Friday, 4 March 2016

Binding Books for Tekumel/Create Your Own Yozi

Here's a system-agnostic way to create your own demons for Tekumel. Because someone pointed out that The Book of Ebon Bindings only has Change demons, and not Stability demons...
And I thought of a series of interlinked random tables.


Step one: Pick Stasis/Stability or Enthropy/Change. Or toss a coin. If you have Stasis, add "a" to the number of the tables. Enthropy means you add a "b". 

Step two,optional: Do you want to decide a god in advance or not? If yes, roll on table 1. 
1a: Roll 1d10, or 2d10 pick higher/lower.
  1. Hruu
  2. Wuru
  3. Vimuhla
  4. Chiteng
  5. Ksarul
  6. Gruganu
  7. Sarku
  8. Durritlámish
  9. Dlamelish
  10. Hriháyal

1b: Roll 1d10, or 2d10 pick higher/lower.
  1. Hnalla
  2. Dra
  3. Karakan
  4. Chegarra
  5. Thumis
  6. Ketengku
  7. Belkhanu
  8. Qon
  9. Avanthe
  10. Dilinala
Or, you know...just decide whether you want a Cohort or a main god/dess, and roll 1d5 on table 1C (c for Common, it applies to both stability and change).

1-Authority and Rulership (the "boss" of the pantheon)
2-War and Violence
3-Wisdom, especially occult
4-Death and Afterlife
5-Sex and Family

Either way, if you have chosen a god or goddess already, when you'd roll the other tables, only pick results that "fit". A courtesan might not be the best option for Sarku (or at least I prefer not to imagine it).

Step 3: Pick the basics of your demon. Roll on table 2. 
2a - roll 1d24 or a 1d100
  1. Warrior (1-5)
  2. Scholar (6-10)
  3. Priest (11-13)
  4. Maiden (14-15)
  5. Slave (16)
  6. Pe Choi or other "friendly" race (17)
  7. Unfriendly race or extraterrestrial menace (18)
  8. Grazing beast (19-23)
  9. Predator (24-26)
  10. Earthly predator (27)
  11. Earthly vegetarian beast, likely horned and/or of great mass (28)
  12. Marsupial (29)
  13. Bird with great speed or strength (30-33)
  14. Bird of prey (34-38)
  15. Lizard-analogue (39-40)
  16. Frog-analogue (41-42)
  17. Invertebrate considered useful (ex: eatable mollusque, a scarab that must eat the body of the deceased in order to guarantee the ascension of the soul 43-45)
  18. Colony-based Insect (46-50)
  19. Construct, humanoid (51-54)
  20. Plant (55-60)
  21. Fungi (61-62)
  22. Animated item (63-69)
  23. Geographic location (a big boulder, a forest 70-75)
  24. Roll twice and combine (ignore this result if you roll it again, 76-100).

Table 2b. Roll 1d66 (2d6 of different colour, giving you a result between 11 and 66).
  1. Roll once more 2
  2. Roll twice more
  3. Roll 3 times more
  4. Warrior, probably berserk-like or mounted
  5. Scholar, likely mad or extremely methodic
  6. Priest
  7. Courtesan
  8. Vacchan
  9. Slave
  10. Dark-clad Assassin
  11. Non-human Tekumelian race
  12. Enraged, stampeding grazing beast
  13. Stalking predator
  14. Corpse-eating beast
  15. Bird of prey
  16. Carrion-eating bird
  17. Snake-analogue
  18. Lizard-analogue
  19. Frog-analogue
  20. Horned beast
  21. Fish
  22. Worm
  23. Other invertebrate, likely considered harmful
  24. Carnivorous plant
  25. Fungi
  26. Algae or jellyfish
  27. Spider
  28. Scorpion
  29. Poisonous or corpse-eating insect
  30. Construct, non-human looking
  31. Undead
  32. Animated item, likely not man-made: Stone, sand, diamond
  33. Incarnation of a disaster (hurricane)
  34. Animated geographic feature (forest)
  35. A hive, swarm or pack with one mind
  36. Ethereal presence
Now combine all results you got, if you have more than one, and go to the next step. 

Step 4: Roll on table 3. 
Add an elemental condition to your demon. This is a guideline-only and the "element" doesn't need to be presented! 
A Wind demon might be fully material, but flying...or it might be the wind itself (the scourging wind, for Change demons). It might be watery, or command water (salty water, for Change demons). 

Table 3a (I let it to you to guess which die to roll...or you can roll 1d100).
  1. None 1-44
  2. Light 45-52
  3. Air 53-60
  4. Water 61-68
  5. Earth 69-76
  6. Gold 77-84
  7. Steel 85-92
  8. Shadow 93-100
Table 3b. Roll 1d20 or 1d100...seriously, you don't need me to write that out!
  1. None
  2. Fire
  3. Wind
  4. Water
  5. Earth
  6. Gold
  7. Steel
  8. Brass
  9. Darkness
  10. Beast
  11. Poison
  12. Smoke
  13. Blood
  14. Acid
  15. Salts
  16. Thunder
  17. Electricity
  18. Shadow
  19. Void
  20. Flesh
Step 5:  Combine them into a narrative description that fits.

Step 6: Consider which god or goddess said demon is most likely to serve (note: a "slave" demon likely has no free will and you might want to roll on Table 1).

Step 7: Decide what said demon's goals, needs and wants, dislikes, hates and quirks are. Demons often reflect the identity of the god/dess they serve.

Step 8: Decide on a binding ritual. The type and element should help you, but it should be costly, require precision and sacrifice - or it doesn't count...
Also remember, no demon works for free. The personality should help you devise a suitable payment.


So, how does it work?
Well, you start with Step 1, and pick a pantheon. Let's say you got Stability.
Then you roll 100, double, and get "maiden" and "plant" on the results. You roll "gold".
Your demon is a plant girl, walking on feet of greenery, that leaves golden nuggets in her footsteps. I decide she's an Avanthe demon that aims to preserve the crops and reward the good farmers.
Too bad you need to boil gold in a pot of ironwood and pour it on a still-living flower so you get the golden flower. You need to arrange enough of those to make a nice arrangement, while reciting the magical formula.
If you fail to do a nice one, the demon appears, but smashes the arrangement and takes the caster away for uses best left unmentioned.


Oh, and you know why this has the Exalted tag? It also works for demons of the 2nd and 3rd circle, or even new Yozis!

Have fun!
A.

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