Balistigae
The Balistigae were the largest and most powerful of the old state-sanctioned mystery cults, in the unnamed polis that would eventually birth both the White City and the Old Capital. They are said to be the direct progenitors of the White City Pragmatists, and their fearsome methods of total war. Their temples were built as far underground as possible, and initiates were infamous for seeking out fissures and cave systems, declaring them sacred sites, and murdering those who tried to explore them.
The Balistigaeic mysteries were not preserved, and the specifics of their rituals and observances have been lost to history.
Maybe they still exist down there, sealed into those strange, airless boxes, eating black earth and filth, waiting and waiting and staring at nothing.
Balistigae Initiate
Corded muscle, straining necks, staring eyes. Black teeth and gums. Steel feet and steel faces. They lie perfectly, perfectly still in the silence beneath the earth.
HD1, steel boots (can kick as a light weapon, or stomp someone prone as a medium weapon), steel arbalest (d10), ritual garb: a steel facemask, scented-linen wraps at the shoulders, thighs, biceps, and throat (AC 12), movement: as human with supernatural rock climbing skills, disposition: silent, patient, slow and then really fast.
Paranoia: Balistigae are never surprised. They can see invisible things, and also see through illusions.
Patience: With focus, Balistigae can still their metabolism completely. If they don't move or think, they can remain alive indefinitely without food or water. In this state, they do not age. It takes about 24 hours of concentration to do it. They are dimly conscious of changes and stimuli in their surroundings, but not of the passage of time.
Earth Eater: Balistigae can eat soil and clay as rations. If they drink a waterskin's worth of petroleum, they gain a second attack in melee for 24 hours.
A Fighter can make use of the steel boots if they see them used in a combat - to anyone else they are just heavy, practical footwear.
Balistigae Hierophant
As above except HD3, and with the following equipment: steel boots (can kick as a light weapon, or stomp someone prone as a medium weapon), steel arbalest (d10), ritual garb: eyes replaced with gems (they can see perfectly in the dark), otherwise naked (unarmoured).
In addition:
Eater of Base Materials: A Balistigae Hierophant can eat stone and gems as rations, and can do this indefinitely without defecating or otherwise expelling matter. It would take one about a day to get through a bucket full of diamonds. They are very focused on destroying wealth this way (gems, not currency, which they don't care about). If you have at least 1000s worth gems on your person, and you willingly give them up for consumption, they will tell you their secret.
The Secret of the Balistigae: It's a mental technique - a way of destroying your own cognitive processes such that you will never be resurrected, or brought into any future, God's or otherwise, after death. When they tell you the secret, it sows this seed in your brain (you don't understand it and can't repeat it) - but by itself the seed doesn't function. To get it to work, you will need to spend at least a month training and studying with the Balistigae. Once you have the understanding, you can trigger the effect yourself at any time (even seconds before death) with a series of mental cues. When you do, you immediately suffer -2 to all mental stats, but it works as advertised. As a side effect of the training, you can no longer be surprised and have advantage on any checks to see through illusions.
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Volcano Men As commoners/bandits/men at arms, but live on the slopes of active volcanoes. Don't mind heat (although not fire resistant) and can breathe sulphur fumes as well as oxygen. Their breath is poisonous if allowed to concentrate.
They mine asbestos and make armour out of it, which they sell at a premium. Asbestos armour is heavy/medium armour -1 that lets you handle or walk on (or be pressed against) red hot substances without damage, and grants resistance against radiant fire damage like fireballs or dragon breath. It's made from plates of pale, stone-like ceramic woven into a flexible underlayer, and usually also incorporates metal fixings and reinforcement, but nowhere that the metal would touch the skin of the wearer.
Volcano Men like colourful gems, and love to accept them as payment for their goods. They grow crops of fantastic size with a combination of greenhouses and volcanic sediment deposits - mostly huge alien-looking fruits and cactuses, all of them edible, many of them hallucinogenic.
They know when volcanoes are going to erupt. They are famously good shots with muskets, and favour a skirmishing and harassing style of engagement when threatened. They don't get along with the Mountaineers, with whom they share territory - Volcano Man jokes will often feature some self-righteous God Warrior getting shot dead in the middle of a preening display of martial arts mastery.
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Dread Generals Partisans and refugees from a forgotten kingdom, once great, conquered and ground to ash by the armies of the White City. The Dread Generals are all that remain of its military, and they still wage hopeless wars against the occupying Imperial powers. They wear heavy black iron plate armour, with helmets that look like skulls, and carry cruel maces. They are famous as sorcerers and torturers, unkillable, proud and terrible, impossible to reason with. They were undefeated in the field before the White City got involved. Then they were field troops, and fought in massed formations of heavy infantry; now they are the commanders of rag tag 'armies' of desperate outlaws, who still swear fealty to a country that hasn't existed for decades. The commanders are old now, but those that remain (there are said to be eight of them) have been driven to obsessive mania by their hatred of their enemy.
HD4, heavy black mace, light athame (poisoned, save CON for paralysis), skull helmet black plate armour, speed as human, disposition: proud, old, cruel, dangerous. Mesmerism: if you lock eyes with a Dread General, you must save CHAR or take -1 to all rolls for the rest of the combat, or until you kill them. This stacks each round. Impossible to avoid in combat unless you shut your eyes and intentionally blind yourself. Army Without Hope: A Dread General, along with any troops they command, will have taken a zombifying draught before combat starts, unless you take them by surprise. This makes them immune to pain and fear, impossible to talk to or reason with, and gives them -1 to initiative rolls. The effects usually last for one hour. Prolonged use fucks you up permanently, and many of the soldiers and all of the Generals show the symptoms: slurred speech, clouded eyes, dulled emotions, a feeling of unreality, or of becoming unstuck in time.
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