Check out the Wilderlands supplement for Sword & Caravan, what's in it, and how great it looks.
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It was nice to see the dragons when I got my PDF. They did indeed seem like an omission from the original book. I think my favorite table was probably the family generation one.
I hope we continue to get monsters appended to Sword & Caravan. For the area around Kashmir, Apsaras/Ghandharvas, Yaksha/Yakshini, Kinnara/Kinnari, and Rakshasa would be nice. Some of these I guess you didn't include because they were done as standard races in AoI as opposed to authentic monsters and had general priorities above such I guess.
Incidentally, in my research about Indian magic to inform my depiction of magisters from the region I encountered Indian and Tibetan Tantra for summoning the above creatures as well as Bhuts, nagas, and pishachas albeit only female spirits. Some Indian magics might be nice, I would assume from what I glanced at they are mostly devoid of Solomonic stylings as opposed to stuff in the West and Middle East more Homa fire rituals for sure. I also read about some kind of evil sending (or Rakshasi?) called a Krtya apparently from the epics but my source was vague.
Quote from: WERDNA on November 16, 2023, 04:27:03 PM
It was nice to see the dragons when I got my PDF. They did indeed seem like an omission from the original book. I think my favorite table was probably the family generation one.
I hope we continue to get monsters appended to Sword & Caravan. For the area around Kashmir, Apsaras/Ghandharvas, Yaksha/Yakshini, Kinnara/Kinnari, and Rakshasa would be nice. Some of these I guess you didn't include because they were done as standard races in AoI as opposed to authentic monsters and had general priorities above such I guess.
Incidentally, in my research about Indian magic to inform my depiction of magisters from the region I encountered Indian and Tibetan Tantra for summoning the above creatures as well as Bhuts, nagas, and pishachas albeit only female spirits. Some Indian magics might be nice, I would assume from what I glanced at they are mostly devoid of Solomonic stylings as opposed to stuff in the West and Middle East more Homa fire rituals for sure. I also read about some kind of evil sending (or Rakshasi?) called a Krtya apparently from the epics but my source was vague.
That might be interesting. Himalayan Tantrism obviously does not work in the same styles as Solomonic magic, it's true, but they still have many similarities: both involve complex ritual, that first require purification (and meditation/prayer), tantric magic requires the creation of yantras instead of sigils (but that serve more or less the same function), both involve intonations (in one case of barbarous words, in the other of root-mantras), both require a kind of spiritual authorization (be it of the Abrahamic god or of Shiva/Shakti). Still, it could be an interesting topic for a future small product.
Yes, while I only saw scattered excerpts of the Indian magical tantras they seemed mostly connected to Shaivite sects. The Tibetan one however, which I was able to find in full, was Buddhist (Bhutadamatantra iirc) and instead was under the power of Vajrapani although Shiva was still a major part of the frame narrative or whatever you would call it.
Stambhana tantras for the immobilization of a person with descriptions which reminded me of the old Druid entangle spell involving creeping vines were also among the more interesting things I encountered in my research. I believe those were from the Uddisatantra. The ritual is probably doable in combat provided a magister came prepared and was defended while performing it.
I also noticed that some processes called for a krsnotpala, translated as black lotus; I have no idea what this is supposed to be, outside of REH works anyway.
Very interesting. I'm a lot less familiar with Buddhist (Vajrayana) Tantra than with the Shaivite Hindu Tantra.
Is it just me because I am old but every time I see Wilderlands all I think of is Judges Guild's Wilderland settings.
Quote from: Woolshedwargamer on November 29, 2023, 04:51:05 PM
Is it just me because I am old but every time I see Wilderlands all I think of is Judges Guild's Wilderland settings.
Well, there may have been a bit of homage there...