have angular features as if they were buildings of the Citadel itself. They are generally lithe and wiry.
::The Whispering Desert’s effigies reflect their Dominion by having a body made of sand in perpetual motion. Their eyes are golden spheres hidden in a sharp faces, covered by the etchings of sand itself. They have golden hairs too, that the effigy can change the shape of by retracting the hair inside his or her body and making it come out again in a different shape. They are the leanest effigies, with longs arms and slender fingers.
Mechanically, Effigies are Medium sized, base speed 30 feet, with +2 Wisdom and +1 Strength. They have the racial traits Impervious Physique (immune to disease, extreme cold and extreme heat), Primal Source (Proficient in Medicine, when stabilizing a dying creature you can expend 1 Hit Dice and the target recovers HP equal to the roll), Formidable (proficient with mace, maul, scimitar and shortsword), and Dominion's Legacy (when making a specific skill check, depending on your Dominion of origin, you apply double your proficiency bonus to that check):
* Crucible of the Damed: Intimidationcheck  to show yourself as a powerfuel foe.
* Howling Forest: Animal Handling check to calm a beast
* Nameless Abyss: Insigthcheck  to discern someone's personality.
* Ocean of the Souls: Survival check to find your way around an outdoor environment.
* Pit of Eternity: Athletics check to move over difficult terrain or climb vertical walls.
* Radian Citadel: Religion check to uncover the history of a relic or cult.
* Whispering Desert: Investigation check to recognize an illusion.

'''Fetishes''' are [[Flesh Golem]]-like constructs created from the remains of Souls who have lost their minds to madness and devolved into mindless empty shells. Created by a Lord of the Black Circle known only as the Dissecter, their lifespans are incredibly short; none survive beyond their 20th year before a sudden, irreversibly  decay sets in. Medium sized, base speed 30 feet,  they gain +2 Intelligence, +1 to one other ability score of their choice,  and the traits Darkvision  60 feet, Mind Without Dreams (Resistance to Psychic damage), and A Life of Pain (Advantage on saves against fear and maness).

'''Starchildren''' resemble [[Half-Elf|half-elves]] or very slender, gentle-featured huimans with glowing golden veins. They are only "born" in the Nameless Abyss, and are believed to be connected to its False Stars somehow.

'''Xhybris''' are a race of blue-skinned Grey-looking beings who actually fled from their own home in the rest of the multiverse to move into Limbo ''on purpose''. They are incredibly technologically advanced, and possess a hive-mind and a genetic caste system.

==New Classes==
Kisarta is home to not only all of the classic classes of 5e, but also to the '''Abomination''' (shapeshifting warriors who also serve as [[paladin]]-esque servitors of the Guardians),  '''Demiurges''' (Souls who use [[psionics]] to manipulate the Aether and Ichor that comprises the physical universe of Kisarta), '''Hexen Knights''' (arcane full-caster [[gish]]es) '''Ravagers''' (mentally unhinged warrior-psions who channel their own rage and hate into their weapons), and '''Travelers''' (jack-of-all-trades adventurers of the Dominions).

==New Subclasses==
Both the Kisarta corebook and the Lost Codex also contain new subclasses for the 5e classes.