Human [Dragonlance]

Humans here form many groups with lasting customs and morals; some primitive ones have not changed in millennia. The groups below are presented as human, though nonhuman versions, such as rebel dwarves or tribal elves, surely exist. Only the ice folk and the honor-bound knights are exclusively human. Both sexes appear in every group. Women are rare but not barred among the knights, while primitive tribes seldom let women lead unless they are matriarchal.

Rugged warriors of the bleakest arctic wastes, the ice folk are tall, heavy-built and leather-skinned, with long red or light brown hair, clad in boots and parkas of white fur. Proud and fierce, they are peaceful by temperament, but once attacked they battle until slain. Their thick furs give AC 5, since they rarely wear metal armor, and they wield maces, clubs, battle axes and frost cleavers.

A frost cleaver is an ice-carved heavy battle axe +4, which only a tribe's Revered Cleric can make, taking a month. Its wielder needs Strength 13 or more, and any temperature above freezing melts it into uselessness. For travel they sail iceboats, big canvas-rigged craft on wooden runners that carry about 15 riders and skim the ice faster than any runner.

A tribe of about 100 is led by its wisest, strongest member, a fighter of 12th level or more, with 1d6 bodyguards (fighters of 10th-12th level) who deal 1d8+4 per hit. The highest-level cleric, at least 5th, becomes the Revered Cleric, served by 1d4 acolytes of 1st-3rd level. The rest are half 1st-4th level fighters and half 0-level workers, children and elders.

Their round huts, draped in white furs, almost disappear against the snow, each sheltering up to 20 kin around a cooking fire, with furs for beds. Fences of giant rib bones often ring the camp. Nomadic fishers and hunters, they stay roughly a year in one place and move on when the fish run low. Ice bears supply their favorite meat and fur, and walrus-blubber grease serves for cooking and for oiling iceboat runners. Apart from ice bears and an ongoing territorial feud with the walrus folk, they have few foes, and they rarely get the chance to trade.

These knights are the world's noblest heroes, sworn to the motto 'Honor above life.' For ages they embodied goodness itself, but when the great cataclysm struck and the people begged for help, the knights could do nothing. Blamed for that failure, they fell into disgrace as mobs besieged their temples and fortresses. Survivors wandered in secret, still fighting evil as they could. Today the only large company holds a distant isle, while the rest work covertly in the towns of a sprawling northwestern kingdom.

There are three Orders: the Crown, the Sword and the Rose. Local chapters called Circles exist in many towns and nearly every major city to support knights in the area, openly in their homeland and on the isle, in secret wherever suspicion of the order lingers. The supreme Grandmaster's seat has stood empty since the cataclysm, because filling it requires a Grand Circle where at least 75% of established Circles each send two voters, and the winner must be one of the three Order heads: the High Warden of the Crown, the High Chaplain of the Sword, or the High Justice of the Rose. Each Order elects its own head without interference from the others. Only one of each title exists; other knights with enough experience are styled Lord Warden, Lord Chaplain or Lord Justice until elected. Pressing business is handled by a Knightly Council: three senior knights, each from a different Order.

The Crown is sworn to defend and assist every realm named on the List of Loyalty, which the three heads maintain, but need not obey its laws if they break the knightly code. Everyone, whatever Order they eventually join, starts as a Crown squire. These knights are a paladin variant with important differences, minimum ability scores per Order (so a knight with only the bare minimum can never advance to a higher Order), and their own level, title and Hit Dice progression.

Crown: training centers on loyalty. A sponsor in good standing presents the candidate to a Knightly Council, where he takes oaths of allegiance to the Order, its causes and the knighthood's honor; with no dissent or question of honor, he becomes a squire. Crown knights begin with 3 weapon and 2 nonweapon proficiencies, add one of each every two levels, may specialize, but get none of the paladin's special abilities.

Sword: a knight may apply only after reaching the rank of Defender and only with the minimum scores. A council including a Sword knight of 7th level or higher hears him; if his honor is unquestioned, he must complete a complex quest testing compassion, wisdom, generosity and combat, then joins as a Novice. He gains 3 weapon and 2 nonweapon proficiencies beyond his Crown ones, plus two weapon and one nonweapon every two levels, gains all paladin special abilities, and receives spells, meditating half an hour per spell level for each, with a weekly limit of a single six-hour session; the spell chart shows the maximum he may hold.

Rose: a 4th-level Sword knight with the required scores may petition. The council must include a Rose knight of at least 9th level, and the same kind of quest follows before he becomes a Novice. He adds another 3 weapon and 2 nonweapon proficiencies, plus two weapon and one nonweapon every two levels.

Brave and honorable beyond compare, these knights dream of a noble death against hopeless odds for justice, and retreat only if convinced a greater good demands it. Favored weapons are swords and bows of every kind, battle axes, lances and spears, and chain mail with a shield is their usual protection. A Crown knight of 6th+ level owns a magic weapon 10% of the time. Sword knights start at 10% at 6th level, gaining 10% per level beyond to a 40% cap; Rose knights start at 10% at 5th, gaining 10% per level beyond to a 70% cap.

A Circle may number 50-100 or more, but outsiders rarely see so many at once. Meetings usually happen no farther than 4d10 miles from a town. On 1d6, 1-4 means one knight alone, 5-6 a 2d6-strong patrol. For the lone knight's or leader's Order and level (followers share his Order but are lower level), roll another 1d6, +1 near a big village or +2 near a major city at the DM's option. A result of 1-3 points to column A, 4-5 to B and 6 to C; roll 1d8 against that column.

Knights carry little treasure, surrendering most earnings to the order and drawing on it as needed. Few act openly. No one can hire them, though they will join missions that serve the common good, and many are fine smiths and armorers who rarely sell their work.

The plains tribes are self-contained communities, most descended from one famous tribe, living in otherwise empty lands with little or no outside contact and devoting their effort to survival.

Bonecollars: cannibals of the tropical forests in the continent's center and north, short and stocky, with pink skin under fine blond hair, wearing grass and silver necklaces strung with human finger bones. They never leave the forest, hunting animals and luckless travelers in groups of 2d4, and attack humans on sight out of a taste for their flesh. Half carry spears, half short bows with arrows poisoned by sundew sap (1d4 damage on a failed save vs. poison). Unarmored, they are AC 10. Their obscure language can be understood only by characters of Intelligence 15 or higher, and only 10% of those. A tribe of about 40 is half fighters no higher than 4th level and half 0-level workers, children and elders; lacking any magical talent, they have neither priests nor wizards. The mightiest proclaims himself a god and demands worship and sacrifice. Their goods are worthless, their treasure at most a few semiprecious stones.

Cavern Herders: a gentle, simple, not very clever people dwelling in caves on tropical northern hillsides, dark-skinned and fair-haired with almond eyes, who welcome strangers to share food and home as long as they like. Hopeless fighters, they flee when they can and when cornered put up a weak fight with staves (1d6); about half carry one. Unarmored, their tough bodies give AC 9. In tribes of 20-50, at most a tenth are 1st-level fighters; everyone else is 0 level. They tend large herds of goats and cows and all can speak with animals as the spell. Some paint vivid animal portraits on cave walls, others play lovely music on instruments of goat bone and cow gut. Though they have no wizards, a tribesman shown a magical potion has a 25% chance to reproduce it in 2d4 days from roots, herbs and similar natural materials.

Nomads: any plains folk without a fixed home, including war or disaster refugees, some seeking new lands and others content to drift. A band numbers 2d10, about half 0 level and the rest mostly fighters, with no more than 10% above 2nd level; a band of ten or fewer has just one 1st-level fighter. One band in ten includes a lone thief or renegade wizard of 1st-3rd level. The group decides everything together. Possessions go on their backs or in crude wagons. Half are armed, usually with a dagger or club and rarely a short sword, and only 5% wear armor, typically padded or leather. They seldom have goods to trade but often know useful news.

Rebel bands are small, mobile guerrilla groups fighting for freedom wherever tyranny and injustice rule. Secrecy keeps them alive, so they wear no uniform or badge, recognizing one another by signs and passwords. Recruited from all classes of society, they have no common appearance, only uncommon courage, idealism and persistence.

Hard experience makes them superb fighters: a rebel with at least a year of guerrilla work gains +1 to hit with melee weapons. Each rebel's main weapon is rolled on 1d20 from whatever the band can scavenge. Armor is scarce: 20% have only shields, and another 30% are armored; of those, 40% wear leather or padded, 40% studded leather or else padded or leather plus a shield, 10% chain, and 10% chain and shield.

With no fixed base, rebels known to the authorities rarely sleep in one place twice, using caves, empty buildings or sympathizers' homes. Bands rarely exceed 20, split evenly into fighters of 1st-4th, 4th-6th, and 7th-plus level. At most 5% have managed to obtain a magic weapon. About 20% of large bands include some wizards, rogues and priests, though rarely over 10% of the group. They carry little money, spending any loot at once on arms and medicine, and as master survivalists they can live off the wilderness for as long as needed.