The Black Emperor

While the world at large is still a mystery to most of the populace, the Southern Islands harbour many strange and wonderful things. Those who have visited return with stories of curious beasts, strange magics, and cults worshipping Gods of otherworldly candour.

One such returnee, name lost through deliberate effort, brought the knowledge of a strange religion called The Brotherhood of the Black Emperor - worshippers of a strange being which collects knowledge beyond the understanding of man, and grants his followers glimpses of such knowledge in return for the most minor of information.

Or so it seems. Such secrets seem to hold much greater power than one may expect - a single witnessed dalliance may lead to the downfall of a prominent figure, the location of a stolen trinket can put an enemy of the cult behind bars... The sight of the Black Emperor is indeed far reaching.

Some members of the Brotherhood claim to have met with The Black Emperor, or at least a representative. Ghoulishly thin, awkwardly proportioned, dressed in leathery rags and obsessed with secrets, the reports are consistent, and paint a horrific image of a being with far too much of a created interest in humanity...

The Black Emperor is more of a background piece, but after finding the Denizen of Leng on the PFSRD, I now want wandering Aspects of this thing to be encountered, paying for secrets with weird spells and magic items, all with a nice price attached...

Quote from: PiebaldWookie;817042The Black Emperor

While the world at large is still a mystery to most of the populace, the Southern Islands harbour many strange and wonderful things. Those who have visited return with stories of curious beasts, strange magics, and cults worshipping Gods of otherworldly candour.

One such returnee, name lost through deliberate effort, brought the knowledge of a strange religion called The Brotherhood of the Black Emperor - worshippers of a strange being which collects knowledge beyond the understanding of man, and grants his followers glimpses of such knowledge in return for the most minor of information.

Or so it seems. Such secrets seem to hold much greater power than one may expect - a single witnessed dalliance may lead to the downfall of a prominent figure, the location of a stolen trinket can put an enemy of the cult behind bars... The sight of the Black Emperor is indeed far reaching.

Some members of the Brotherhood claim to have met with The Black Emperor, or at least a representative. Ghoulishly thin, awkwardly proportioned, dressed in leathery rags and obsessed with secrets, the reports are consistent, and paint a horrific image of a being with far too much of a created interest in humanity...

The Black Emperor is more of a background piece, but after finding the Denizen of Leng on the PFSRD, I now want wandering Aspects of this thing to be encountered, paying for secrets with weird spells and magic items, all with a nice price attached...

Nice, and very much in line with Black Company feel.

If you want a slightly inhuman City - State, here's a leader of one from my Greek - based D&D campaign:

Arachnos, the God - Tyrant.

Born to a woman cursed by gods for her skill (I obviously went with myth of Arachne, but twist as necessary), Arachnos was born an abomination - a man with face of a spider. In time, as he grew, his natural powers developed - nowadays, he can exert control over any spider in great vicinity of himself, as well as turn into two different forms, a gargantuan spider and half - man, half - spider abomination.

In addition to the powers of his bloodline, he is an extremely powerful necromancer. Some say he has sacrificed his own wife to gain the secrets of the dark arts. Her ghost is rumoured to haunt Lefuma (the city he conquered) at night, and bears the key to Arachnos' power, that could unmake him. However, so far none has discovered that rumour to be true - and many agents have tried, as nearby city - states rulers consider Arachnos not only an abomination and blasphemer, but a dangerous upstart. Despite that however, Arachnos is mostly beloved by his subjects - Lefuma was very much an unstable state before, with aristocracy taking all. Now, even the poorest man gets a share of grain enough to live, and there's much work to be had in glass factories as well as weave industry, as multitudes of spiders (with the largest only seen by Arachnos' priests) living in great spider farms of the city produce astonishing amounts of spidersilk, from which most resistant clothes can be fashioned.

In his human form, Arachnos is a tall, black man with face always covered with a thick, silk veil, which hangs from an ornate, silver diadem. He always wears a robe of fine, red cloth, that under closer examination, appears to be made from spiderweb, and the robe has surprised many assassins' daggers with it's hardness. The giant spider form is over two and a half meters large as well, with huge fangs dripping with poison. The most dangerous form however, is the hybrid one - with eight legs of a spider and large, muscular torso of an ogre, he easily wields a greatsword in each of his hands.

The city he rules, very much resembles the soul of it's tyrant - while he is a benevolent ruler, the city is gloomy, set in the swamps and with foul stench of glass and dye industry causing everyone to constantly wear perfumed veils, which are mark of a citizenship and rank in the city - the more ornate, the higher one stands.

By the way, in regard to that whole Black Emperor - I've been playing a bit of Hand of Fate lately, and I think a gambler who plays with people for power with their memories, where a lost game ends in player's death, is definitely a character that'd fit.