The World of SenZar exists beyond what mortals call "The Dream Barrier," or the mystic veil which separates the magick-blind multiverse of Terra from the magick-rich multiverse of SenZar. So far as our humanocentric perceptions are concerned, Terra acts as the center of its multiverse. This may or may not be true. However, SenZar is the center of its multiverse; it is the "prime" world from which all other "prime" or "center" worlds derive.

SenZar, as the prime world, was the homeworld of the Sidhe, those magickal creatures born of the Dragon, or life force of all things (see below). The Sidhe ruled the primeval world of SenZar for untold millennia in peace and harmony until the advent of Namo, whose pristine Sidhe essence was corrupted by one fatal flaw: ego. Unlike the other Sidhe, Namo possessed ego, an awareness of his own soul, and with this knowledge came his power. With this power, Namo bound the Sidhe to his will, then used their combined powers to bind the semi-sentient Dragon itself. He achieved this by soulforging nine foci into the totality of The Dragon, then binding those nine foci unto himself, thus catalyzing not only a quantum leap in his own personal power but also a critical chain of events which granted the Dragon itself a new form of sentience. For in binding the Dragon unto himself, Namo also bound himself unto the Dragon; thus, the Dragon itself became "aware," and SenZar--as well as the entire multiverse--would never be the same.

With the power of the Dragon his to command, Namo began to reshape SenZar (and much of the multiverse) in his image, creating new worlds, then populating those new worlds with new races and new creatures. Each of these new creations he gifted with awareness, and in so doing bound them not only to himself but to the Dragon as well. All these new things he bound unto a metaphysical Primal Nexus, which he caused to manifest upon SenZar; in effect, binding the "unreal" with the "real." From this nexus Namo ruled all things. But not for the eternity that he planned...

The Dragon, aware of itself and its state, caused Namo to create two heirs; two sons who would betray their sire in the name of the Dragon and cause a new order to rise from the ashes of the old...

What happened after that?

To summarize: the sons betrayed the father, bound him unto his own essence (the Dragon), then took it upon themselves to rule the newly evolving world of SenZar in his stead; each taking four of the nine foci, and sharing the ninth between them. While their intentions were good, their father's curse ran deep within their souls, and instead of the harmony that they sought, they found instead a war--a war in heaven, fought by the immortal beings created by their father and by their own hands. As brother fought brother, the opposing sides, initially the same in nature, began gradually to polarize, their essences transforming unto "light" and "dark"; "good" and "evil." This was not a projection of their morals or ethics. Instead, it was a necessary product of their innate balance of power, as each brother held four foci, and none could force the fifth from their shared grasp. None but the Dragon, that is, who caused the final foci to become the VoidSpawn, or the eternal force of balance in the struggle between light and dark, good and evil.

The coming of the VoidSpawn brought the long God War to a close. The VoidSpawn slaughtered those immortals who dared to resist, then banished all others from SenZar, save for the two brothers, whose fate was dictated by the newly freed Dragon: they would serve for all eternity as the harbingers of balance, each recruiting and maintaining enough immortals to serve the Will of the Dragon. And to properly set the cosmic chess board each and every new Age for a new round of the Dragon's Game...

What is the Dragon?

In The SenZar System, the Dragon is the life-essence of all living things, a "collective" of all energies, an eternal union of both the Source & the Void. The term should not be confused with that which is commonly employed to name the ancient race of eldritch creatures which most mortals know as "Dragons." The term "the Dragon" instead refers to All That All Which Is, and All That All Which Binds. Basically, the Dragon is everything: all good, all evil; all light, all darkness; all Source, all Void; and especially all Primal.

What is the Dragon's Game?

Once you become an Immortal in The SenZar System, there are three distinct paths that you can choose to express your Immortal existence: the Deific Gods, who gain their power through worshipers like the classical gods that abound in Terran mythology; the Eternals, who play a bizarre, constantly evolving and somewhat depraved "game" for their power, Points, with everyone in the cosmos, including themselves; and the Material Gods, who are flesh and blood Immortals that are further divided into two sub-classifications: the Anshadar and the Shadar.

While the Dragon's Game itself is cosmic, all-encompassing, and eternal (and thus involves not only the other two realms of Immortals, but also all mortal sentients), it specifically concentrates upon maintaining and perpetuating the "balance" between the two factions of the Material Gods, the Anshadar (the "good" or "white") and the Shadar (the "bad" or "black"). The Dragon contests Chthon, the Dark Earth Mother, in a game of cosmic chess, with the "white" side of good played by the Dragon and the "black" side of evil played by Chthon. It should be noted that Chthon is the dual-aspect identity of the Dragon, too, which can make things a bit complicated if you're not familiar with such concepts. Therefore, since both are but aspects of the same being, "they" are basically playing themselves...

However, the "game" is not played to win, as that would, by necessity, cause one side (either the light or the dark) to "lose," which would mean that one side would cease to exist. Thus, it should be apparent that both sides are played, not to win, but to maintain a status quo, for both the Anshadar's and Shadar's continued Immortal existence perpetuates the power of the Dragon and Chthon. So what happens when an Immortal Anshadar or Shadar dies? You guessed it: It's time to recruit another to maintain the balance (although there are, and have been, certain times during which this was impossible, such as the Fourth Age, when the Shadar Lords ruled SenZar, and a weakened Dragon served as their semi-comatose powerslave). Basically, without a new crop of Immortals once in a while to keep the old stock in order, even the Dragon and Chthon can be reduced in power, eventually to fade away to a dormant state once most, or all, of their chosen Immortals cease to exist.

How the Dragon's Game is played is left up to the Creator (whose campaign it's in) and his Players (who are playing the Immortals). There is literally an infinite number of possible scenarios and outcomes, and these scenarios and outcomes will vary from campaign to campaign.

What is the Death Horde?

The Death Horde is a collection of the most vile, most wicked sentients in the multiverse. They roam the starways in a titanic Dyson-sphere Starhome called Demonia Prime, serving the dark causes of the Anti-Life and the Dark Earth codes, enslaving or destroying all who oppose them.

The Death Horde was indirectly responsible for repopulating the world of SenZar many millennia after the first God War. They spirited the most resistant specimens of the species which they had conquered to what they took to be a "backward" world: SenZar. (Had but the Death Horde recalled their own true origins, this turn of events would have been most ironic indeed.) On SenZar they constructed mega-concentration camps to hold the prisoners, whom they would employ for a variety of purposes, including genetic engineering, the testing of cruel new experimental weapons, and, of course, for nothing more than sheer sadistic torture.

The Dragon, however, moves in mysterious ways. Seizing upon the opportunity to once more initiate another round of the Dragon's Game, The Dragon caused the spirit of rebellion to grow within the souls of the prisoners until, at last, they were able to free themselves from the tyrannical iron grasp of their captors. The prisoners, for the first and the last time united despite their individual creeds, joined together to crush the small contingent of Death Horde troops who ruled their world. In so doing, the prisoners found themselves deserted on an inhospitable world by the fleeing Death Horde troops. Unable to return to worlds that were destroyed or thought destroyed (or perhaps unwilling to desert this newfound world where the ancient ways of magick were strong and true), the newcomers began to recreate the world of SenZar in their own image, setting the stage for the modern history of SenZar, its Eight Ages, and its ultimate destiny as the greatest world in the multiverse...

What is Karma?

In The SenZar System we employ the concept of an eightfold Karma to assist the Player in defining his PC, in role-playing his PC, and in granting his PC Character Generation Points, or Fate Points. We break Karma down into 8 Karmic Attributes: Attitude, Confidence, Discipline, Fear, Greed, Harmony, Luck, and Sanity. The PC begins with a perfect "0" in each Karmic Attribute, and he may raise these up to a limit of "20" should he so wish; "polluting" himself in order to "empower" himself, as it were. The points go toward building the PC, and may be used as Fate Points. However, once you raise your Karma up to certain critical threshold, your PC will be subject to Karmic Manifestations.

For example, if your PC chose to give himself a Harmony of "15", he would have to choose a Karmic Manifestation to express that Harmony. There are multiple Karmic Manifestations from which to choose for each Karmic Attribute. Let's say he chooses "Hatred" to define himself. Perhaps his hatred is of the Rellians who persecute his nonhuman Race. A Karmic Attribute of "15" is rated as an Acute Manifestation, which means that the PC will display it on occasion, yet is not quite to the point of being consumed or overwhelmed by it. The score itself, "15", represents the number or better that the Player will have to roll on a d20 in order to keep his Hatred of Rellians in check when he is confronted with them. Hatred is a powerful thing, and the PC mentioned above will soon learn that his hatred will probably cause him more grief than it's worth. Especially when he has to make a "15" or higher on a d20 whenever Rellians confront him. Thankfully, he can buy the Manifestation down by burning the Fate Points that he earns while adventuring, and he can do this on a 1:1 basis. Granted, this may take some time in a well-defined campaign...

Of course, the Creator always has the option not to call for the roll, but it's not his fault that the Player chose that Manifestation for his PC. Besides, the PC got 15 Generation Points out of it, and it would only be Good Karma for the Creator to reward him for his efforts. Ahh, what sweet Karma...

What is a Code?

We use the term "Code" in The SenZar System to express a related group of ethics to which some, if not most, PCs subscribe. For the "good guys," there is "the Cause" and "the Good Earth"; for the "bad guys," there is "the Anti-Life" and "the Dark Earth."

The point value for the Codes mirrors that of Karma, as does the "manifestation," save that it is called "devotion" in this case. The Code system, however, requires a bit more in-depth role-playing than that of the Karma system, if only because the Code itself is a personal, underlying theme that permeates the being of the PC. Sure, there's a "Save" to resist the "call" of a particular Code, but resisting the call (say, of a maiden in distress, and you're a virtual champion of the Cause) may neither be possible nor prudent.

The Cause is the ancient Code of questing that all true champions of justice hold as their own; the Good Earth is the quasi-religious creed of those who hold themselves to be true servants of the Dragon, or of all things of good in the world. The Anti-Life is the creed of those who believe that all others must die, or serve them as slaves; the Dark Earth is the quasi-religious creed of those who serve the dark will of Chthon, the Dark Earth Mother and ruler of the Pit.

What are Freaks?

Your PC, or Player Character, can be either a normal Race with a normal Profession or he can elect to be something just a bit unusual: a Freak. In the SenZar System, a Freak is a combination of both Race and Profession (or a unique "template" which overlays the normal PC's Profession, as is the case with the Vampyr). The Freak, no matter his particular calling, makes for an extremely powerful PC, and cannot be used unless both Player and Creator agree to allow its use in the Creator's particular campaign.

In SenZar, there are three Freaks: the Shapeshifter, who possesses the ability to shift his form unto any form which he has the Power to learn; the Talisman, who is a natural bender/binder of magickal energies; and the VoidSpawn, a being of supreme Willpower whose destiny is to act as a balance in the Dragon's Game. In Creeping Death, the Freaks are: the Luckster, who has the amazing ability to alter probability (including most forms of die rolls); and the Vampyr, a unique Freak that acts as a layered template of Special Powers which your PC can have without paying XP for it (the true cost of being a Vampyr cancels out the need for XP).

Naturally, the Freak is powerful; moreso perhaps than any other combination of Races/Professions in the game. There are, however, checks and balances built into them, the first and foremost of which is total Player/Creator agreement to allow one into a campaign.

Copyright © 2001 Nova Eth Publishing, Inc.