The Plain, around the city of cedar
Sethites
Keepers of the old names. The long-lived line of the altar.
“Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.”
Their story
When the first mother wept over her murdered son, she was given another, and she said he was appointed in place of the one who was slain. The Sethites are his children. In his days, men first began to call on the name of their Maker, and his children have never stopped.
They are the keepers of the old ways. They remember the names of their fathers and their fathers' fathers, all the way back to the first man, and they recite them at the altar fires on the seventh day so that no one will forget. Their elders live for centuries; it is not strange in a Sethite village to find a man who remembers his great-great-grandfather's wedding, or a woman who spoke as a girl with one who walked with his Maker and was taken. Time moves slowly for them. They are patient as old oaks, slow to anger, and very hard to break.
Most Sethites live in the city of cedar or in the farming villages of the Plain, and most keep the faith of their fathers. Not all. The gilded city is full of promises, and a Sethite who has gone over to it is called an apostate by their own people, which is the bitterest word the Sethites know. Some of those apostates are the most dangerous servants the giants have, because they know exactly what they turned away from.
Their look and ways
Plain linen and undyed wool. Weathered faces, kind eyes and hands rough from the plow. The men wear their hair loose to the shoulder and their beards long, the women one plain braid beneath linen, and their gear is honest Altar-plain work in undyed ivory, oatmeal and soft brown, with a knotted cord at every belt that holds one knot for each generation back to the first man. Elders are honored above all others, and every Sethite carries the names of their ancestors by heart. They keep the seventh day as a day of rest, and they keep their doors open to strangers on all the other six.
Starting attributes
| Attribute | Start | What it does for you |
|---|---|---|
| Wisdom | 26 | Strengthens every healing and ward, deepens a healer's well of power, and adds a little resistance against all eight kinds of harm. The highest Wisdom of any lineage, and the Sethites' greatest gift. |
| Intelligence | 22 | Makes signs, spells and songs strike harder, and deepens the well of power for wielders of signs and voices of the company. |
| Stamina | 20 | Raises your maximum health. Every calling needs it. |
| Agility | 16 | Together with your Defense skill, your chance to dodge a blow. For hunters, it also makes every hunter's gift strike harder. |
| Strength | 16 | Adds force to every weapon blow and physical art, and lets you carry more. For defenders, it is also the well of their power. |
Innate resistances
- Disease, for the long life of the patriarchs. Plagues and rot take hold of a Sethite slowly.
- Mind, for a steadfast heart. Lies, slanders and terrors find little purchase.
Both grow stronger with every level you gain.
Innate gifts
- Long-lived
- your health and power return faster when you rest between battles, and the weakness that follows being brought back from death passes in half the time.
- Old Names
- you can read the old tongue carved on waystones and ruins across the world, which opens tales and quests no other lineage can find.
Traditions
At every tenth level, choose one:
- For the body and mind: Wisdom of the Elders, Clear Sight or Patriarch's Vigor, raising your Wisdom, Intelligence or Stamina.
- For protection: Long Days against disease, Steadfast against the mind's terrors, or Called by Name against unholy harm.
- For skill: Keeper's Hands for healing, Quiet Heart to keep casting under blows, or Watchful to dodge.
- Gifts found nowhere else:
- Seventh-Day Rest: your rested strength builds twice as fast while you are away.
- Return to the Altar: once an hour, return to your home altar or shrine.
- Length of Days: once in a while, when you fall below a quarter of your health, a fifth of it returns to you.
Natural callings
Choose the Sethites if
You want roots. You want to carry a thousand years of names on your tongue and a fire that has never gone out in your heart. The Sethites are not the strongest people in the world, or the quickest, or the cleverest. They are simply the ones who are still standing when everyone else has given up.
The gate is not yet open
Join the Waitlist
Be among the first to walk the world before the flood.
We will only email you about Dawn of Chaos. Privacy Policy.