Once again Purple Planet designer Harley Stroh shares some lore on that most menacing of mauve frontiers, the Purple Planet. Today Harley treats us to a description of a ubiquitous foe, the Kith — be sure to follow Adventures on the Purple Planet on BackerKit now and be ready to face these foes, and countless more, when you return with us to the Purple Planet!
Return to the Purple Planet: The Kith and The Ascended Masters
by Harley Stroh
Chief among the perils of the Purple Planet are the Kith: roaming warbands of ursine warriors, sworn to an endless battle for survival beneath the dying sun. Once akin to humans, centuries of endless war, inbreeding, and strange experimentation has stripped the kith of any noble qualities they might have once possessed. Though taller than most humans, their heavy bones and round bellies lend the appearance of squat, brutish forms. The kith are pale-skinned and jaundiced, with eyes ranging from ice blue to bone, while their hair is most often white or a sickly yellow. They decorate their bodies with colorful dyes, tattoos, and brands – a record of a kith’s violent life, of battles waged and foes laid low.
The kith live out their short, brutish lives in service of their House. And while the kith of one house are indistinguishable from their foes, each faction regards the other as violent beasts, fit only for slaughter.
Each House is comprised of smaller warbands, ranging from a few dozen kith to several thousand. The band provides each warrior with their identity, and the sense of belonging which assures them that they are on the side of righteousness. Few can imagine a life outside of their slavish devotion to warband and House, and those singular rebels that dare to strike out on their own quickly fall victim to the unforgiving beasts and deadly environs of the high plateau.
None can recall a time before the war. Driven to barbarism, and fueled by desperation and hate, each side believes that it is locked in a final battle for survival against an implacable foe. This belief is affirmed with each new day, and each new encounter with their hated fellows.
If the common kith can be seen as a physical manifestation of blind hate and slavish devotion, the appearance of their masters harkens back to an earlier age, before the gleaming domes and high spires were cast down and the cities burned. Once lovely and beguiling to the eye, each ascended master is best likened to an insect, trapped in amber, a relic from another age and time.
How this was achieved – the forestalling of time – is unique to each House. Some resorted to strange sorceries that draw upon the rays of the dying sun. Others have sought out super science, rendering themselves (or at least replicants of themselves) in dense clouds of billowing carbon. But no matter how it is accomplished, the method, along with the intervening passage of eons, has cost the masters their souls. No matter how handsome or lovely the ascended master might appear, they cannot conceal their predatory nature.
Ascended masters can be found at the head of each house, but also in forgotten tombs lost amidst the wastes and crypts chiseled into the high Ancestor Peaks. Whether these masters are dead, slumbering, or something else in-between, none can say, save for the PCs that dare to break the ancient seals and learn the truth for themselves.
What ancient mysteries are concealed by the Ascended Masters, and to what end do they wage their endless war? Discover these secrets and many more by backing Adventures on the Purple Planet — follow now to be ready when the campaign for the Purple Planet launches in February!
