House Zephyrion (Country: Zephyria)

“We must find the strength of mountains
buried in our past and bring it to bear on those
fools who think we are nothing but dust in the
wind.”
—Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage





House Zephyrion
The Southern Kingdom of Zephyria was once the most glorious empire of Middle-earth. Pharaohs ruled as gods on earth, their monuments towered over even Raxxan’s mightiest, and their armies could churn a kingdom to mud and blot out the sun on wings of death. Now, Zephyria emerges from millennia of foreign rule under the rulership of the youthful Ruby Prince Khemet III, who hearkens back to the ancient days of Zephyria’s glory. One year ago, Khemet opened the vast deserts of Zephyria—long closed by the Keleshite overlords who held the nation as a satrapy of Qadira, the merchants of Eledar—to foreign exploration. Today the great treasures and arcane formulas of the living gods of ancient Zephyria are unearthed for the entire world to see, and the ascendancy of the Land of Pharaohs is at hand. Most Outer Sea nations view Zephyria as a relic from a bygone age. In truth, Zephyria is a slumbering giant that, when awakened, could wash away all fledgling challengers with the power of its traditions. The Zephyrian are wise people who look deep into the past for answers to present troubles. Their sense of history gives them a unique perspective on the ebb and flow of power in the political landscape of Middle-earth. Many folk of Zephyria are of old Garundi blood, bronze-skinned, and gifted with the noble bearing of the ancient pharaohs. It would take a special brand of fool to ignore this semblance of power and dismiss the Zephyrian faction as less of a threat than any of the other four factions clamoring for control of Siria.


Goals: Uncover the Power of the Past
In bygone ages, the pharaohs of Ancient Zephyria created wonders beyond reason. They concocted potent arcane plagues to destroy their enemies and erected mighty monuments capable of entrapping the souls of deities. Let the other factions jockey for meager political fancy or table scraps like favorable economic sanctions. Zephyria is interested in rediscovering the powerful artifacts of its heritage, and preventing their theft by aggressive powers such as Cheliax. Once these powers are returned to their rightful hands, no one shall dare breach Zephyr’s borders again.


Methodology: Hide Your Power
“The grasping hands of petty thieves cannot
take what they do not know you have.”
—Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage

For centuries now, the other powers of the Outer Sea have regarded the vaguely represented House Zephyrion in Siria, as an impotent nation of conquered people. House Zephyrion wouldn’t have it any other way. Since the Ruby Prince ascended the ancestral throne, the Southern Kigdom of Zephyria has been gathering its power and preparing to make a bid for supremacy of the Outer Sea. Most of the Zephyrian faction missions involve quietly undermining the power of their enemies. Zephyrian agents in Siria plant the seeds of dissolution with a whisper or a poisonous draught, never with a naked blade, and never with a witness. Just as most of the Great Emerald Sphinx is buried beneath the sands of Zephyira’s deserts, so is the nation’s power carefully hidden in secret brotherhoods and spies loyal to the pharaonic throne. When Siria sits firmly in Zephyria’s grasp, then Khemet III shall declare himself Pharaoh in the tradition of his ancestors and Zephyria’s Second Golden Age shall follow.


Faction Leader: Amenopheus, Sapphire Sage
The Jeweled Sages of Zephyria were plotting the courses of the stars when the other people of the Middle-earth were living in caves and wearing rotting furs. When the Keleshite satrapy seized control of the Southern kingdom, they razed monuments to the ground and savaged the ancient traditions of Zephyria. The Jeweled Sages were disbanded, and those who didn’t recant their astrological powers were executed in a most gruesome fashion. Now the Ruby Prince has reinstated the order. They no longer mainly gaze toward the stars, but rather seek the answers to Zephyria’s destiny in the hearts of their enemies. The Jeweled Sages are now Zephyria’s spymasters, agents of the throne who gather webs of operatives and oversee their missions. Amenopheus claims to trace his blood to the line of the Jeweled Sages of antiquity. This time-weathered Garundi sage wears his long black beard in a single braid adorned with nothing but copper bands. He wears austere red robes and simple leather sandals, and dodders, losing his train of thought often or blathering humorous tales or anecdotes that seem simple to most, but often conceal a profound lesson. Those unfortunate to get on Amenopheus’s bad side fear the old man’s piercing gaze, and know full well he conceals a dozen wands of power in the wide sleeves of his robes. Amenopheus is supposedly the advisor to an obese Zephyrian noble, named Dremdhet Salhar, who sits on the Grand Council of Siria, but in truth, the fat noble never utters a sentence not planted in his mind by the Sapphire Sage first. Some rumormongers claim Amenopheus was a Pathfinder in his youth who wandered the world for years before returning to Zephyria to serve his Prince. He has been assigned to Siria since Prince Khemet III ascended the throne in Zephyria and knows the city better than most natives born and bred there. Few are aware of the sage’s true role, and many of the agents serving him think they work for another spymaster. Only the most trusted operatives in his service ever meet face to face with the Sapphire Sage. They say he favors Pathfinders, perhaps out of nostalgia for his own past exploits in the organization’s service. Other rumors concerning Amenopheus’s true nature abound. Some claim to have glimpsed ancient tapestries dating back to Zephyria’s golden age thousands of years past where a sage bearing a striking resemblance to Ameonphues administered to the pharaohs of old. A few whisper that Amenopheus is no mortal man at all but rather some ancient undead abomination, the original Sapphire Sage whose tomb was cracked open by the Ruby Prince and whose mummified corpse was awakened to serve as advisor to the Prince, as he once did to the pharaohs of ancient Zephyria.


Zephyrian Pathfinders
The land of Zephyria is rife with ancient tombs, lost relics, and forgotten cities buried under the swirling sands. Many of the best and brightest Pathfinders cut their teeth in this sprawling empire of living history and ancient tradition. Few countries possess such wizened sages or as competent explorers as Zephyria. Pathfinders not raised in Zephyria yet still loyal to the faction in the homeland usually come from strong, ancestor worship-based cultures from across Middle-earth. They see the goals of the Zephyria as laudable and hope to ride the coat tails of powerful pharaohs to glory and honor in the after life. Others see vast, unplumbed tombs buried deep beneath the desert sands and pledge their loyalty to Zephyria on a sliver of hope that they’ll one day crack the seal on an ancient burial chamber and uncover wealth beyond imagination.


ATTUNED TO THE ANCESTORS

The undead are not monsters, but rather the souls of your
honored ancestors. You need not fear them.

Benefit: Once per day, you can surround yourself with
an aura of unlife. Unintelligent undead ignore you
unless you take action against them, as per hide from
undead. This protection lasts for 1 minute per character
level you possess. If you attack, or otherwise take an
offensive action, against undead during this effect, it
immediately ends.


DUNE WALKER

Your people have long roamed the shifting and
treacherous sands and you do not fear the harsh wrath of
the unforgiving desert.

Benefit: You receive a +4 bonus on Fortitude saves to
avoid taking nonlethal damage from hot conditions and
Constitution checks made to avoid damage from thirst. In
addition, you can move through sand as if it were normal
terrain and do not suffer any penalties on Balance and
Tumble checks when moving through desert terrain.


MUMMY-TOUCHED

As a young child, you encountered the damning curses of
a thousand ages and survived.

Benefit: You receive a +4 bonus on saves against diseases
and curses.


SECRET OF THE SPHINX

Your ancestors paid the proper obeisance to Nethys,
granting their heirs special divinatory gifts.

Benefit: Once per week, you can ask a single question of
the gods. This functions as an augury spell, using your
character level as your caster level. Asking this question
takes 1 hour and requires the expenditure of 25 gp worth
of incense. This is a spell-like ability.


STAY DEATH’S EMBRACE

Your studies of death and your devout worship of
Pharasma have unlocked many secrets of the great
beyond. As a result, it is harder to send you there.

Benefit: You have a 25% chance to stabilize each round
when below 0 hit points. Once stable, you become conscious
one round later, although you are still disabled.
Normal: You have a 10% chance to stabilize each round
when below 0 hit points.


TOMB RAIDER

Treasures lying below the sands have enticed you since
childhood and you are adept at prying loose their secrets.

Benefit: You get a +2 bonus on Search skill checks. In
addition, if you are aware of a trap, you receive a +2 bonus
on saves to avoid that trap and a +2 dodge bonus to your
Armor Class when attacked by that trap.