By far the most common creatures in the world of the White City, and still by far the most common antagonists for the game, humans are all over the place. Though near infinite in their diversity they nonetheless benefit from having some generic templates written up.
The world is full of these, usually trying to sell people pies or in some form of terrible peril.
1 Body / 5 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Halves / none
There are even more of these. They crop up all over the place, often posing as “woodcutters” or pedlars. Sometimes it seems that banditry is the only means of gainful employment available to half the population.
2 Body / 5 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Singles / Dodge (1)
Soldiers, guardsmen and the like will be better trained and better armed than most bandits. Note that the differences in hits between bandits and guardsmen is largely due to armour.
2 Body + Light Armour / 5 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Singles / Parry (1)
Be it of the guard or of the horde of bandits, you'll get the odd superior individual, better armed and trained than their men.
3 Body + Light Armour / 6 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Doubles / Parry (3)
Should generally be built on a scale similar to PCs.
The Great Forest to the West of the White City is the domain of the Old Powers and full of their creatures. It is also populated by wild feral animals, Weavers, trolls and mysterious entities that lurk in the depths of the Forest far from human civilisation.
These vary in size and strength; some are the size of large dogs, some the size of horses, some larger still. They're fast and their bite usually carries a paralysing venom. Particularly large female spiders develop mentally and psychically as well until they begin to blur the line between “giant spider” and “Spider-Queen”; These will have far more Psyche hits and may have additional abilities at the GM's discretion.
2 to 5 Body / 5 to 10 Fatigue / 3 Psyche / Singles or Doubles / Paralysis
The Weavers are strange residents of the City of Silk and the Great Forest. They are shorter than humans and far thinner, with long nimble fingers. They have some kind of association with the spiders which form the basis of the entire economy of the City of Silk. They speak only in whispers and have long sharp poisonous fingernails. They seem to have been capable of living in peace with humans thus far. See the Non-Humans page for more information.
1 Body / 5 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Singles or Unarmed Paralysing Singles / Dodge (1), Paralysis
We know 'em, we love 'em. They're sleek, dangerous and hunt in packs. They also give those who are so inclined an excuse to howl at the moon. The wolves of the White City world tend to be far more aggressive than wolves in the real world.
3 Body / 7 Fatigue / 3 Psyche / Doubles / Waves, Worry, Maneater
Seemingly intelligent, the Children of the Vine (sometimes referred to as “Vine-Children”)look entirely human except for their eyes, which are either pure white or blood red depending on how hungry they are. Swift, powerful and in service to the Old Power known as the Lady of Blood and Wine, the Children of the Vine have a penchant for blood and wine in equal measure and will generally take whichever option is the easiest. Apparently they throw very good parties, if you can survive until the end of the evening. See the Non-Humans page for more information.
3 Body / 8 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Singles / Dodge (3), Maneater
There are some aspects of trad fantasy that we just can't pass up… Trolls, about half as tall again as a man, they aren't precisely intelligent but have a kind of low cunning and are sometimes capable of understanding human speech. They tend to keep to dark wet places and live alone or in pairs. They don't actually eat people but do have a penchant for pony meat. The only way to permanently damage them is with fire.
6 Body / Fatigue n/a / 5 Psyche / Doubles / Hard to Kill
These large lizard-like creatures are wingless, clawed and fanged, able to breathe fire chemically rather than magically. They are pure carnivores, with iguana-like patience but the ability to move like a scalded troglodyte when necessary. Said to have been created by the Lord of Sand & Stone in collaboration with the Lady of Serpents. Their tough scaly hide acts like armour, so they are vulnerable to Through damage. They predominantly live in the Northern reaches of the Great Forest, where the bones of the land are beginning to show toward the foothills of the mountains. Their ability to breathe fire does ranged Global damage to a single target, but is a limited resource.
4 Body + 5 Armour / 15 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Doubles / Firebreathing (see above), Magic Resistance Wind (3), Worry, Maneater
Creatures with the legs of animals and the upper bodies of men, this category also includes centaurs, fauns and a load of other half-human things. They're usually intelligent, civilised in a debauched way and worshippers of the Old Powers. Some of them are even Blood sorcerers.
2 Body / 8 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Singles / Enchanting Music
The Swarm can look human, but they sure don't act it. The Swarm are (or is, they may have some kind of gestalt consciousness) clouds of insects which can adapt themselves into a remarkably close facsimile of human shape, or any other shape no matter how outlandish. Their motivations are as yet unclear, they may not be hostile but should be treated with caution.
10 Global hits / Fatigue n/a / 10 Psyche / Singles / Shapeshifting, Insubstantial
Also referred to as “serpent men”, which is an equally good description. These scaly humanoids are usually shapeshifters and come in five distinct flavours, one associated with each of the five Western Dragons. They tend to object to travellers in their lands, but are intelligent and rational so can be reasoned with.
3 Body / 6 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Singles / Shapeshifting, various others
Western Dragons are long, lithe and serpentine. Established mythology suggests that they are the children of the Old Power known as the Lady of All Serpents and the Prince of Breath known as the Frost Prince. There are generally thought to be five of them, each one distinct - these include Inskuldraes the Shapeless Worm, Barameus the God-King and Toramaes the Burning Ghost (for more information on these three see the Dragonfire & Deep Water LARP). There is no such thing as an “average” dragon, but most of them are Hard to Kill, usually needing something quite specific to finally get rid of them. Most Dragons can also adopt multiple shapes. Your average Western Dragon, then, will have stats along the following lines:
10 Body / Fatigue n/a / 20 Psyche / Triples / Hard to Kill, Shapeshifting, various others
Large wolves with fur that is bone white apart from a vaguely kiss-shaped red patch on their brow, bloodwolves were created by Vincenzi Velasquez in the summer of '05 as servants of the Lady of Blood & Wine. Fewer in numbers than ordinary wolves, but more intelligent and very hard to kill; they can only be permanently slain if killed by Blood Magic (or if subjected to a Blood Curse, or fed an Anti-Blood Potion, while unconscious and regenerating). Almost never seen outside the trackless depths of the Great Forest.
6 Body / Fatigue n/a / 6 Psyche / Doubles / Dodge (2), Hard to Kill, Worry, Maneater
The North is a strange place, where the borders of Dream and reality shift and merge. The creatures of the North are equally strange, a mix of the real, the insubstantial, the imaginary and the downright bizarre. Both the Dream Powers (if they exist) and the Princes of Breath are associated with the Northern Mountains and the Whistful City, and many of the Northern creatures partake of the natures of Dream and Wind.
Winged humanoids who dwell in the highest peaks of the Northern Mountains. They're generally polite to travellers, as long as nobody encroaches on their territory. They claim that they hunt nightmares and roast them over open fires in their grand halls. Their physical attacks are capable of harming ethereal creatures. See the Non-Humans page for more information.
3 Body / 6 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Singles or Psychic Singles / Flight
This is the best name anybody's given them. The Fears-of-Falling are ethereal beings which haunt the high passes of the North. Anyone reduced to zero Psyche hits by a Fear-of-Falling will be possessed and seized by an irresistible compulsion to hurl themselves from a high place onto the ground below.
5 Psyche hits / Psychic Singles / Ethereal
These may or may not be sentient, they take a vaguely humanoid shape but are ultimately made of wind and snow. They ride in on the blizzards that blow down from the North. They are known to leave Priests of the Princes of Breath unmolested, and so are widely considered to be servants of those Powers.
5 Global hits / Fatigue n/a / Psyche n/a / Singles / Insubstantial
The Rosemary Maids are a particularly bizarre species found in the extreme North. They are widely assumed to come from the Peak of Memory, but nobody can be sure. They appear as beautiful young women (and so, in fact, they are, it is not their faces which are false) and, at first, have no memories of who they are or what they are doing. When a Rosemary Maid encounters travellers she will ask them for assistance, explaining that she can't remember who she is. The canny will at this point run like hell. The uninitiated who offer her their hand will find themselves under psychic attack as the Rosemary Maid begins to steal their memories - the touch of a Rosemary Maid deals no physical damage, but deals Psychic Damage instead. Anybody reduced to zero Psyche hits by a Rosemary Maid will find themselves a complete tabula rasa, while the Maid will have all of their memories and therefore a deal of their personality. The memories will gradually fade over the course of a week or two, until the Rosemary Maid is again a blank slate looking for a fresh victim.
2 Body / 5 Fatigue / 8 Psyche / Psychic Singles / Memory Theft (see above)
As you may expect, Shadows are generally found along the River of Shadows. They flow down from the Peak of Regret and fall upon anybody in their path. It has been said that those who truly have no regrets cannot be harmed by them, it is also said that they specifically target those who regret the least. Nobody is entirely sure.
5 Global hits / Fatigue n/a / Psyche n/a / Singles / Insubstantial, Waves
The Eastern Plains hold the battlegrounds of the Binding Wars and the tombs or prisons of the Bound Ones. Watched by the Cloistered Brethren of Chains, the lands between the White City and the City of Crossroads are still populated by the remnants of armies and creatures who served in the Binding Wars.
Short misshapen humanoids who seem to live in underground complexes throughout the Eastern Plains. They are comparatively intelligent, but are considered a threat by many because of the associations between the East, the underground and the Bound Ones. Their tribes can be very territorial, and they occasionally raid caravans going to the City of Crossroads.
1 Body / 5 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Singles / Waves
Not everything that was bound at the end of the Binding War deserved to be so, many men who were involved in some fashion with the war on the City of Chains became bound in one way or another. The Trapped Men are the descendants of those who, after the war, were bound in the bodies of animals. They have full human shape and reason after dark, but by day are largely bestial. Of late tribes of Trapped Men have been banding together and many believe them to be looking for a way to end their curse. In human form they will have the stats of any other Human, in animal form their stats will generally be within the range shown below, depending on what kind of animal they are. See the Non-Humans page for more information.
1 to 5 Body / 2 to 7 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Singles, Halves or Doubles / Shapeshifting, others depending on form
Unrelated to trolls, but they have a similar “big and stupid” schtick going on. Ogres do eat humans and are also accomplished shapeshifters. They're extremely easily fooled, which is probably a good thing because they're remarkably hard to kill. Sometimes they try to catch people off guard by turning themselves into something harmless looking but they generally have no gift for subterfuge. It is thought by some that the ogres fought with the Bound Ones in the Binding War, but nobody can say for certain.
6 Body / Fatigue n/a / 5 Psyche / Doubles / Hard to Kill, Shapeshifting
These are mortal men who died while in service to the Bound Ones. Although they share the fate of their gods, some have found the strength to return to the world for a time and serve their masters once more. They appear much as they did in life, but bound around with chains. Their ultimate goal, of course, is to free themselves and their masters from bondage and they are willing to use lies or force to further this aim.
10 Psyche hits / Psychic Singles / Ethereal
To the South of the White City lie the Garden Lands and the Port of Glass, the centre of worship of the Vitriarchs and home to many of their creations. Some of these things of Glass have been known to wander north…
Half-human, not large or strong but very fast, the Bodach live in the Three Gardens they created to the southeast of what is now the White City. They like using long weapons but only do Singles with them. They are said to have the legs of falcons and have long poisonous claws. They are gardeners and lovers of beauty who really don't like it when you walk on their grass.
1 Body / 5 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Singles or Unarmed Paralysing Halves / Dodge (3), Paralysis
Small humanoid things summonable by obscure Glass magics known to Lemuel D'Artois, and perhaps to certain of his successors. They stand half the height of a man but are vicious in the extreme. Their danger lies not in their immediate physical threat but in the after-effects of their attacks, should anyone actually be injured by a splinter man for so much as half a point of damage they will find themselves slowly turning to glass as splinters of the thing work their way inwards. This process can take hours, days or weeks, and can be reversed by a skilled surgeon or a suitable spell or potion.
3 Global hits / Fatigue n/a / Psyche n/a / Vitrifying Halves / Vitrify
These are mindless, soulless men who are periodically ridden by Lemuel D'Artois, other local Glass sorcerers and strange things from the Glass Tower. These wretches provide disposable bodies to the “nobility” of the Port and are usually distinguishable only by their eyes. Though a Crystal Vessel has no Psyche hits of its own it may be inhabited by the spirit of another being in the same way as a body would normally house a being's spirit, and the inhabiting mind may be engaged in psychic combat normally.
2 Body / 5 Fatigue / Psyche n/a / Singles / May well be possessed by a powerful Glass Sorcerer
Be very careful when looking into a mirror in the Port of Glass, it may be one of these things. You can easily detect them, because they replace your reflection in a mirror. Of course, by the time you've spotted them it may be too late. They are ethereal beings but can be destroyed if the mirror they inhabit is broken. If they reduce their victim to zero Psyche hits, they drag their prey's soul back to the Shattered Plain to eat.
7 Psyche hits / Psychic Singles / Ethereal
These are the mainstays of the defence of the Port of Glass. They look like large humans carved out of cut glass and tend to carry big swords made of razor edged glass. Worse still they shatter when struck but stay together, meaning they are considerably less fragile than most Glass creatures. They can only be stopped by forcibly scattering their shards to the four winds, which will deal a level of damage to the arms of anyone not wearing medium or heavy armour.
10 Global hits / Fatigue n/a / Psyche n/a / Triples / Hard to Kill, Magic Resistance Glass (1)
The undead are found wherever people have the temerity to practice Ash magic in its corrupted form. They also periodically show up of their own accord. Please note that in the world of the White City the following four subtypes are the closest you're ever going to get to categorising the undead. It's either a ghoul, a spirit, a walking corpse or the living dead. In the world of the White City “lich” is just an archaic term for a corpse, “death knight” is a pseudonym adopted by a pretentious adventurer with Ashen leanings, “ghast” is largely meaningless and “mummy” is the person who is married to daddy.
The ethereal undead have a number of manifestations and a number of sources. They can be summoned back from the Burned Realm by Ash sorcerers or they can be trapped in the physical world by the circumstances of their death. Their stats will be similar to what they were in life, so potent Sorcerers and Priests tend to become potent spirits. The stats given below are for the spirit of a normal person.
5 Psyche hits / Psychic Singles / Ethereal
Animated corpses. These could be skeletons, zombies or whatever; you get a corpse, you make it walk around. Walking dead are completely immune to Psychic Combat and never lose Psyche Hits. Many of the walking dead have unusual capabilities based around the circumstances of their deaths.
2 to 4 Body / Fatigue n/a / Psyche n/a / Singles / Unrelenting, Hard to Kill
Ghouls are degenerate humans that eat the flesh of the dead, rather than actual undead. They have a degree of unnatural vitality but are ultimately entirely human in their capabilities. They are thoroughly condemned by the Burned Lords and so often flock to the banner of necromancers.
3 Body / 8 Fatigue / 5 Psyche / Singles / Maneater
These, after a fashion, are the true un-dead, since they are impossible to define as either living or dead. Such beings retain a good proportion of the qualities they had while living. The living dead have the same stats they had whilst living, but have doubled hits on all locations and count as Hard to Kill and/or Unrelenting. A note on undead sorcerers: due to their nature, the living dead cannot practice Blood magic or Wind magic, as both of those Forms of magic are too strongly tied to the living world to be usable. The living dead may practice Ash magic, but can never be Ordained Priests of the Burned Lords.
The various Powers and the sorcerers who wield their magics can send forth a variety of servants to do their bidding. A few of the more common ones are listed here.
Vampires are really here as a non-entry. Due to the nature of magic in the world of the White City, vampires as we know and love them - stylish immortal undead beings with fangs - do not exist. The Burned Lords do not deal with blood, the Old Powers do not deal with the undead. Vampires do exist, but it's in a very different form. It is possible through Blood magic (probably about third or fourth level if anybody's interested) to retain your youth by drinking, bathing in or otherwise using the blood of other people. It is also possible to curse somebody with Blood magic (about fourth level) such that they need human blood to survive. This is the closest you're going to get to vampires.
Vitrimorphs are things from the Tower of Glass. They're large humanoid creatures made of shattered glass, relatively fragile due to their glassy construction but abominably dangerous since their touch can inflict Psychic damage and anybody reduced to zero Psyche Hits by their blows has their soul consigned to the Shattered Plain and becomes a Crystal Vessel.
5 Global hits / Fatigue n/a / 10 Psyche / Doubles or Psychic Singles / Magic Resistance Glass (1)
Sometimes referred to as Ashen Guardians, these are the guardians of the Burned Realm and they eradicate those things which are offensive to the Burned Lords. They appear as pale warriors in soot-blackened armour, and their swords can cut through flesh and spirit alike.
10 Global hits / Fatigue n/a / 10 Psyche / Doubles (Psychic Doubles against Ethereals) / Magic Resistance Ash (2)
In the world of the White City the “spirit” of a thing refers to its essence, the core of its being, the thing that makes it what it is. Spirits are not necessarily ethereal, in the world of the White City magical, divine and metaphysical things are real. Really real. Physically here. Most spirits are in some way related to something divine in some way or another. Humans do have spirits, which may remain after their death in either physical or ethereal form depending (largely) on how their body was disposed of.
Usually associated with the Old Powers, the spirits of the old wild places are usually very physical beings. There won't be a spirit for every tree (or rather there will be, but it will just be the tree) or stretch of river, but there will be a spirit of any particularly old and dark part of the forest, and of any major river. Spirits of Place may take a variety of forms, humans, animals, rocks, trees, whatever really. The distinction between “weak Old Power” and “powerful Spirit of Place” is by no means clear cut.
The Spirit of the Great River is an enigmatic figure, not much encountered. It is thought that her last appearance was fighting alongside the White City at the Battle of Dream-Bridge.
7 / Triples / Hard to Kill, Blood Magic (4)
Servants of the Princes of Breath, the Airy Spirits are usually insubstantial and sometimes ethereal as well (once again the distinction isn't necessarily clear cut). They range from breeze-spirits and what I am loath to term “elementals” to sinister spirits of disease and slander.
Mercurial insubstantial spirit-beings of limited intelligence, and posing limited threat, Zephyrs are periodically used by Wind Sorcerors as spies and messengers.
3 (Global) / Singles / Insubstantial
Once again these may be either ethereal or corporeal, and may have been brought out of the Burned Realm by pious or impious means, or may even just never have got in. The spirits of the dead are much as they were in life, once the inevitable changes brought about by a traumatic experience like dying are taken into account.
David Collins was a simple traveller until about four years ago, when he was cut to ribbons by bandits whilst travelling between the City of Crossroads and the White City. Since then he has been eking out vengeance against pretty much anything that crosses his path.
5 (Psychic) / Singles / Ethereal, Poltergeist
It is not certain whether things of Glass count as spirits or not. The Shattered Plain is by its very nature unnatural, and things of Glass seem too fractured and disjointed to count as spirits in the truest sense of the word. There are certainly things that come from glass, some physical and some not, but they ultimately represent nothing outside themselves.
Spirits of Dream are as numerous and manifold as dreams themselves. There are ten thousand spirits of nightmare, a thousand spirits of falling, spirits of sleeping and waking and visions and delusions without number.
Lady Millicent is a weird Dream spirit who wanders the passes of the North. She is generally known for helping and hindering travellers in equal measure, offering them food and guidance one moment and assaulting them with creatures of nightmare the next.
7 (Psychic) / Singles (Psychic) / Ethereal, Dream Magic (4)
There were almost certainly spirits associated with the Bound Ones, indeed these beings can on occasion be summoned up through Chain Magic. They tend to be strange ethereal creatures, what they look like unbound is hard to say since people rarely survive seeing them in such a state.
Of varying strength, these spirits are usually called up by Chain magic and appear as indistinct chained forms. The statistics below are for Bound LBOs, should they become free then double all their statistics.
5 Psyche hits / Psychic Halves / Ethereal
10 Psyche hits / Psychic Singles / Ethereal
15 Psyche hits / Psychic Doubles / Ethereal
It is a matter of some contention as to whether there are manifest spirits associated with the Light. Hardliners insist that the Light is indivisible, but others maintain that the Light has a thousand thousand aspects, and that a part of it shines within every human soul, and so of course there are facets of the Light that take earthly form. Spirits of the Light are of course ethereal, shining and glorious. Some are outright blinding to look upon. They tend to represent abstract things, since the Light rarely concerns itself with base matter.
The Scourge is one of the more… hostile aspects of the Light. It abolishes the impure with not so much as a thought of mercy. It is rarely invoked, since you have to be pretty damn sure of your own purity to want to risk it.
15 (Global) / Triples / Insubstantial, Light Magic (2)
A number of spirits appear to have come into being with the Black Flame. Others appear to have been created as a side effect of various unpleasant uses of its sorcery. These spirits are regularly characterised either by an insatiable drive towards some abstract end, or else a complete absence of any motivation save the hunger to consume.
These powerful spirits of the Flame seek out those who will be willing to make substantial sacrifices to the Black Flame. In exchange they grant power, knowledge and occassionally material aid. The power of any given Tender varies depending on what Sacrifices have been made through it. While the spirits take many forms they generally appear as small impish creatures wreathed in black flame, at their centre is always a small piece of coal.
10-20/ Doubles-Quads /Black Flame 3, May draw people touching their coal into Psychic Combat where they have comparable stats
The most powerful of the spirits of the Flame and by far the most dangerous. It appears as pitch black orb wreathed in black fire. Its only purpose is to consume, sucking in all it encounters and annihilating it. It has no interest in bargins or deals, it merely hungers. The Maw itself is nearly impossible to destroy, consuming all that tries to touch it. The tendrils of flame it sends out to ensnare sacrifices may be destroyed however, though there are generally many of them.
Tendril of the Maw: 2 Global/Fatigue NA/ Psyche NA /Entangling Singles/Insubstantial
No, your eyes do not deceive you, these are sample stats for Gods. We're not trying to create a setting where PCs tool up and go out to kill deities. We are trying to create a setting where the gods are on a relatively human level. Powerful, but not untouchable. Think in terms of a Classical/Norse model. Mortal heroes can deal with the gods almost on their own terms, and can get smacked down for their presumption. Some more information on gods and their followers is available on the Gods & Cults page.
Trickster and traitor, the Death-That-Cheats is one of the more commonly encountered deities. He wears many faces, but usually appears as a man. His manner is always charming and he seems never to speak above normal conversational level. He is only dangerous if you don't suspect him (and few people ever do), in direct confrontation he is no great threat. On the other hand he can do an immense amount of damage through deceit and malice.
6 Body / Fatigue n/a / 35 Psyche / Doubles / Dodge (10), Disengage (10), Blather (5), Stealth (5), Shapeshifting, Wind Magic (5), Hard to Kill
One of the less subtle of the Old Powers, the Lord of the Blood-Fury is a straightforward warrior. He shows up in the middle of particularly violent battles and starts tearing people apart pretty much willy-nilly. He appears as a wild looking man with blood in his hair and may or may not be armed. He has the capacity to instil those about him with a berserk fury and very rarely leaves a place unbloodied.
20 Body / Fatigue n/a / 35 Psyche / Quints / Dodge (5), Parry (5), Leadership (pretty much unlimited, and affects pretty much anybody whether they're on his side or not), Unrelenting, Hard to Kill