History TabletopGame / Birthright

** Of the four types of regency (law, magical source, temple, guild), the one associated with wizards (magical source) tends to be the weakest of the four to start out with. Magical sources are at their strongest where nature is untouched and there is little development of the land; accordingly, wizards tend to focus on lands where there aren't many people present - that means no populations to draw armies or mercenaries or income from. Moreover, magical sources are the only ones that do not directly provide income (law holdings allow the regent to raise taxes, temples can tithe the faithful, and guilds can establish trade routes and take a cut of the profits) - given that wizards tend to need large amounts of gold to cast realm spells and develop their magical prowess (researching new spells, establishing and maintaining ley lines, etc.). This means low level wizards are often flat-broke and have to try and ingratiate themselves with more powerful regents in order to generate some income; this can be difficult to do, as low-level wizard regents are often seen in-game as weak and not worthy of much attention. However, once the wizard gets established and builds up their capabilities, they can be a force to be reckoned with - a wizard with high-level sources gains pseudo-law and guild holding capabilities, and their realm spells can be absolutely devastating to an enemy, especially one that has no wizard of their own to protect them.
** This applies at the character level as well. Wizard characters can (and, in the case of [=PCs=], often do) hold any type of holding they like (i.e. they can run a kingdom by controlling law holdings, or be a guildmaster by controlling guild holdings), but non-Wizards cannot make use of source holdings (as they lack the magical ability to do anything with them). Furthermore, while anyone who controls holdings gets RP from them, the draw is not equal - for instance, fighters, paladins, and rangers all get to generate RP from their law holdings, paladins also get partial RP from their temple holdings and rangers get partial RP from guild holdings. Finally, while fighters don't get any new abilities when fighting in mass combat, spellcasters in ''Birthright'' get access to "battle magic" - basically upscaled magic spells that, instead of frying a troll or two, can wipe out an entire battalion in one shot.

* FighterMageThief: Just like the base game, ''Birthright'' keeps the four basic "classes" (fighter, wizard, cleric, thief), but now upscales them into types of regency/leadership. The "fighter" equivalent is law holdings (consisting of law enforcement, militaries, and the like); the "wizard" equivalent is source holdings (source of magical energy that can be used to power realm spells); the cleric is temple holdings (exactly what it sounds like - temples, shrines, and other religious sites); and the thief is the guild holding (trade unions, natural resource extraction guilds, etc.). Accordingly, the fighter belonging to each class tends to be the one who most naturally rules each type of holding.

** This applies at the character level as well. Wizard characters can (and, in the case of [=PCs=], often do) hold any type of holding they like (i.e. they can run a kingdom by controlling law holdings, or be a guildmaster by controlling guild holdings), but non-Wizards cannot make use of source holdings (as they lack the magical ability to do anything with them). Furthermore, while anyone who controls holdings gets RP from them, the draw is not equal - for instance, fighters, paladins, and rangers all get to generate RP from their law holdings, paladins also get partial RP from their temple holdings and rangers get partial RP from guild holdings.

** The Khinasi territory of Binsada is a not-so-subtle allusion to the Mongol Empire of the 13th century (with their founder being described as a nomad clan leader named [[UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan either "Chenghas Zaran" or "Tengis Rhan"]]. It is an entirely nomadic culture that demands tribute from its various vassal states, riding out and destroying those who refuse, but it allows conquered lands to keep their culture and religion, all of which are true to the policies of the Mongol Empire. Also like the Mongol Empire, there is considerable disagreement within Binsada as to whether the nation should maintain its historical, nomadic ways or build permanent settlements and become a more modern empire (this same disagreement was a major factor in the weakening and eventual dissolution of the Mongol Empire).

* FightsLikeANormal: The Gorgon doesn't have any real spellcasting abilities and doesn't have any of the cheap awnshegh powers like Immunity. But, petrifying gaze aside, he was the best swordsman in the world ''before'' he became an immortal, super-strong, rock-skinned monster who had millennia to practice and hone his craft.

** Similarly, the Gorgon has been known to mate with ''cattle'' when the mood moves him, due to his otherworldly strength (regular human women are simply too frail to survive his attentions and even female ogres only sometimes live through the experience). No one in his realm who does not wish to suffer an extremely painful death ever comments on it.

** The Gorgon, one of the most powerful villains in the setting, looks nothing like a gorgon (a humanoid with snakes for hair, the most famous of which is {{Medusa}}), instead appearing as a stone-skinned minotaur-like creature.

* OurElvesAreDifferent: They're more TheFairFolk.

* JekyllAndHyde: Justina Heulough's normal self is that of a kind, sweet, just leader. When she sleeps, the Banshegh, her dark self which closely resembles her face and form, separates from her corporeal body to haunt her domain. Justina doesn't know that she is an awnshegh, denies all the evidence, and even puts a bounty on the head of the Banshegh. It is unknown if the Banshegh is a malevolent invader or a manifestation of Justina's spirit.

* MakeMeWannaShout: The awnshegh known as the Siren has the unique Bloodline power of a super-destructive voice that can annihilate whatever is around her when she speaks. Unfortunately for her, she's both [[PowerIncontinence incapable of turning it off]] and a good person at heart.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Quite simply, a bloodline gives a Blooded benefits that non-Blooded characters don't have, and they're also recognized as the upper class, usually.

* AnimalisticAbomination: Beast-type awnsheglien are former animals who consumed scions and were mutated by the Blood they carried. Examples covered in the "Blood Enemies" sourcebook consist of the Boar (a gargantuan albino wild pig), the Hydra (a crocodile which has developed multiple limbs and a mane of tentacle-like necks topped with the screaming heads of the scions it's eaten), the Leviathan (giant carnivorous whale or sea serpent) and the Wolf (an unusually large and intelligent wolf).

* BigBad: The Gorgon. He was the strongest of the evil god's followers, but was too far away from the explosion to become a god, so he ended being the most dangerous Awnshegh instead.

* JekyllAndHyde: Justina Heulough's normal self is that of a kind, sweet, just leader. When she sleeps, the Banshegh, her dark self which closely resembles her face and form, separates from her corporeal body to haunt her domain. Justina doesn't know that she is an awnshegh, denies all the evidence and even puts a bounty on the head of the Banshegh. It is unknown if the Banshegh is a malevolent invader or a manifestation of Justina's spirit.

* KnightTemplarParent: Malik el-Badr, father of Bali el-Badr, wanted his son to become a proud, beautiful, loved leader exactly like him. Bali, however, only wanted to be left alone to his studies and rebelled by sowing discord, malice and worry, eventually becoming the Basilisk.

* PowerParasite: Some of the raw [[InTheBlood bloodline]] strength, sometimes along with abilities, can be stolen by [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt killing its carrier]] in specific ways. Blood Abominations tend to be very, very powerful because they frequently choose bloodtheft as the road to power and actively seek it -- by the time people knows of them, they usually already have slaughtered and drained lots of "blooded" folk.

* RasputinianDeath: Invoked; a Bloodline power called Invulnerability, carried through the Bloodlines of Azrai, Basaia, and Vorynn, makes it impossible for the possessor to die unless certain ritual steps are completed first. Otherwise the "dead" body will slowly regenerate itself, even to the point of FromASingleCell, until the scion comes back to life. Many of the more prominent awnsheghlien possess this trait, but not all of them; "Blood Enemies" lists its possessors as the Apocalypse, the Banshegh, the Basilisk, the Boar, the Hydra, the Magian, the Raven and the Spider. Ironically, the most famous and powerful of all awnsheghlien, the Gorgon, lacks this ability. Further complicating matters, almost all of these awnsheghlien don't have their method of destruction described in "Blood Enemies"; only two have a canonical means of death:

* BastardBastard: Raesene was the elder half-brother of Haelyn and Roele, the royal princes of the Anuirean people, but he was born out of wedlock; his resentment over this was what made him susceptible to Azrai's blandishments, prompting his FaceHeelTurn. Almost a millenium and a half later, he still bedevils Cerilia as the mightiest awnshegh, the Gorgon.

* EthnicGod: Dwarves, goblins, gnolls, minotaurs, orogs and other races each have their own patron deities who are little known (let alone worshipped) by other races. The old human gods were also this, each being patron to a different ethnic group; with the advent of the new gods, this has lessened over time, but each human culture still tends to predominantly worship their original associated god for the most part.

** The Anuireans, Khinasi, Brecht, Rjurik and Vos are respectively Anglo-Saxon French Romans, Turkish Persian Arabs, the Hanseatic League, part-Celtic Vikings and [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Kislevite]] Russians with more than a touch of [[BarbarianTribe Kurgan]].

* FullBoarAction: The awnshegh known as the Boar of Thuringode is a white boar of unusual size, ferocity and constitution.

* MeaningfulName: As the {{PC}}s are often rulers with a ancestral bloodline, or birthright.

* OurGiantsAreBigger: Cerilian giants are elemental creatures tied closely to the earth. Stone, hill, forest and mountain giants are usually solitary, reclusive and only attack those that trespass or build settlements in their territory, while the northern ice giants and fhoimorien are more dangerous and frequently raid.

* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: Kill one of the Blooded by violence, and his spilled power will be inherited by anyone in the vicinity of his death. Kill him with tighmaevril, or by piercing him intentionally through the heart, and you get it all. But since a bloodline may dominate equal or weaker one, the killer sometimes get more changes than just power. Which is one of reasons why Awnsheghlien are hard to eliminate: those who slay one without being more powerful as scions frequently end up tainted by its bloodline, possibly producing several unwilling "heirs" from one killing, eventually [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie turning into new overpowered monsters]].

* AntagonisticOffspring: Lussinam the queen of the Unseelie Court, is the daughter of the queen of the Seelie Court. She once plotted to overthrow her mother and failed, but her mother was unwilling to execute her own daughter and exiled her instead, leading to the foundation of the Unseelie Court by Lussina and her followers.

* DivineConflict: In the setting's BackStory the Good deities fought the Evil deity Azrai. They finally sacrificed themselves, destroying both themselves and Azrai at the apex of a colossal battle known as Deismaar.
* DivineRightOfKings: The main feature of the ''Birthright'' setting, taking a rather literal interpretation of the historical "Divine Right to Rule" that stipulated that the rulers of ancient kingdoms had divine blood in their veins. Following the deaths of the old gods at the [[DivineConflict titanic battle of Deismaar]], their blood rained down on the mortal combatants below. Those who absorbed the most of the divine essence ascended to godhood themselves and became a pantheon of new gods; however, some only absorbed a portion of the divine blood. These "blooded" individuals discovered they could call on supernatural powers associated with their gods, practice "true magic", and could also link themselves to the land. Just as gods are worshipped, these mortals of divine blood soon found they were natural rulers of the people and rose to become kings of nations, masters of great trade guilds, or wizards without peer.
** Notably, the right of blooded characters to rule is a near-universal constant in the ''Birthright'' setting and is taken extremely seriously. Though not all blooded are rulers, every ruler of any consequence is blooded (non-blooded characters could serve as a town mayor or the leader of an individual guild hall, but that is more or less their ceiling, as people would simply refuse to obey them if they tried to rise higher than that). Notably, when the developers were asked about non-blooded characters from other campaign settings visiting Cerilia, [[WordOfGod they responded]] that while such characters could visit by means of plane-travelling spells or portals, they could not become regents, as the populace would immediately revolt if a non-blooded tried to force his way into leadership. Cerilians would sooner be ruled by an awnshegh than a non-blooded - at least the awnshegh has *some* link to the divine.

* LostTribe: The Masetians, a primarily sea-dwelling people and the sixth human tribe from Aduria. Late to flee Deismaar, due to seeking to repair their ships, they were nearly wiped out in the resulting calamity. The Basarji (who would later become the Khinasi) swiftly took over much of their land and the few Masetians who survived were forced into servitude or else were subsumed into Basarji culture. Rumours abound that lost enclaves of pure-blooded Masetians still exist somewhere in the world, but thus far none are widely known.
* TheLostWoods: After the elves lost their war against the invading humans from Aduria, they retreated to the forests, concentrating their efforts on protecting their borders against any invading humans. Those that try never return, and humans are advised to stay well away from elven woods.

** Notably, the right of blooded characters to rule is a near-universal constant in the ''Birthright'' setting and is taken extremely seriously. Though not all blooded are rulers, every ruler of any consequence is blooded (non-blooded characters could serve as a town mayor or the leader of an individual guild hall, but that is more or less their ceiling, as people would simply refuse to obey them if they tried to rise higher than that. Notably, when the developers were asked about non-blooded characters from other campaign settings visiting Cerilia, [[WordOfGod they responded]] that while such characters could visit by means of plane-travelling spells or portals, they could not become regents, as the populace would immediately revolt if a non-blooded tried to force his way into leadership. Cerilians would sooner be ruled by an awnshegh than a non-blooded - at least the awnshegh has *some* link to the divine.