Talana Setting (Psionics Fantasy Setting)

[Arith Winterfell]

Powers similar to GURPS psychic powers often appear in fantasy, such as a telepathic bond with a magical companion animal. So I wanted to explore and formulate character types in a fantasy setting where traditional magic is instead replaced by psychic powers. Enter my setting Talana!

Talana

Talana's Ancient History

The story of the setting begins with the rise and fall of an ancient kingdom called Aethir. During ancient times the tribal peoples that became the kingdom of Aethir discovered strange crystals in Mountains they lived near. These crystals helped awaken awareness of fantastical realms of dreams and incredible powers. This in turn led to the rise of the Aethirian tribe over their neighboring tribes. Aethirian culture over centuries would refine these powers to great heights. They wielded strange crystal and metal artifacts, reshaped mind and flesh, summoned creatures out of dreams.

The Aethir would go on to manipulate and shape (literally shaping the flesh of) two of their neighboring tribes into slave races. One serving as house servants and assistants often trained to have limited access to psionic powers in order to assist their Aethirian masters. This race became the settings "Elves."

The other tribe was shaped to work the crystal mines, becoming rough and sturdy people who became the Garuk (a Neanderthals like people).

Eventually the Aethirian people reached too far and too greedily. They reached deep into the Dream Sea (See Below) and accidently released primal nightmarish Dream Horrors into the world, causing Dream Horrors (all over the empire) to either spawn from peoples dreams or transform the people into aberrant monsters. All of this occurred in one fell night (called the "Night of Terror") bringing the empire to its knees.


Talana's Dream Sea

The Inner Astral in the setting is a bit more complex than it is presented in Psionic Powers. In Talana the place is called the Dream Sea. Like an ocean it is a place with many different layers and depths. The surface regions closest to the metaphorical "shore" of the real world and the Outer Astral is the "Dream Shallows" where bubbles of Dreamscapes form and vanish as people slumber and dream. Archetypal Astral creatures wander the dreamscapes of mortals interacting or even feeding on their dreams.

However further down in the Dream Sea lie dark depths. The Dream Deeps is a region akin to the Abyssal Zone in our world's seas. It was this depth that the Aethirian psychic mages reached into trying to draw on the energy there to gain new heights of power. Unfortunately they pierced into a Dreamscape made of primal nightmares and Dream Horrors poured forth into the human world on the "Night of Terror."


The Ruins of the Aethirian Kingdom
There were many repercussions of the destruction of the Aethirian Kingdom, but key to understanding current Talana are the fates of the three races (Humans, Elves, Garuk).

Humanity scattered eventually coalescing into new kingdoms far away from the Aethirian ruins and forest lands still haunted by Dream Horrors. Humans continues study mind powers, but much knowledge has been lost, while strange ruins and lost artifacts beckon from ruins of lofty Aethir.

The Elves hating their former masters and the rest of humanity settled in the forests lands around the former kingdom. The Elves especially hate the Dream Horrors and view them as a corruption of the natural world. Anyone among the Elves that even manifests psychic powers is seen as a corrupted monster and put to death or exiled. The Elves hone their hunting skills hunting Dream Horrors and are masters of doing so. Their relationship with humanity remains strained.

The Garuk, being hardy people, were pushed away from human lands, and settled in tribal groups in the highlands and mountains in the cold wintery heights. The Garuk see psychic powers as shamanistic, either communicating with "Dream Spirits" or their shamans drawing upon elemental forces wielding telekinetic hurled firebolts and ice shards.

[Arith Winterfell]

Classes (WIP)
Wizards (or psychic wizards more properly along with psychic "magics") come in many specialized flavors focusing on different aspects of psychical study matching up largely to the different branches of powers in Psionic Powers.

Much of Ergokinesis school doesn't exist however, as much of it deals with higher tech stuff that doesn't exist in this fantasy setting.


Dreamwalkers
Dreamwalkers are a type of psychic wizard who focuses on Astral Projection. Using the Astral (Outer Astral) for exploration and observation, along with travels into the Dream Sea (Inner Astral realm). They often either observe people in secret, or explore the Dream Sea in order to find dreams of others and observe those dreams to learn secrets they keep hidden. Though this can be tricky as those secrets can be couched in metaphorical creatures embodied as physical dream creature natives to the Dream Sea.


(WIP) At this point I'm still deciding what to do with the other Psionic Areas. I realize at this point I'm still sorting it all that out. In part deciding if I should simply break things up more like for example making Weather Control simply part of a Hedge Witch class and do the same with the Curse Powers of Probability control rather than just making Probability Control wizards specifically. Feedback is welcome!