2:

The World of Aruneus

Clerics and Wizards a historical
perspective
By Benjamin Gerber

Aruneus is a new world for use with the Pathfinder Role Playing Game. 100 years past,
Aruneus experienced an apocalyptic event. Starting in a small village, a family infected by a
strange sickness died, only to rise again several days later. Within weeks hordes of undead
were roaming the Human empires, ravaging any warm blooded creature that fell in to their
grasp. Aruneus was devastated - losing in a few years over 10 million sentient beings.

After 100 years of fending off a complete collapse, the sentient races are rebuilding their
societies and for the first time there is hope that the undead menace can be destroyed and life
given a chance to flourish again.

This supplement contains details on the Order of the White Cloth and magic users in the world
of Aruneus, including the rise to power of the Order of the White Cloth and the fall of the
Wizards under the Orders rule.

Pathfinder and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo

Publishing, LLC, and are used under license. See paizo.com/pathfinderRPG
for more information on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Please visit our Wiki for more information ~ http://www.trollitc.com/aruneus


The Order of the White Cloth
We are the purity of spirit. We are the only
protectors of the living. We are the
cleansing hand that will bring salvation to all
Aruneus. We are the law.
Order of the White Cloth Opening Rites,
book II, chapter 1.
The Order of the White Cloth is possibly the
one human organization to profit greatly
from the zombie apocalypse. Shortly before
the undead rose the Order was large but
politically not a strong entity. When they
found themselves spread throughout all of
the human realms (with small temples in
several Elven and Dwarven cities as well)
their spiritual leader High Priest Dain seized
the opportunity. He immediately
communicated to all of his subordinates that
they were to spare no effort in driving back
the undead hordes and saving what they
could of any settlements they found
themselves in.
They accomplished this in part through their
power to control divine energy and in part
through a massive effort of cajoling and
threatening to motivate citizens of even
small settlements to construct high walls as
rapidly as possible.
After the initial outbreak had passed, High
Priest Dain found himself in the position of
both the most revered spiritual leader on the
planet and also in control of the largest
extent network of Humans. He strove to live
up to the ideals set for him from the existing
governments and worked closely with their
militaries and other spiritual groups to
ensure that humanity and the other races
would not be completely eradicated.
He was the first to propose elevated
settlements and saw to it that the Human
nations created laws mandating 2nd level
living in any newly built or rebuilt
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3:
settlements. He also worked closely with the
groups responsible for the first lighter than
air ships as well as
The strain was very large and High Priest
Dain was already well into his sixtieth
decade when the initial outbreaks occurred.
In the summer of 7 AA he suffered a stroke
while working with the Old Kingdom
government on plans for a new settlement.
His party, attempting to return him to the
relative safety of the nearest walled town
was attacked and overrun by a large
number of undead. These creatures
subsequently destroyed most of the nearby
settlements. High Priest Dain's body was
never recovered.
The next leader to be selected as High
Priest, Raynold, was the youngest
appointment to the office at 42 years old.
Raynold took a much different approach
and saw that not only could he slow and
possibly turn the advance of the undead but
that he could seize political power while
doing so. Increasingly power vacuums
occurred when noble families were overrun
or lost all of their offspring and potential
heirs to the undead uprising. Raynold
worked hard to set up puppet governments
wherever he could, who were loyal to and
often subject to the Order.
Realizing that the League of the Earth and
the Colleges of Mages would oppose this he

also worked hard to pass laws restricting
the use of Magic. No fool, he knew the
many benefits the magical arts brought to
society and created an Order licensed
organizing of magicians subject to the
oversight of the Order.
While it took time to consolidate the Orders
political power, consolidate it Raynold did.
In 45 AA he was able to pass a series of
laws through the Order's political arms
which greatly restricted the ability of magic
users to function in Human society. Raynold
was directly responsible for the
condemnation, arrest and execution of a
large number of League of the Earth
leaders. With this last flexing of the Order's
political muscle it became apparent to the
few remaining noble families who supported
the League that the Order of the White
Cloth had gained full control of all things
governmental. They quickly went in to
hiding and the Order became both the
dominant spiritual and political force.
Today the venerable Raynold rules the
Order from their Great Temple. At 136 years
old he is possibly the oldest human still alive
and one of the few who have had first-hand
experience with the growing undead horde
of 100 years ago. Kept alive through various
healing rights and by staff magicians, recent
rumors say that he himself has succumbed
to a kind of undeath. The Order has had to
spend a large amount of time and money
countering claims that he is the
Necromancer raised again, a zombie
himself or some other supernatural menace.
While still charged with the protection of
humanity from the zombie plague, the Order
is more concerned with exerting their
political force to ensure they are never cast
from power. They are actively working
towards expanding the much dwindled
human kingdom. Raynold and the Order
strictly control all communications between
Order protected settlements and have a
hand in any trading and military actions that
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take place. Many chafe under Raynolds
rule but few can deny that Humankind is
again flourishing.
The League of the Earth seems to be just a
troubling memory, although recent, hard to
quash rumors of a wizardly cure for the
undead plague are becoming harder for the
Order to suppress.
Magic Users
It is a horrible fate we find for ourselves
when we are beset from three sides by the
walking dead and the fourth side by the
agents of our living gods.
Varyon, the last Arch-Mage, 47 AA, at his
execution.
Magic users have little freedom in this new
world. Sorcerers, always rare, have all but
vanished. Wizards, those who seek the
magical arts through learning, have only
three choices open to them. Become slaves
to the Order of the White Cloth, become
renegade and die by the Orders hands
along with all of those you love, or hide the
powers of magic deeply and vanish into a
solitary existence.
With the decree of 45 AA, the Order of the
White Cloth effectively outlawed the use of
magic unless under their direct license. The
magical colleges which had risen to such
status in the past had dwindled and now
found themselves cast out of society.
Individual sorcerers and wizards could
either make themselves known to the Order
and practice their arts under the Order's
suffrage or face dire consequences.
Shortly after the decree of 45 AA the order
declared that they would withdraw their
protection from any communities harboring
unlicensed magic users. Not only would
those communities be cut off from news of
the world provided by Order couriers, but
the Order's clerics in residence would be

withdrawn. Even many small communities
relied on their local Order priest for healing,
and more importantly the ability to destroy
the undead that would daily besiege them.
In the present, this has had a definite effect
on human culture and their views of magic
users. They are viewed at best with
suspicion as both wielders of the arcane
arts and puppets of the Order of the White
Cloth. At worst, they are viewed as
anathema if unlicensed. A practicing magic
user who has not reported themselves to
the Order and is found (and they are often
found) brings death not only on themselves
but those around them.
The Order will first send a team to arrest or
kill the magic user. Once this act is
accomplished, that team will escort any
members of the Order out of that settlement
for a set amount of time; a day, a week or in
severe cases for a decade. This leaves the
settlement essentially without a reliable
means to destroy and repel the undead.
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With this cause and effect relationship firmly
entrenched in society, many people take it
on themselves to report anyone even
suspected of being a magic user or having
magical abilities. False reports are common
and usually politically motivated or
motivated by revenge. The Order takes
some precautions but generally have a
"arrest first, ask questions under the knife
later" policy.
The Order of the White Cloth has created its
own order of mages, known as the White
Magi. They are also known as 'pet mages'.
They are tightly governed by the Order and
are told what magical arts they may
research and use, where to use them and to
what end. Mostly they order uses them as
tertiary soldiers in the fight against the
undead, as enablers and creators of
magical items and potions and lastly as a
research arm. Within the White Magi there
is a strict hierarchy, with the head of local
White Magi groups often filling the dual role
as magic user and ordained priest in the
Order.
White Magi are required to be registered
with the Order, to wear at all times a white
gold forged bracelet with their registration
credentials stamped in to it along with the
Order's seal. Registration Credentials
generally signify the White Magis name and
an identifying seal showing which schools
the White Magi prefers. They are also
required to swear an oath of obedience and
fealty to both the Order as a whole and their
direct superior. White Magi are required to
wear white robes as a symbol of their fealty
to the Order, as well.
There are known enclaves in the deep
wilderness where magic users are said to
practice freely - however no credence has
been given to these rumors by the Order.
Either the enclaves are so far outside the
realm of the Order that they simply cannot
be bothered with them, or they have been
investigated and the rumors found to be

false. In the wilderness where mere survival
is a full time occupation, the ability to study
the magical arts with enough intensity to
move forward in them is virtually unheard of.
Recently this anti-magic stigma has spread
even to the Elves and Dwarves where the
Order plays an increasingly large role in
their politics. Converts from both races have
been numerous and in the past decade the
order has seen a number of temples built in
both Elven and Dwarven enclaves. Attitudes
towards magic users are shifting in both
races towards the paranoia and fear that is
the current norm in the human realm.
Despite this rumor control, two rumors
persist. The first is that a society of 'wild
mages', humans - probably naturally born
sorcerers - has risen in the far north. Further
speculation has this group associating
closely with the newly powerful Orc
Kingdom.
The second rumor is that some part of the
older Colleges of Magic, working with
underground elements of the League of the
Earth have resurfaced. Speculation places
them somewhere in the south, most likely
on one of the thousands of islands
surrounding Aruneus' southern continent.
Not only are these magic users said to be
freely practicing their arts without the
restrictions of the Order but they are said to
be working on a cure, or solution, to the
undead that roam the world.
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Aruneus and Troll in the Corner are a trademark owned by
Benjamin Gerber. All rights reserved.
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