The Gods are Bastards

by D.D. Webb

Set in a world where the Age of Adventures is ending and industrialization is beginning, a group of students at the University of Tiraas must navigate divine politics, ancient threats, and the intersection of magic and modernity. The Gods Are Bastards blends western frontier aesthetics with high fantasy in a world transitioning from one age to the next.

52 characters, locations, and items in this world codex.

Characters

• Admestus Rafe — Professor of Botany and Alchemy at Last Rock University — a man whose relationship with sanity is best described as 'on a break,' but whose brilliance
• Alaric Yornhaldt — Professor of Arcane Sciences at Last Rock University — a dwarf scholar who teaches structured magic with the patience of someone who has spent centuri
• Antonio Darling — Bishop Sweet — an Eserite thief who infiltrated the Universal Church hierarchy and rose to Bishop, playing the most dangerous double game on the conti
• Arachne Tellwyrn — An ancient elven archmage who has been adventurer, mass murderer, and university professor — three thousand years of accumulated power and grudges com
• Archpope Justinian — The Archpope of the Universal Church — a man of impeccable manners and terrifying ambition who is systematically consolidating power over every divine
• Avei — Goddess of War, Justice, and the Protection of Women — a deity who believes peace is something you enforce with a sword and that justice without power
• Basra Syrinx — Bishop of Avei — a ruthless political operative wearing a paladin's title, whose devotion to the goddess of justice is indistinguishable from her appe
• Crystal — An arcane golem developing sapience — a magical construct becoming a person, raising questions about consciousness that nobody at the University is eq
• Ekoi Kaisa — Professor of Magical Arts at Last Rock University — a kitsune trickster whose lectures are as likely to be elaborate tests of perception as actual ins
• Elilial — The Queen of Demons — an exiled goddess who was cast out of the Pantheon and built an infernal empire from spite, playing a game against the gods that
• Embras Mogul — The leader of the Black Wreath — Elilial's most visible mortal agent, a warlock who prefers negotiation to violence and is dangerously good at both.
• Emilio Ezzaniel — Martial combat instructor at Last Rock University — a no-nonsense fighter who teaches students that all the magic in the world won't save you if you c
• Emperor Sharidan Tirasian — Emperor of the Tiraan Empire — a careful, controlled monarch navigating the impossible task of governing a continental empire while the Church, the go
• Eserion — God of Thieves and Subtlety — the trickster deity who considers rules a suggestion, truth a weapon, and honesty the most devastating form of manipulat
• Fross — A pixie attending university — six inches of luminous enthusiasm and academic brilliance wrapped in a creature most people consider vermin, determined
• Gabriel Arquin — A half-demon theology student who carries an ancient sentient sword and a chip on his shoulder — caught between the divine heritage he was raised in a
• Izara — Goddess of Love — not the greeting-card version but the deep, complicated kind that heals and destroys in equal measure.
• Jeremiah Shook — A Thieves' Guild enforcer — a font of barely controlled rage wearing the Guild's discipline like a leash, useful when the Guild needs violence and dan
• Juniper — A young dryad from the Deep Wild — an immortal nature spirit in the body of a college student, trying to understand why humans make everything so comp
• Khadizroth the Green — A green dragon pursuing an agenda of industrial development — employing mortal engineers to advance technology in ways that serve draconic interests n
• Naiya — Elder Goddess of Nature — the primordial force that created the fae, the dryads, and the Deep Wild, older than the Pantheon and more powerful than any
• Omnu — God of Life, the Sun, and Agriculture — the gentlest of the Pantheon, who preaches compassion in a world that keeps demonstrating why compassion alone
• Salyrene — Goddess of Magic — the deity who formalized arcane magic into something teachable, then retreated from active worship as the world she made possible b
• Scyllith — Elder Goddess of Light and Cruelty — a primordial being who combines transcendent beauty with absolute sadism, imprisoned by the Pantheon but still wo
• Shaath — God of the Wild, Hunting, and Exploration — the most conservative deity in the Pantheon, whose doctrine of rugged self-reliance has curdled into somet
• Shaeine nur Ashaele d'Awarrion — A Narisian drow priestess of Themynra — raised underground in a matriarchal society of ruthless diplomats, she navigates the surface world with impecc
• Teal Falconer — A bard sharing her body with a demon — a wealthy pacifist who chose music over her family's business empire, only to discover that the archdemon livin
• Tobias Caine — The Hand of Omnu — a gentle peacemaker carrying the weight of a war god's opposite, trying to prove that compassion is not the same thing as weakness
• Tricks — The Style — high priest of Eserion and head of the Thieves' Guild, a master of disguise who has worn so many faces that the original might be just ano
• Trissiny Avelea — The Hand of Avei — a paladin raised in an orphanage who arrived at university carrying a goddess's sword and a worldview about to shatter against the
• Vadrieny — An archdemon sharing a body with a college student — a daughter of Elilial who chose coexistence over consumption, discovering that being a person is
• Vesk — God of Bards, Stories, and Inspiration — the divine patron of narrative itself, who treats the mortal world as an ongoing story he's both writing and
• Vidius — God of Death, Life, and Duality — the deity of transitions who understands that everything has two sides, including himself, and who chose a half-demo
• Zanzayed the Blue — An ancient blue dragon turned socialite — one of the last of his kind, who traded the traditional draconic lifestyle of hoarding and terrorizing for c
• Zaruda Punaji — A pirate princess sent to university against her will — loud, drunk, and spoiling for a fight, hiding a sharp political mind behind a persona designed

Locations

• Athan'Khar — A magical disaster zone — the site where Imperial terror weapons killed the orc god Khar, leaving a scar on reality that still bleeds magic and monste
• Last Rock — A frontier town perched on a mesa at the edge of the Golden Sea — the last outpost of civilization before the wilderness, and the unlikely home of the
• Last Rock University — Unseen University — Arachne Tellwyrn's school for the dangerously gifted, built deliberately on top of an ancient dungeon because she believes the bes
• Lor'naris — The surface-accessible drow settlement — a diplomatic and commercial bridge between the underground Narisian civilization and the Tiraan Empire above.
• N'Jendo — The deep drow domain — where Scyllith-worshipping drow practice a philosophy of cruelty and power that makes even the Narisian drow uncomfortable.
• Puna Dara — The Punaji island homeland — where piracy is a noble tradition, succession involves naval engagements, and the ocean is both livelihood and battlegrou
• Tar'naris — The great underground drow city — a matriarchal civilization of diplomats, priestesses, and traders who prove that 'dark elf' doesn't have to mean evi
• The Crawl — A sentient dungeon beneath Last Rock University — an ancient, self-aware labyrinth that rearranges itself, generates monsters, and has been trading wi
• The Deep Wild — The primeval forest — Naiya's domain, where the fae hold sway, the trees are older than civilization, and everything that enters is either predator or
• The Golden Sea — A vast expanse of enchanted grassland — the frontier sea that separates civilization from wilderness, home to ancient ruins, wandering monsters, and t
• Tiraas — The Imperial capital — a sprawling metropolis of temples, government buildings, and commercial districts where every power faction on the continent ma
• Viridill — The heartland of Avei's worship — a region defined by the Silver Legions, the Temple of Avei, and the orphanage where paladins are raised to believe t

Items

• Ariel — An ancient sentient sword — a weapon with vast knowledge, a cutting personality, and opinions about everything its wielder does wrong, which is appare
• Lightcapper — The magical camera — an enchanted device that captures images through arcane light manipulation, documenting a world in transition.
• Ruda's Mithril Rapier — A princess's blade — enchanted mithril forged by Punaji artisans, light as thought and sharp enough to cut spells.
• Scrolltower Network — The magical telegraph — enchanted communication towers that connect the Tiraan Empire's cities, providing instant long-distance messaging in a world w
• Vernis Vaults — Artifacts of the goddess Verniselle — five magical devices that duplicate their contents, each one a potential economic revolution or catastrophe depe

View full codex at Simulacra.Ink