World and Characters

Like many RPGs, The Pale City places an emphasis on its characters comparable to a novel. Here are some of the most important you’ll meet as you explore the world!

Vasek

The player-character, recently returned to life as a mercenary. No one would ever call him a hero. Vasek is cold, practical, consumed with anger at the world and himself. He speaks with a blunt, brutal honesty, and doesn’t hesitate to kill.

Ognjen

The worst kind of killer. It would be easy to despise him, if only Ognjen did not remind Vasek so much of himself.

Katasia

A mercenary who seems (unthinkably) to have training in magic. She’s likable and friendly, but dangerous—Vasek still doesn’t know if he can trust her.

Kleist

The most feared criminal in the Sink, and the most dangerous. They say he can be two places at once; that he hears things no one can possibly hear; that there is nothing more dangerous than owing him a debt.

Locations

The world of The Pale City city is a very old, very strange place, one where humanity has just barely survived the attempted murder of existence. It will not be easy for Vasek to visit these places. But he must do his best.

THE SINK

The poorest area on the platform, and the most dangerous. For whole lifetimes it has teetered somewhere between law and anarchy—though anarchy seems more likely to win. Vasek lived here for many years, and had hoped never to return. But life is cruel; and our hopes, meaningless.

THE TOWER DISTRICT

The home of Melchior the Silent, the most human of the gods, who some believe created the platform and everything on it. Many spend their lives below His tower, asking questions He refuses to answer. Yet somehow, Vasek has spoken to Him before.

THE PIT

An immense wound gouged into the surface of the platform, infested with monsters, where a weary god sleeps. Naked madmen come here to die, covered in their own feces, mumbling nonsense as they kneel in the dust

THE HOUSE OF LIFE

A cult of immortality, the eaters of the dead. Vasek was once employed by them, hunting corpses in the tunnels; but left years ago, for reasons he is too ashamed to speak of.

Monsters

The Nyhlloghast

A very old, very powerful creature from another world, imprisoned against its will to guard a dead king.

THE SOTHOMIR

A ruthless, predatory creature that has hunted a whole wilderness clean of prey—including others of its own species! The more it eats, the more it grows, the more frenzied it becomes. Many have attempted to slay it in the past. All of them failed.

THE NYARLATHOTEP

A distillation of human pain, haunting a man who no longer speaks.