Athasian Character Roles

Many character roles are available to the Athasian character, of these, some have specific requirements.
There are seven categories into which the peoples of Athas fall: city-dwellers, villagers, merchants, herdsmen, raiders, hunter-gatherers, and hermits. Each of these will provide any number of possible character roles to the inventive player or Narrator.

Among city-dwellers, there are a vast number of roles, from healers and beggars, city-guardsmen and Templars, to masters of the Way and Veiled Alliance wizards; nobles, gamblers, assassins, bards, dancers, singers, city merchants, spies, thugs, gladiators, farmers, slaves, laborers, potters, sandal-makers, armorers, weapon-crafters, artists, elemental mystics and many, many others.
All races can be found in the cities, though they are dominated by humans, half-elves, muls, and half-giants. Elven tribes travel in and out of the cities, never staying as permanent residents; dwarves are similarly few in number, staying to their own villages. Lone halflings may occasionally visit the cities, but will not live there; and most Thri-Kreen find cities wholly distasteful, never visiting them in groups.

Villagers have the same categories of people living in them as cities do, though on a much smaller scale. Oftentimes, missing are the slaves, artists, nobles and templars that flesh out much of the difference between city-life and village life. Represented mostly here are escaped slaves, merchants, farmers, herdsmen, laborers, craftsmen and elemental mystics.
Humans, halflings and dwarves tend to congregate in villages; halflings in the Forest Ridge, and dwarves in the Athasian deserts; occasionally a group of half-giants will build a village in imitation of one nearby. Half-elves tend to be sparsely represented in villages.

Merchants travel the deserts, as their own small subcultures, mostly free of the yoke of the Sorcerer Kings (who recognize the importance of their own survival in that of the caravans and traders), protected by the security net of their Trading House. Among them, there are bookkeepers, traders, guardsmen and scouts, as well as the gypsy-wanderers who are allowed to latch onto many caravans in return for doing their share of the work within the camps.
Humans, elven tribes and lone half-elves make up the majority of those encountered as merchants or within the trader camps, and half-giants often serve as guards.

Herdsmen usually come in small groups, caring for their herds of kank, inix or erdlu, later selling them in markets of the Tyr-region.  There are herders and scouts among them, but they are a fairly non-diverse group due to the nature of their work.
Herdsmen spend their lives upon the desert plains, and are usually elven or human; though once again, some half-giants may imitate a group of herders.

Raiders come from all walks of life, and live in anything from transient camps, to well fortified slave villages (those built by escaped slaves, usually themselves). They sweep down upon caravans, travelers, and herdsmen to gather whatever useful loot they can to survive or even profit (it is not unknown for a Trading House to hire certain raiders to stifle the competition in an area). Raiders are full of escaped slaves, bandits, cut-throats, thugs, murderers and other unsavory types.
Raiders are usually elven or human, mixed with individual half-elves and muls. Groups of half-giants often imitate raiders, and are quite successful at it, if more soft-hearted than other groups (though no less deadly).

Hunter-gatherers spend their time hunting the wild, deadly game of Athas, and gathering what other meager resources exist for them to subsist upon; they do not practice agriculture and very rarely animal husbandry. They are generally nomadic, though not always, and may have a permanent "base-camp" of sorts, or even a fully settled village (the villages of the halflings or nests of the Thri-Kreen, for example). Hunter-gatherers have among them chieftains, elemental mystics, healers, artists, hunters, warriors, lorekeepers and simple craftsmen.
These peoples are represented mostly by the tribes of halflings in the Forest Ridge, and the elven tribes of the Tablelands. The numerous packs of Thri-Kreen also fall fully into this category.

Hermits are individuals who have retired to a quiet corner of Athas, away from the bustle of civilization and the nearest caravan routes. There are as many reasons for becoming a hermit as there are individuals, but the majority tend to be Druids guarding their chosen lands from those who would defile them, wizards (preservers, defilers and others) seeking a quiet, safe area in which to study and gain in power and knowledge, and Masters of the Way, who use the hermitage to test and strengthen their formidable mental powers. Others are just crazy coots holed up in the wilds, wanderers who find cities and contact with others uncomfortable, escaped murderers or slaves, and many other types.
The majority of hermits are represented racially by half-elves; humans take a close second, and all other races have their share of hermits.

Most of the character roles are self-explanatory; requirements can be quickly created for them, as well as any special advantages or disadvantages they may have. However, I have detailed one very Athas-specific character role below to help the Narrator should a player wish to have this kind of character (more roles may be added later).

Templar

The Templar role is the role of a corrupt official working for the Sorcerer King; they are politically savvy, easily bribed, abusive of their great power, scheming and corrupt. Anyone who takes the Presence-skill Mysticism: Channeling (Sorcerer King) must be a Templar in the service of a particular Sorcerer King. The Sorcerer Kings do not grant access to their magics to just anyone, and may withdraw or reduce the amount they allow an individual at any time. Those "closest" to the Sorcerer King of the city, or rather, those highest in rank, gain a greater share of power than their underlings. As such, all Templars must have a Social Status, chosen during character creation, of 4 or higher; though the true ranks of power within the Templars start at a Status of 6 and above.

All Templars gain a trump bonus whenever involved in scheming or bribery, having learned how to get what they want, and bend the rules (or outright change them) to serve their own needs, knowing who and how to suck up to those in power to change that which they personally cannot. Thus, though bereft of spells, a reformed Templar could be a valuable ally in any city-state.
However, truly reformed Templars are few and far between, for no scrupulous man could live the life of a Templar for very long without playing the treacherous political power-game. Thus, Templars must have a high card of 7, 8 or 9 as either their Nature or Demeanor. Alternately, the total of the values of the cards used for Nature and Demeanor should equal 9 or higher, thus making it possible for Templar player-characters to be at worst purely neutral, and at best (or worst) completely the opposite of what they appear to be.

 

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