Classes in the Tai Shan Republic: Barbarian and Bard

Barbarian

There are many indigenous “slave race” groups that were never fully conquered and integrated into the Dragon Empire. From the swamps of the Seven Sorrows, these people are often called the “boat people” or the “river people.”

The Barbarian class represents these swamp warriors, who raid Shai Tang Republic and Red Banner troops and towns alike.

There are two types of barbarian-warrior found within these indigenous tribes, and they are represented by the paths below.

Raging Waters

For some barbarian warriors, attacking from aboard the deck of a ship is as natural as swimming or swinging an axe.

            Shrieking Leap.

            At 3rd level, you can jump twice the normal distance you otherwise would be able to in a long-jump as long as you are in a rage. The Raging Waters barbarians often use their well-developed thews to propel them onto enemy boats.

            Deckclearer.

            River barbarians are also known to stand alone atop the deck of a ship and slay all and sundry, guild champion and soldier alike, that come at them, from all sides. At 6th level, whenever you rage you can also make a two melee attacks as bonus actions against two separate targets in your flanks or directly in front of you each round. When your rage ends, you suffer one level of exhaustion.

                       

            Unstoppable.

            Beginning at 11th level, if you succeed at a relentless rage check, your strength bonus is doubled for the rest of the fight.

Blazing Fire

Others among the boat people focus on the use of the best weapon there is against the craftships of Tai Shan: fire.

            Brand.

            At 3rd level you may whisper the secret words of fire to your weapon; tongues of flame will leap up and down it. These flames will last for one battle, but they will severely damage your weapon (it will be unusable at the end of the fight). Anyone struck by a flaming weapon takes an additional 1d4 points of damage and may catch on fire.

            Igneus Mastery.

            At 6th level, you know the secret words to keep your hands safe in fire; you can reach into, grab, touch, and manipulate burning objects, blazing coals, etc., without penalty. They deal no damage.

            Fire Ward.

            At 10th level, you have a chance of deflecting incoming bullets and fire-based magic. You may now save to take no damage from bullets (they are deflected off course), save to take half damage from large gunpowder weapons (mortars), and if you save against a fire-based magical attack, you take no damage; if you fail, you take half instead.

Bard
Musicians, writers, and propagandists under the old Empire often journeyed to An’an for training;
there, at the so-called School of the Amber Quill, they would learn some of their master’s secrets:
that is, they were taught to utilize limited applications of spellcraft from the dragon-princes
who deigned to teach there. Since the fall of the Empire, control over this training technique has
lapsed somewhat; while there are still scholars of the Amber Quill, folk techniques for
replicating the dragon’s magic have also given birth to ten thousand “chattering pens.”

Bards in Edero do not have the ability to use a musical instrument as a spellcasting focus.

Amber Quill.

Members of the Amber Quill are all trained in An’an by the remains of the School there. They

possess certain degree of hauteur, knowing they are the most elite of the writer-magicians in the

Empire.

            Master Historian.

At 3rd level, Amber Quills are awarded the rank of master historian from the school. Choose

two intelligence skills to gain double your proficiency bonus on.

           

 Deep Lore

At 6th level, you learn two spells of your choice from any class. A spell you choose may be

from any level you could cast, if you were the appropriate class. The chosen spells count as

bard spells for you, but don’t count against the number of bard spells you know.

Mystic Defenses.

At 12th level, you are able to construct brief-lived defenses against magical attacks by using

secret words taught by the School. You may expend a bardic inspiration to add that roll to

your saving throw against any spell.

Chattering Pen.

Members of the Chattering Pen are self-taught, and are also known as hedge mages. They may serve

the powerful guild interests, the Red Banner, or any number of bandit groups, but they are known for

their cunning.

Bonus Proficiencies.

Those who never join the School of the Amber Quill gain proficiency with medium armor, shields,

and martial weapons at level 3.

All Together Now.

At 3rd level you can help your allies in combat, whether by exploiting openings or by buoying up

their spirits. Anyone that has a Bardic Inspiration Die from you can roll that die and add it to a

damage roll made by a weapon or a spell.

Iron Pen.

At 6th level, you learn to imbue a brief enchantment to your quill tips. You can hurl these quills as

darts. They have a +1 magical bonus when thrown by you. If you spend a bardic inspiration when

throwing one, it will gain a magical bonus equivalent to 1/3rd your level (maximum of +5).

Dazzling Swordplay.

At 10th level, you can make one weapon attack on a turn you have cast a spell, as a bonus action.

A Proposal: Eder'o

The Dragon-Emperors have fallen. The Imperial Wars have drained the once-proud nobles of the Heavenly Empire. Strife, strife beyond imagining has depleted their strength. Now, the cities of the Seven Sorrows must do without their emperor, without their nobility, and without the caste of sorcerer-lords that once ruled them. From the wreckage, the Heavenly Empire re-emerges onto the world stage... in a time of nation-states, absolutism, and mercantile adventurism.

This is a pitch for a 5th Edition D&D setting. It would use modified 5e rules, backgrounds, and races. Rather than a traditional pre-industrial feudal period, the Heavenly Empire posits a modern, industrializing, landscape with political formations that are much more similar to those in the modern period. States, as we now conceive of them, play a huge role, rather than the feudal model of personal loyalty.

BACKGROUND. Before the Imperial Wars, the Heavenly Empire was made and governed by the Dragon-Emperors. These lords were literally dragons, descended from the Primal Dragons who originally divided up the world. In other regions, those dragons were overthrown by the so-called slave races: men, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, orcs. The tieflings, heirs to the demonic sorcery of the Old Ways, served as the dragon's lieutenants in the Heavenly Empire, and the royal houses in many other lands.

The world was divided between the Empire and the Barbarian States. Those Barbarian States now sit at parity with the former Empire, for the Heavenly Empire has fallen. The Imperial Wars consumed her, with dragon-lords vying for power. The great houses are all but exterminated, and only a handful of dragons remain. The mightiest servants of the Empire, the dragonborn, retain much of their rights and privileges, and make up the burgeoning burgher and merchant classes, along with some of the newly emancipated slave races.

The Imperial Wars began with the death of the Gaolong Emperor and the war of his seven children. Each child took for their base of power one of the seven great cities of the Empire, along the vast and winding river that cuts through its heart and is fed by six lesser rivers: the legendary Seven Sorrows. For that reason, the Imperial Wars are also known as the War of Seven Sorrows, and the heirs to the throne were often colloquially known as "the Sorrows."

After centuries of internecine warfare, the Sorrows were no closer to the throne; whenever a contender died, other pretenders stood up to join the fray in their place. It was, at last, the High Landmenn Council of the great financial city of T'ai Sha that overthrew them and drove out the living Sorrows. A compact between the powerful tiefling sorcerers and dragonborn merchantile class resulted in the expulsion or execution of the living dragons.

Of course, this rebellion, called alternately the T'ai Sha Rebellion or the Devil's Bargain, made liberal use of a surge of anti-draconic feeling in the slave races. The Chained, as they called themselves, formed a faction to themselves, and when the dragons were executed or gone, they threatened to swamp the great cities in violence. The Landmenn, the most powerful of urban burghers in the realm, and the sorcerers quelled the Chained Revolutions and established the Writ of Perpetual Freedom: in exchange for ending their fight, the slave races of the Empire would agree to be freed from servitude and land-bondage.

This worked in most places, except for the city of T'ai Sha. The Chained there had a strong backbone of support from young burghers and students at the University of Celestial Knowledge, where the sorcerers were trained. They seized the city in the name of what they called "Universal Brotherhood", executed every priest within the walls, set her junks on fire, and proceeded to take control of all land and goods for the Universal Revolt.

They were eventually put down by powerful dragonic forces, recruited from amongst the ranks of the former restorationists. The Dragon-General Tunwen attacked T'ai Sha with his iron steamships and flying wizards, and put an end to the Universal Brotherhood -- or so he thought.

Tunwen was named the Grand Marshal of the new Republic of T'ai Sha, but before three years were out, escaped members of the Universal Brotherhood could be found preaching rebellion in the provinces. They warned that the so-called "free wage labor" of the new Republic was little different from the chains of the Empire. "One is made of iron, one of gold, but both bind," Sister-Scholar Lema warned.

The Brotherhood could not stand against the uniting armies of the new Republic, and were driven into the Red Mountains, far to the west, where they raised their banner of rebellion. To this day, the Revolutionary Red State holds the richest iron, copper, tungsten, coal, and oil lands in the former Empire. The Republic of T'ai Sha considers the Red State to be a carbuncle within its borders, an existential danger. The other nations of the world agree: so long as the Red State continues to exist inside of the Republic like a tumor, it gives the lower classes of the world a rallying cry and a red banner to wave.