The Old Blood

One of the stranger things about Vathak is the relatively recent (in the setting's timeline) removal of most traditional fantasy races from the stage. There are no noble, long-lived elves unraveling the mysteries of magic and nature. There are no dwarven craftsmen, building fortresses to shield civilization against chaos. There are no orcs to fill that ancient, tired trope of barbaric warrior tribes.

In Vathak, these roles are filled instead by people. As I've told my players, the vast majority of Vathak is at least half-human (except for the svirfneblin, who are unnerving in their own right). The removal of traditional fantasy races puts that focus back upon humanity. The nature of mankind (used loosely here) and that hidden darkness or light inside of everyone is a big part of what defines Vathak.

This is a world rocked by a very real war with very unreal enemies—and yet, life goes on. The stories of these survivors are horrors of their own, a personal sort of horror that comes with the relatively “safe” Grigoria my players have been adventuring through. Unveiling the monsters are living among us is in many ways more horrifying than plundering a tomb of restless dead.

There is no shortage of evil in the hearts of man.

But more practically, as a GM, the absence of the old blood gives a way to bring players into Vathak. This simple departure from the norm of fantasy roleplaying game is a step into the world of discomfiture. Already, as players, we are taken out of our comfort zone of Tolkein-esque dwarves and elves, knights of shining armor and villains of blackened platemail, and stories of pure good and evil. And when they do appear, however rarely that may be, they can be used as touchstones to subvert expectation: restless elven spirits forever lost in the wilderness and unable to find homes that no longer exist, or crumbling dwarven citadels now used as fortified temples to the Old Ones.

Vathak lives and thrives in those strange, gray spaces that make your PCs uncomfortable (and your players, probably, though hopefully not too much!) and gives them a stage upon which to shine. They can shine as beacons of hope and goodness, or fall into the plentiful corruptions and depravities that rot Vathak from the core.

More likely, your PCs will evolve as characters much like ourselves: creatures defined not by a single aspect of their alignment, but ultimately flawed and perpetually in flux. Still, they hold onto that which they deem good in an attempt, however futile, to do what they think is right.

And that, I think, is very Vathak.