The Sparkle Orc Saga

QUEER HEROES POWERED BY SPARKLES

The Sparkle Orc Sage (TSOS) and of our lore is powered by an internal TTRPG system called Powered By Sparkles and operates in an original anti-colonial, anti-capitalist world. It had been based on DnD 5e but we have moved to a system of our own design that better reflects our values, interests and worldview.  Based on our love of RPGs, action figures, drag, professional wrestling, Ukrainian folklore and indie music the Powered By Sparkles system is an easy to use card based RPG without the crunch. We will be sharing more about this system and the world that it operates in as it develops.

Finding Your Sparkle

Gifted people have a sparkle. A connection to a primary energy source that allows them to do amazing things. As you progress the magnitude of your sparkle will increase giving you new quirks and skills.

Location

Our saga occurs in The Spiral. A vast swirling mass of energy and matter that exists just out of reach of our material plane. The Spiral is the 5th dimensional space that makes up everything beyond what we can see, hear and feel in this world.

The Spiral

The Spiral contains four energy sources that cause it's rotation and that provide the energy for the powers that the characters wield. 

  • The Cosmic Source (Astral Realm): This is the substrate of systems that the Spiral operates on.  It is an endless invisible grid spreading across all that is known.
    • Element: Electricity
    • Concept: Spirit
  • The Primal Source (Wild Realm): The material process and systems that turn matter into life. It wraps itself like vines around the spiral reaching ever further and farther from its source.
    • Element: Stone
    • Concept: Meat
  • The Fae Source (Aetheric Realm) : The heat that energizes matter in the spiral and powers everything in it. It is a swirling vortex plasma storm at the top of the Spiral that consumes all it touches. For those that exist within the protection of its eye however it is a safe space to thrive.
    • Element: Fire
    • Concept: Mind
  • The Fel Source (Abyssal Realm): The decay and decline of all that exists. It is a whirlpool at the base of the spiral slowly consuming everything into an infinitely dark, dense point from which there is no return.
    • Element: Water
    • Concept: Heart
  • The Material Plane: The material plane is surrounded by an event horizon that makes travel between the two planes impossible. Some things like consciousness, magic, music and art can transcend this plane and make it to the outer realms but the trip is one way, as far as we know...

Getting To the Spiral

There is much debate amongst nerds about the pathway from the material to the outer realm.  While the most common paths of via meditative enlightenment or death are well understood there are many exit methods that are essentially unknown.  Once your consciousness knows that there is more than just the physical realm it undergoes a rapid and violent expansion that shoots you out of the material plane and into the aether. Your body is gone, the life you knew is gone. Some spirts never return to the physical trappings of The Spiral.  They choose to join the synths and explore, Others look to return to a body.  There are two known ways to acquire a body:

  • Starseed: You fall from the sky like a comet into a dead body that is vacant of its spirit. You revitalize the body and retain much of who you were in the material plane. 
  • Awoken:  You inhabit a naturally/magically conceived being and live your new life until one day you awake to flashes of memories of your old life and new powers.  The process of awakening is different for everyone who undergoes it. Many retain everything of who they were, others merge their two lives into one and some only retain the occasional memory of who they once were. 

Realms

Within the spiral are pockets of matter and energy floating like bubbles in the aetheric sea. These bubbles of matter and energy are often controlled, protected and managed by great beings and societies. It is in these safe pockets that life has thrived.

The Churn

Every few thousand years the spiral undergoes a violent and terrible period of turbulence that causes realms to rise/fall or be created/destroyed. There is great debate as to the true causes of each churn but it is often the result of an extreme imbalance in the sources caused by the actions of one or more people. 

The Fae Realms

The Realm Of Oko

On it's surface Oko is a queer utopia. It rose during the last churn about 1000 years ago from an impoverished graveyard ruled by an evil despot of the Fel, into a realm of the Fae on the edge of the firestorm.  Below the idlic fields and quaint villages are a land and people that still bear many scars from the prior era but it is healing in the calm protection of the Fae realm.

Oko is home to the Endless Song. A group of thousands who sing a magical melody for the lost, the marginalized and the queer. The Endless Song reverberates throughout all of the planes, calling those who can hear it to a new home, a safer home. 

Oko is ruled democratically by a council with Hrar as it's voice in the Fae Court. Hrar lives in the city of White Tusk (first city of the fae).

White Tusk: First City of the Fae

Built on and in the giant tusk of the primordial leviathan; White Tusk rises from the Quiet Ocean. Using advanced alchemy the nearly indestructible tusk has been altered and hollowed creating a sculpted city on its interior.  On the exterior giant rings encircle the tusk from the days before it was possible to carve into the ivory. White tusk is a major port city and the centre of trade, worship and power for the land of Oko. Called the first city of the Fae due to Oko's location on the outermost periphery of the Fae realm; White Tusk is often the first place travellers stop when entering the Fae realm.

Areas
  • The Raft: A wooden ring at the base of white tusk.  It is home to a bustling port where ships of all types doc and do trade.
  • The Steel Quarters: A steel ring that sits above the raft. This area is where most shops and homes sit.
  • The Green Belt: A series of hanging gardens that provide food and shade for the populace.
  • The Golden Ring: Located at the tip of the tusk the gold ring is home to the Parliament of Oko and religious temples.
  • The Boneway: Located underneath the waves the Boneway is the newest area of White Tusk and it extends into the depths of the bay, providing a home for the aquatic people of the city.
  • Central: Located within the tusk is the hollowed out inner city of White Tusk. It contains a labyrinthian spiral of homes and businesses surrounding a hollow core that rises to the tip of the tusk and the Golden Ring. 
Chorus: The City of the Endless Song

Located in the caldera of a now extinct volcano Chorus was founded to ensure the continuation of the Endless Song. Home to thousands of musicians and support works each has been called there by the song.

The Fel Realms

Darkhawk: Last City of the Fel

Floating over the lip of the abyssal vortex Darkhawk is the city of the lost and discarded. Made up of the abandoned refuse of societies and realms that have fallen into the abyss Darkhawk has long been the last chance for survival for those tumbling towards almost certain doom.

A den of cutthroat survivors, the city is ruled by crime bosses and smuggler rings who have grown fat and powerful off the discards of the fallen. The city's rocky wings spread out like a hawk circling in the wind and at the top sits the Maw.

The Maw is a notorious fighting arena that hangs over oblivion. Shaped like an open beak crowds from all over the wastes come to watch the brutal fights.

Background Origins

The Spiral is populated by many sentient peoples.  The Powered By Sparkles system included 12 different backgrounds that you can mix and match giving your character special abilities and unique appearances.

  • Hoblin: Hairy and long armed cousins to orcs and goblins. Often the keepers of arcane knowledge.
  • Orc: Versatile and strong Orcs can be found across the spiral. The realm of Oko has been considered the home realm of the orcs for the last thousand years.
  • Gobby: Tiny and clever the goblins are known for being expert crafters.
  • Tuph: Fragments of a great sentient mountain destroyed millennia ago. Tuph's are silicon based lifeforms. Tuphs often take on the physical chartachaeristics of the stones and rocks where they live.
  • Mek: Created by the abandoned cosmic clockwork city of the elves. Little is known of the mek, for they are rarely seen outside the far reaches of the cosmic realm.
  • Synth: The evolved form of the elven people. Synths are beings of pure energy and do not often concern themselves with the trials and tribulations of the flesh. There are some that miss the physical world and venture back from the stars, operating helmet like podships that project hard light bodies that allow them to interact with other peoples safely.
  • Harfoot: Short and endlessly adaptive the harfoot are known for being the masters of hospitality and the life of the party. With thick soles and hairy hands/feet the harfoots have settled across the spiral wherever there is good food, black soil and fresh air.
  • Goo: Ranging from mindless carnivores to super-colony hive minds, goos can be found throughout the Infinite Dungeon.  Unable to create brain cells most goo start out small and simple attracted by light and movement. As a goo feeds it re-purposes any brain matter it consumes to be distributed out across its form. Often mirroring its chosen prey in both shape and behaviour Goos can be very dangerous when encountered. Eventually if enough brain matter is consumed sentience is achieved and the Goo becomes enlightened. These intelligent people often become heroes and defenders of realms to make up for their carnivorous past.
  • Fairy: Tiny, winged and very dangerous. Often displaying insect like features such as wings claws and mandibles fairy folk tend to avoid other peoples preferring to live in the deep woods of the Wild.
  • Kobold: These small dragon like beings populate much of the Fel.
  • Troll: Each troll is a sentient collective of plants, lichen and other organics that have formed a single being. Trolls often take on the appearance of local flora.  Incredible regeneration abilities and nearly impossible to kill so long as a part of it remains.  
  • Primal: Beast people who have one or more trails based on a primordial beast. 

ORCS

Every being with a connection to a power source manifests one of 12 different Sparkles that relates to a skill.  As you increase the magnitude of your sparkle, you level up by acquiring new ability cards.  The 12 skills fall under one of four domains Oddity, Resolve, Capability and Strength (ORCS). The total score of your ORCS is the sum of number of ability cards you hold for the skills under that domain. You use these scores when performing ability checks.

Domains

  • Oddity 
    • Knowledge/Nerd: Spells
    • Awareness/Alchemist: Alterations
    • Eccentricity/Vidma: Harbringers
  • Resolve
    • Resilience/Zealot: Defenses
    • Discipline/Gladiator: Attacks
    • Spirit/Catalyst: Vibes
  • Capability
    • Lure/Shepherd: Shifts
    • Cunning/Hacker: Tricks
    • Talent/Prodigy: Inspirations
  • Strength
    • Velocity/Kozak: Movements
    • Power/Colossus: Amplifiers
    • Intensity/Berzerker: Bursts

Magnitudes

As you progress through adventures you will level up and increase the magnitude of your sparkle. Selecting new abilities under whatever skill you choose.  This system is built to allow for multi-classing and/or fun optimization.  For example you can be the nerdiest nerd by putting all your energy into acquiring spells or you can take a more balanced approach and be a spell-sword fighter by splitting your energy between knowledge, discipline and power. 

Unpowered people exist across the spiral. Most beings you will meet start at a magnitude of 4. These first 4 skills are the result of your origin selection.  

ARC

Most adventurers are equipped with a symbiotic device called an ARC.  As you progress and increase your magnitude your arc will reflect your choices. This magitech provides you with:

  • Personal stats
  • A dimensional pocket that can contain weapons or supplies
  • High speed projectile force field
  • Readouts on other's skills and abilities
  • Warning of known hazards
  • Local communication with others who have ARC units
  • News and updates from across the spiral

Sign up for more information on the system and release here.