The Ladies of Zyan

Player Characters should approach Zyan has strangers: it would be impossible to pretend to know as much as a citizen would know about the city. It is an alien environment that must be discovered piece by piece, with the right amount of fear and awe. My party arrived from a setting of mine, through portal, after a lot of adventuring, loaded with money and experience (averaging 6^th level – Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea ruleset). I wanted to give them a patron and, being a fan of gender diversity, it had to be a woman (group is sadly all male). And then I thought about this:

[What I write about Zyan is not to be considered canon. The only official material comes from Ben at Mazirian's Garden blog and Through Ulthan's Door zine. These are just personal additions to my ongoing campaign]

In the last 50 years it has become fashionable, among a selected group of wealthy Zyan ladies, to sponsor adventuring parties in their quests. It’s a race for social recognition: the Lady with the most successful parties not only partakes in their fortunes but emerges among her peers through the show of exotic paraphernalia gathered in the most obscure corners of Wishery and the Multiverse.

These ladies: widows, spouses of wealthy merchants, spinsters known for their exquisite irrationalities, are competing on another front: turning their bodies into what their masks represent, until their bodies become the masks. Through the use of powerful vivimantic arts, over the course of many years (and for egregious amounts of money), these women have not only preserved or enhanced their youth: they have become something else, with the goal of giving physical form to their innermost self.

Regarding the sponsorship of adventuring parties these ladies usually demand a cut of what is found or pillaged (between 10% and 20%) in exchange of top-class equipment, portal expenses (when needed) and, most importantly, the acquisition of contracts through agencies who specialize in gathering rumours about possible adventuring locations. Agencies take their cut too, usually between 20 and 40%.

[The amazing dolls are crafted by Virginie Ropars, reworked through Painnt and reproduced without permission]

Carbunchia: Chaotic Good – (Goth, Depressed, Bouts of Folly, Romantic, Lonely) – Clan: nobles / Guild: Guides

A widow and orphan whose fortune is rapidly dwindling, lives in a big tower mansion with her only unpaid employee, uber-faithful aged butler Cospic. Refers to Prokter & Kuntz agency, specialized on dungeons on Prime Material Wolds.

       

Velvet: Neutral Evil – (Sexy, Luxurious, Self-Centered, Ambitious) – Clan: merchants / Guild: Fleischguild

Chronically unfaithful wife of merchant Lord Bantam, who’s always “abroad” for work. Famous for wild parties who typically end in orgies. Strong sadomasochistic tendencies. Loves to get “intimate” with her “heores”, often leaving marks. Refers to Niggurath & Sons agency, specialized in Planar and Dreamlands sites.

Petal: Neutral Evil – (Narcisistic, Superficial, Vain) – Clan: nobles / Guild: Guides.

Collects exotic flowers in a Greenhouse inside her mansion, calls them “her babies”. Married with Count Dukkas, who amiably abuses her, physically and psychologically. Loves to “dress” her heroes. Refers to Jared’s Everything Emporium, specialized in “Weird” contracts.

       

Blanca: Lawful Good – (Control-Freak, Pious) – Clan: merchants / Guild: Benefactors.

Married to merchant Bartholomeus (an introverted collector of minutiae), ardent Benefactor. Demands only “gifts” (no cut) from parties. Refers to Sprague’s, specialized in eradication of evil.

Simbilis: Chaotic Evil – (Sneaky, Cold-Blooded, Observant) – Clan: merchants / Guild: Fleischguild

200 years old. Heiress. Too ambitious for her own good. Loves and collects snakes. Eats critters. Refers to Niggurath & Sons.

Butterfly: Chaotic Good – (Wispy, Eerie, Fay, Unpredictable) – Clan: Artists / Guild: Guides.

Example of vivimancy gone slightly wrong. She knows and is ashamed. Ongoing feud with her ex wizard/dealer. Always means well, sometimes with catastrophic results (for her or parties). Refers to Jared’s Everything Emporium, specialized in “Weird” contracts.

Zyan: so beautiful, so scary, so sad

Settings are like rats: there's too many, they look all the same and they feast on scraps. Read ten random "original" fantasy settings and you'll feel like visiting ten different McDonald's in the same city.

When a good setting comes by it's a thing to celebrate. I found one: it's called Zyan and it's supported by Mazirian's Garden blog and a wonderful zine called Through Ulthan's Door. It's written by Ben L. who is a nice person, a philosopher and a true "author".

Zyan is a city that flies over the Dreamlands, or Wishery, as Ben calls them. You probably know a lot already about it so I won't go into details: this thing I'm writing, after all, isn't going to be read by anyone if Ben himself doesn't share it. So, Ben: please share!

Why should you consider playing in Zyan? First of all because it's so intense it compelled me to draw a map (many, many years since I tried my hand at a city map).

Second: it's unique. In my campaign I use it as a base for Planar missions, a sort of Sigil. Sigil is unique and uniquely irritating. Bloated descriptions that don't describe enough. That jargon ... maybe sounded like a good idea in the 90's, now it's such a drag ... Zyan, on the contrary, is so terse it takes only a handful of blog posts and a zine to FEEL it.

It's a disturbing place, full of morbid mysteries, unknowable rites, obscure gods and weird traditions. It is, at least for me, a deeply sensual place, in a very twisted, freudian way. A place of sin, decadent, byzantine, full of subterfuge and deadly ennui. "The stuff that dreams are made of ..." and yet ... fully playable. This is a small miracle: how many times have we read something that had atmosphere but no substance, that you couldn't bring to the table without titanic efforts (see: Vornheim)? This nightmare comes table-ready.
I'm 44, I've got a full-time job and a 3 years old son. I sorely need table-ready stuff. 

Zyan reminds me of the grotesque baroquery of Jean Pierre Jeunet's & Marc Caro's City of Lost Children (sorry for the obscure citation ... I'm an ex movie-critic).

Of the exquisite madness of Terry Gilliam's Baron of Munchausen.

It has body-horror, butcher-priests, a lot of theatre, killer puppets, pig-men, faceless lions and cenotaphs lost in a jungle of giant mushrooms hanging upside down from the city's rock. It has a sewer river and entire subcultures living exclusively underground. 

Most of all, in my humble opinion, it's about the loss of hope (beautifully exemplified by the struggle between the two crowns who hold the city in an eternal standoff). This, in a way, puts Zyan more in a "Dying Earth" context than a Dreamlands one: the marmoreal, escherian vistas are lovecraftesque and dunsanian, but the nihilistic push is more like Vance meets William Burroughs. 

Anyway, if we go past the somewhat lazy game of naming possible inspirations, what we have it's Ben, his psyche, his vision. No wink-wink references and no old-school obligations to drag it down.

I dare to make a wish about Zyan's future: a beatiful illustrated manual giving us everything we need to play in Zyan Above, Below and in-Between. That would keep me busy for the years to come! 

So: wear your mask, say your prayers and jump into Zyan: such pleasure and such pain are waiting there for you!