Beta Rulebook 0.

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 I call on the Outcast: lend us thy protection!
I call on the Forgotten God: lend us thy wisdom!
I call on the Dioscori: lend us your compassion!
—The last invocation of Hermes Trismegistus

2
 Beta Rulebook 0.6
This is an early-access version of the rulebook without any illustrations and
additional reference sheets.
The final layout and format might change during the production period.

Georg Hobmeier
Project Director

Christian Knapp
Financial Director

Daniel Adams & James Patton

Game Design & Writing

Eliot Baum & Viv Tanner

Illustration & Graphic Design

Zsombor Sváb
Layout & Production

Copyright © 2023
by Viv Tanner, Eliot Baum, James Patton Games e.U. & Causa Creations Interactive Media GmbH

All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or
mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval)
without permission in writing from the publisher.

Blades in the Dark™ is a trademark of One Seven Design. The Forged in the Dark Logo is
© One Seven Design, and is used with permission.

Early Access Edition, 2023

www.sefirot.games
[email protected]
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 Table of Contents

I. Introduction IV. Characters and Classes

The Setting 8 Character Creation 37
Introductions39
II. Running The Game Choosing a mascot 39
Introduce Dioscoria 9 On Dioscorian Agents 40
The Deck 9 Ethical concerns 40
A Summary of Play 10 Practical concerns 40
Downtime10 Classes and Abilities 41
Scenario Divination  10 Ability terminology 41
Playing the Scenario  10 The Occultist 42
Wrapping Up 10 The Illusionist 44
Campaign structure 11 The Hunter 46
The Champion 48
III. Game Rules The Prowler 50
Skills12 The Scoundrel 52
Fortune cards 13 The Performer 54
Ideals and burdens 13 The Siphoner 56
Vices, virtues, and the core self 13 Item Descriptions 58
Challenge resolution 14 Generic items 58
Failing challenges 16 Occultist 59
Complications16 Illusionist59
Hunter60
Using fortune cards during challenges 17
Champion60
Suit bonuses to fortune cards 18
Prowler60
Using ideals or burdens during challenges 18 Scoundrel60
Using vices or virtues during challenges 18 Performer61
Player versus player challenges 19 Siphoner61
Group actions 20
Harm22 V. The Cycle of Play
Trauma22 Downtime63
Harm consequences 22 Vices cause harm 64
Abilities23 Contacts drift away 64
Magical abilities 23 Character transformation 64
Creating a new burden or ideal 65
Experience points 23
Losing Burdens and Ideals 65
Visions24 Downtime actions 66
Triggering visions 24 Heal harm 66
Visions of the future 24 Train66
Items and inventory 25 Make preparations 66
Using items 25 Reflect on burden or ideal 67
Load25 Visit contact 67
Adversaries26 Make new contact 68
Adversary plot progress 26 Scenario Divination 69
Magic 28 To plan or improvise? 69
Preparing a scenario ahead of time 70
What is magic? 28
Improvising a scenario 71
Dioscoria and magic 28
The divination ritual 72
Using magic in scenario play 29
Magical proficiencies 29
Playing the Scenario 74
Cut to the action 74
Changes30
The scenario 74
Non-player allies 74
Narrative thresholds 75

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 Wrapping Up 76 VIII. Cities of the Sixteenth Century
Agent relationships 76 Overview of a century 114
Distilling experience 76
London116
Advance adversaries 77
Districts118
Defeating adversaries 77
Locations and monuments 120
Answering violence 77
Notable groups 121
The world changes 78
History121
Final cleanup 78
Culture122
Ending a season 79
Geopolitics123
VI. Advice for Seers Further reading 123
Atmosphere and style 80 Common names of the region 123
Wielding the Pips Deck 80 Lisbon124
Divination atmosphere 80 Districts126
Clocks 81 Locations and monuments 127
Challenges82 Notable groups 128
Scaling difficulty over a campaign 82 History128
Complications and warnings 83 Culture129
Flexible benefits and consequences 83 Geopolitics129
Dealing with advanced rules 84 Further reading 130
Narrative thresholds 84 Common names of the region 130
Visions 84 Venice132
Subverting visions 84 Districts 134
Unfinished visions 84 Locations and monuments 135
Holding back vision information 85 Notable groups 136
Agents 86 Culture136
Losing virtues 86 History137
Items and load 86 Geopolitics137
Harming Agents 86 Further reading 138
Bonus xp 86 Common names of the region 138
Storytelling 87 Konstantiniyye (“Istanbul”) 140
The Vision Deck as Inspiration 87 Districts 142
Exploiting narrative opportunities 87 Locations and monuments 144
Using chance within scenarios 87 Notable groups 144
History 145
VII. The City of Dioscoria Culture 145
Dioscorian History and Culture 89
Geopolitics 146
Origins 89
Further reading 146
Political Development 89
Common names of the region 146
The Seven Veiled Havens 90
Qazvin 148
An impression of the city 96
Districts150
Final thoughts 112
Locations and monuments 151
Notable groups 152
History152
Culture153
Geopolitics 154
Further reading 154
Common names of the region: 154

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 Table of Contents

IX. Magical creatures

Islamic and Turkish creatures 156
European creatures 156
Common creatures 157

X. Appendices & References

Alternate Play Mode: Seer-less mode 158
Alternate Play Mode: Solitaire mode 159
Solo characters 159
Character creation 159
Origin scenarios 160
Generating an origin scenario 160
Playing an origin scenario 161
After the origin scenario 161
Rule changes for Solitaire Mode 162
Questioning Fate 163
Open Fate questions 163
Numerical Fate Questions 163
Closed Fate Questions 164
Extreme answers 164
Random Events 165
Non-player characters 168
Creating non-player characters 168
Controlling non-player characters 168
Companions169
Creating a companion 169
Playing with a companion 169
Tips for solitaire play 169

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 I. Introduction

The Hidden Isle is a pen and paper RPG that uses Tarot cards instead of
dice. The game is set in the sixteenth century on the island of Dioscoria: a
secret city of magicians, adventurers and free thinkers. The game focuses
on roleplaying and collaborative storytelling, and has mechanics to ex-
plore character growth, expanding and contracting its narrative focus as
you play, from tight, intense character moments, up to broad card draws
inspiring the fates of nations.
This is a game about swashbuckling adventures across Europe and the
Middle East, stealing forbidden texts from oppressive regimes, protecting
an island of outcasts using ancient magic, and toppling an empire with
just the right speech at just the right time.
Guided by the Seer (the game master), Agents (players) use Tarot cards
to construct their character’s backstory, determine the spiritual burden
they carry, and choose the ideal they strive for. As Agents of Dioscoria,
players head out into the world to defend the island’s values: protecting
the helpless and preserving knowledge.
If you are familiar with Tarot then The Hidden Isle will resonate with you
all the more, but no experience with Tarot is necessary. To help you feel
like a mystical oracle and stay inspired, we’ve provided you with tables
and guides (at the end of this book) to help you quickly understand each
card draw.

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 Dioscoria: a hidden isle of sages, ancient wisdom, adventurers and mys-
The Setting tics. Within the walls of this secret city are gathered the misunderstood,
the persecuted, those unjustly punished for the way they live. Here they
can flourish, and—when they are ready—return to the world to wage
their secret war against injustice and ignorance.
It is a dangerous and disrupted time. Europe has embraced the innova-
tion of gunpowder, and is using it to tear itself apart along religious lines.
The Ottoman Empire is poised to break either Vienna to its west or the
Safavid Empire to its east. European colonizers are spreading along the
coastlines of the world like a hungry parasite. The Inquisition accuses,
tortures and executes its victims across the Catholic world.
It is also a world of alchemy and sorcery. English magicians pry the mys-
teries of the stars. Ottoman scholars unravel the hidden design of the
creator. Dioscorian mystics have mastered techniques to peer beyond the
veil of time, and steer the world towards sanity.
Into this maelstrom step the Agents of Dioscoria: its actors, magicians,
assassins and paladins stand ready to defend the helpless and preserve
wisdom. As these Agents tackle scheme after scheme, and topple tyrants,
cults and demonic forces, will they live up to their ideal selves, or em-
brace the darker parts of their humanity?

8
II. Running The Game

Introduce Dioscoria
Before you begin, you should tell everyone about the game’s setting. Tell
them a little about Dioscoria, and the world of the sixteenth century. At
the very least, we recommend reading the “Introduction” section out loud
to the group.

The Deck
The Hidden Isle is played using a standard deck of Tarot cards. Before you
begin, split the deck into two smaller decks:
• The “Pips” deck is made up of the Minor Arcana cards (the pentacle,
sword, wand and cup cards) from Ace to ten.
• The “Vision” deck is made up of all remaining cards: the Major Ar-
cana and the Court Cards (the pages, knights, queens and kings).
When a card is drawn, we find it best if the Seer fans the deck and allows
the player to pick their card. When a card is discarded, it should be shuf-
fled back into the deck it came from.
Note: If you are using the Sefirot Tarot deck, be aware this deck comes with
three options for The Lovers card. Select one Lovers card, and remove the other
two from the game.
For experienced Tarot users:
The Hidden Isle can be played with any deck of Tarot cards as long as the
Pips deck is comprised of numbered cards from Ace to ten. If your deck
uses non-standard suits, you will have to decide which suits are associated
with which skills. (See “Games rules / Skills”.) If your deck has non-stand-
ard Major Arcana or Court Cards you will not be able to use the stand-
ard divinatory tables or guides, but this will not pose a problem as long
as you understand the spiritual meaning of your cards and can interpret
them for players.

9
A Summary of Play Playing the Scenario
This section briefly explains how a typical session of The Agents travel to the mission’s location. They are
The Hidden Isle unfolds. You will find more detailed in- granted passage on one of Dioscoria’s merchant ships to
formation about each step in later sections of the book. travel the world without drawing attention to themselves.
A session progresses as follows: By the time the scenario begins, the Agents know their
• Downtime goal and are poised to pursue their first lead. The rest
of the scenario will be a conversation and improvised
• Scenario Divination performance between the Agents and the Seer as the
• Playing the scenario Agents attempt to achieve their goal and the Seer in-
• Wrapping up troduces obstacles, opportunities, and challenges.
(See “The Cycle of Play / Playing the scenario”.)
Note: We feel confident that groups who follow this session
template will generate engaging, character-driven stories
without needing to modify the game’s format. However, Wrapping Up
since The Hidden Isle is more focused on collaborative story-
telling than mechanical number crunching, Seers should feel Once the scenario is complete, all that remains is
free to play any extra scenes they feel are necessary to allow to wrap things up by exploring Agent relationships,
players to tell their story. awarding experience points, and noting how the world,
and your adversaries, change.
(See “The Cycle of Play / Wrapping up”.)
Downtime
Before receiving the divination that reveals their next
mission, the Agents have some time to spend in
Dioscoria: meeting friends or making new ones, train-
ing in their chosen skills and magical proficiencies, or
tending to injuries received on a previous mission.

Scenario Divination
Agents are given missions by a Dioscorian Oracle,
played by the Seer. The Agents walk into a darkened
room, cave or tent, and consult the Oracle. Smolder-
ing incense fills the air, and the light of a single candle
casts flickering shadows on the walls. The Oracle per-
forms a Tarot spread, divining the nature of the mis-
sion to come: its location, potential hazards, and other
pertinent information. The Council claim that by seek-
ing divine guidance, Dioscoria avoids human error and
is able to send Agents exactly where they are needed.

10
Campaign structure
The Hidden Isle can easily be played as a series of “one-shot” adventures,
where each scenario has nothing to do with prior or future scenarios.
However, the systems and structure of the game have been designed to
thrive on character development and a larger narrative arc where each
scenario forms part of a longer “season”, like in a TV show.
When you create your characters, your first season begins. This season
tells the story of a mysterious adversary, who comes to dominate your
efforts and endanger Dioscoria or the world at large. When an adversary
is summarily defeated, this may mark the end of a season, and may also
coincide with the end of your Agents’ terms of Dioscorian service. At this
point, you are free to establish them as a career Agent and follow their
journey further, or to retire your Agent and create a new character.
There is also no reason you shouldn’t drop a character that no longer in-
terests you, or roleplay a scene where an Agent abandons Dioscoria and
the Hand to return to the mainland. If you decide to retire a character
like this, simply create a new one for the next session: the Dioscorian
Council will soon find a replacement Agent.

11
 III. Game Rules

Each Agent faces challenges during the scenario by using one of twelve
Skills

skills divided into four suits.

Swords represent wits, strength, and applying your mental abilities.
• Skirmish Sword fighting, grappling, short-range shooting
• Convince Persuasion, rhetoric, coercing
• Study Focused research, getting a read on someone
Wands represent creativity, passion, and magic.
• Unleash Brutal fighting, furious argument, destruction
• Perform Singing, playing music, acting or disguising yourself
• Channel Using or sensing magic
Cups represent subtlety, emotion, and conversation.
• Slip Stealth, acrobatics, sneak attacks
• Soothe Healing, allaying fears, using bodily energies
• Mingle Blending into crowds, socializing, making friends
Pentacles represent exchange, appraising, and attention to detail.
• Finesse Lockpicking, pickpocketing, long-range shooting, tinkering
• Bargain Making deals, finding compromises, manipulating
• Survey Getting a general impression, scouting

Skills are flexible: the summaries above are suggestions for how these
skills could be used, but they are intended to be used creatively.
Note: Every character receives training from Dioscoria in each of these areas.
You can use a skill even if you have zero points in it.
Example: Sariah is attempting to sneak backstage during a performance. She
could choose the ‘convince’ skill to use a clever argument to explain her presence,
use the ‘perform’ skill to act like she belongs there, or perhaps the ‘mingle’ skill to
blend in with the crowd. While all three actions attempt to accomplish the same
thing, and have a lot of cross-over, choosing a different skill allows Agents to
change the narrative flavor of how they are acting.

12
Fortune cards
Each player has a fortune hand. This is a hand of pip cards that can be
used to avert failure during a challenge, for yourself or another Agent.
Note: Keep your fortune hand to yourself! Only you are allowed to see it.

Ideals and burdens

Agents are not perfect machines: they are human beings with rich, tu-
multuous inner lives. These inner aspects are represented by an Agent’s
ideal and burden.
Your ideal is a version of yourself you wish to become, but struggle to live
up to. Embodying your ideal will take patience and inner strength, but
will yield great rewards.
Your burden is a character flaw or habit that you lean on in times of cri-
sis: an aspect of your worst self. Giving in to your burden will pay off in
the short term, but may harm you in the long run.

Vices, virtues, and the core

self
At the bottom of the character sheet are three boxes labeled “Vices”, “Vir-
tues” and “Core self”. These represent aspects of the Agent’s personality
deeper than their burden and ideal. The burden and ideal are what they
struggle with, but their virtues, vices and core self are what they
have become.
A vice is simply a burden that has been fully leveled; similarly, a virtue is
a fully leveled ideal.
(See “Downtime / Character transformation” for more details.)
Note: There is no limit to an Agent’s vices. During the downtime phase, each vice
harms the Agent. Vices can be removed by converting them into ideals.
If an Agent gains more than three virtues, they must move the excess into the
“Fulfilled virtues” section of their core self.

13
 Challenge resolution
Dioscorian missions are full of challenges. A challenge is when an Agent
attempts to do something non-trivial such as picking a lock, fighting an
enemy, performing a difficult piece of music, or convincing a guard to
leave their post. Challenges are the basic building blocks of play. A chal-
lenge will result in either a total success, a complicated success, or
failure. The Agent performing the challenge is the challenger.
To attempt a challenge, follow these steps:
1. Define the challenge:
The challenger describes to the Seer how they want to overcome the chal-
lenge, and with which skill. This skill’s suit will be the trump suit for this
challenge.
Example: Anton is facing a guard in an alleyway, and wants to get past. He ex-
plains he wants to attack the guard with his short sword, and selects the
Skirmish skill. Skirmish is a Sword skill, so Swords are trump.
2. Draw hands:
The challenger and Seer each draw a hand of cards from the Pips deck.
The challenger draws one card for every skill point in the challenge skill,
and one card for free. The Seer draws two, three or four cards for an
easy, medium or difficult challenge.
The Seer also draws additional cards if the situation is dangerous due to
its context. Some challenges may be incredibly difficult: the Seer might
draw four cards for base difficulty, and a further two or three in ex-
tremely unfavorable circumstances. Players may draw additional cards for
any advantages they have, such as preparations, visions or using items.
Example: Anton has 2 points in the Skirmish skill, so draws three cards. The Seer
reminds everyone that this guard is a Janissary, an elite soldier. This means the
challenge is difficult, so the Seer draws four cards. In addition, the guard is on
the alert because Anton raised his suspicions earlier, so the Seer draws one fur-
ther card, bringing the total to five.
Note: A challenger always draws a minimum of one card during challenge draws,
even if modifiers should force them to draw zero or less than zero.
Example: Sarah has zero points in Skirmish. She begins a Skirmish action, and
decides she wants to use her ideal, causing her to draw one fewer card. While
this would logically result in her drawing zero cards, she must draw one.
(See “Using burdens and ideals during challenges”.)

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 3. Play a card:
The challenger and Seer each choose one card to play from their draw
hand, and reveal them simultaneously. The card played by the challenger
is called the challenge card.
4. Determine the outcome:
If one card is in the trump suit and the other is not, the owner of the
trump card wins, regardless of its numerical value.
Otherwise, the winning card is the one with the highest number, regard-
less of suit. If the numbers are equal, the player wins. Note that Aces have
a value of 11.
If the Seer wins, the challenge is a failure.
If the challenger wins, determine how successful they are:
• If the challenge card is in the trump suit and the Seer’s card is not,
the challenger’s success is total. They just do it! The challenger de-
scribes how they overcome this challenge.
• Otherwise, their success is complicated (see below).
Example: Anton plays the 3 of Swords. The Seer plays the 10 of Pentacles. Since
Swords are trump, Anton is totally successful: he skewers the guard, killing him.
Anton will never know that the Seer drew the 9 of Swords, but decided against
playing it, because they wanted to give Anton a fighting chance.
Example: Anton plays the Ace of Wands. The Seer plays the 10 of Pentacles.
Since neither card is trump, but Anton’s is higher, his success is complicated: he
thrusts at the guard, severely wounding him, but is harmed in return.
Example: Anton plays the 3 of Wands. The Seer plays the 10 of Pentacles. Since
neither card is trump, the Seer’s higher-numbered card wins. Anton fails this
challenge.
Note: Playing the Ace of the trump suit is always a total success, no matter
what the Seer plays.
Once the challenge is resolved, discard all cards drawn for the challenge.
For some challenges, “Failure” might only mean partial failure. Some-
times a challenge is guaranteed to succeed to some extent. For example,
an Agent surveying a tavern from a secure spot would not reasonably suf-
fer any consequences from failure. In this case, the challenge is to see how
much information they can gather. This is also true of challenge draws
done during downtime.
Note: If you are an experienced Tarot user, feel free to let the spiritual meaning
of the pip cards inspire what happens narratively during the challenge, and what
the outcome is—although it must be consistent with the challenge’s success or
failure.

15
Failing challenges Complications
Failure must result in a tangible change to the world: If a challenger’s success is complicated, they overcome
otherwise players will be tempted to simply repeat the the challenge but with a downside.
challenge, robbing the scene of narrative momentum.
If you succeed with a complication, the following could
When an Agent fails a challenge, the following could occur:
occur:
• You pick the lock, but the process is so tortuous
• They alert someone to their presence. that your lockpicks break.
• They lose access to a resource or item, perhaps • You persuade a character to act, but only if you
only temporarily. promise something you hoped to avoid.
• They suffer a mishap or accident and take physi- • Your attack succeeds, but the blow is glancing—or
cal or spiritual harm. the enemy strikes you at the same time.
• Something that was easy becomes difficult. • You learn something about the artifact, but your
• Enemies—such as guards or antagonists—advance knowledge is incomplete.
their own ends while the Agent is busy failing. • You persuade a character to confide in you, but
they still hold something back.
Example: Anton fails the challenge. The Janissary glimpses
him out of the corner of his eye and dodges the strike, draw- • You succeed, but are harmed—physically or
ing his sword. He calls for backup. Anton must now face the spiritually.
Janissary, and the city’s guards have been alerted. • You succeed, but it draws attention.
• You succeed, but this type of action will be more
difficult later.
• You succeed, but an enemy gains information that
they can use against you later.
• You only half-complete the task, and must per-
form another challenge to complete it, often un-
der time pressure.
Note: If a challenge doesn’t have an obvious complication,
feel free to draw a vision card and let it inspire you. This
may be something that happens immediately, may prompt
the creation of a clock, or become a possible future threat.

16
Using fortune cards during challenges
During a challenge, after the Seer’s and challenger’s cards have been re-
vealed, and any complications have been narrated, any player can play a
card from their fortune hand to improve the challenge card and avert
disaster.
The fortune card either changes the suit of the challenge card to match
the fortune card, or adds its number value.
Multiple players can play fortune cards to improve the challenge card,
but each player can only play one fortune card per challenge. The chal-
lenger may refuse help if they wish.
If your fortune card changes the outcome to a success, explain how your
intervention helped snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, even if this
contradicts the failure which the Seer just narrated. If an Agent has no
way to help, they cannot play a fortune card. But note that players can as-
sist each other without their Agent realizing.
Example: Anton is trying to convince a guard to leave his post. Convince is a
Sword skill, so Swords are trump.
He plays the 5 of Pentacles; the Seer plays the 8 of Swords. This is a failure: the
Seer describes how the guard grabs Anton and throws him out of the palace.
Anton is disgraced and takes one spiritual harm.
Anton, however, desperately wants to succeed, and has the 2 of Swords in his
fortune hand. He plays the 2 of Swords, adding the Sword suit to the
5 of Pentacles: the challenge card is now the 5 of Swords. Anton’s friend Sarah
has the 3 of Wands in her fortune hand, and decides to help: she plays it, adding
its number value.
The challenge card is now the 8 of Swords. Since this is in the trump suit, and
the number matches the Seer’s card, the challenge succeeds, though there will be
a complication.
Sarah rewinds the narrative and describes how, before the guard can throw An-
ton out, she runs at the guard, screaming that a horrible crime has been com-
mitted in a nearby street and his help is desperately needed. Swayed by this, the
guard leaves his post—but he will remember her face, and will grow suspicious
when he realizes she lied to him. The spiritual harm suffered by Anton when he
was thrown out is undone: he was never actually thrown out, so suffers
no harm.
Example: Aziza is sneaking through the top floor of a mansion, and is unde-
tected. Sarah is on the bottom floor, disguised as a servant, and is trying to get
past a guard checkpoint. She has just failed her challenge draw and the guards
are getting suspicious. Aziza plays a fortune card and explains that, while her
character has no idea what’s going on below, she accidentally knocks over a vase
and causes a noise, distracting the guard and causing him to wave
Sarah through.

17
Suit bonuses to fortune cards Using vices or virtues during
If you have at least one skill point in all of a suit’s skills, challenges
you resonate with the energy of this suit, and can use
fortune cards more effectively. Whenever you play a Agents may use their vices or virtues during chal-
fortune card of that suit, either on yourself or another lenges, just as they would use their burden or ideal.
Agent, the fortune card adds +3 to the challenge card’s They can only use one: using a virtue and a vice is not
numerical value. This is in addition to the fortune permitted. Neither is using a virtue or vice and a
card’s normal benefits. burden or ideal.

Example: Darwin the Occultist skirmishes with a member After you have begun the challenge, but before you
of a street gang and fails the challenge: he plays the have looked at your challenge hand:
4 of Wands against the gang member’s 5 of Swords. Eldon 1. Describe how, in this moment, you embody your
assists Darwin by playing one of his fortune cards: the virtue or vice, and how it helps in this situation.
2 of Swords. He uses it to change the challenge card’s suit to 2. If you are using a vice, draw one extra card.
Swords. This would normally mean Darwin fails the chal-
lenge with a 4 of Swords against the 5 of Swords. However, 3. If you are using a virtue, the numerical value of
Eldon has 3 points in Skirmish, 1 in Convince, and 1 in all cards in your challenge hand is increased by 3.
Study, and has therefore unlocked the bonus to his Swords 4. Do not mark any progress on your burden or
fortune cards. This increases the challenge card’s value by 3, ideal track.
making it the 7 of Swords, which grants Darwin a compli-
cated success. Note: Unlike using an ideal, using a virtue does not result in
drawing one fewer card. Once an Agent has become accus-
tomed to living up to their ideal, it becomes an unmitigated
Using ideals or burdens during strength.

challenges
During a challenge, the challenger may use their bur-
den or ideal.
After you have chosen what skill you are using, but
before you have looked at your challenge hand:
1. Describe how, in this moment, you leverage your
burden or live up to your ideal.
2. If you are using your burden, draw one more card.
3. If you are using your ideal,
◦ Draw one fewer card
◦ The numerical value of all cards in your chal-
lenge hand is increased by 3 (eg. a 5 of wands
is now an 8 of wands).
4. Mark 1 progress on your ideal or burden progress
track on your character sheet, regardless of the
challenge outcome.
Note: While using your ideal makes life more difficult in the
short term, leveling your ideal is better in the long run than
leveling your burden. For more information, see “Cycle of
Play / Downtime / Character Transformation”.

18
Player versus player challenges
Occasionally, one Agent may find it necessary to work Jeera plays the 3 of Swords. While it may seem like Hashim
against, or try to manipulate, another Agent. has won the challenge, remember that Swords are trump
When this happens: only for Jeera, meaning that she played trump and Hashim
did not. Jeera achieves a total success and sees through
1. Each competing player—the challengers—decides Hashim’s attempt to hide
what their goal is for this challenge, including the truth.
whether they intend harm.
Example: Eldon is perturbed by Antoine’s careless nature
2. Each challenger chooses which skill they are using
and wants to use Skirmish to rough him up a bit and teach
to perform this action. The trump suit for each
him a lesson. Antoine decides to avoid the confrontation and
challenger is the suit of their chosen skill.
will use Slip to stay out of Eldon’s reach. For Eldon, trump
3. Each challenger draws that skill as normal, and is Swords, while trump for Antoine is Cups. After drawing
may use burdens, ideals, vices or virtues to mod- their challenge hands and selecting a card, they both play
ify this draw. If the Seer agrees, they may draw the 5 of their respective trump suit. The challenge is a
extra cards to account for advantages for them or stalemate. Ignoring the first card played, each Agent plays a
disadvantages for their opponent. second card from their challenge hand: Eldon plays the
4. Each challenger plays one card from their hand. 3 of Wands, and Antoine plays the 4 of Pentacles. As neither
5. The cards are compared as with normal card is trump, Antoine wins by having the higher numerical
challenge resolution. value: he avoids Eldon’s onslaught. Since it is a complicated
success, the Seer determines the complication: their scuffle
I. If it is a total success for one challenger, that has attracted the attention of the city watch.
challenger’s goal is fully accomplished.
II. If it is a complicated success for one chal-
lenger, they achieve their goal but there is a
complication. The loser can suggest a compli-
cation, but the Seer has the final say.
III. If it is a draw—both challengers have cards of
equal value—there is no clear winner at first.
Both players discard these challenge cards,
and select new challenge cards from their re-
maining hands.
IV. If one challenger is reduced to a hand of zero
cards, they lose. If neither challenger has any
remaining cards, the challenge has no
clear winner.
Example: Hashim wishes to keep part of his backstory secret
from the Hand, but Jeera is pressuring him to reveal the
information. While the players could resolve this without a
challenge, they decide it would be more interesting to test
their skills against each other. Hashim chooses to Perform
in an attempt to act like there is nothing worth discussing;
Jeera chooses to Study Hashim to judge whether or not he is
hiding something. Trump for Hashim is Wands, while trump
for Jeera is Swords. Hashim has 1 point in Perform and
chooses to lean on his burden, so draws a challenge hand of 3
cards. Jeera has 1 point in Study, so draws 2 cards. The play-
ers consider their hands; Hashim plays the 9 of Swords, and

19
 Group actions
Sometimes players may wish to act as a group to overcome a challenge,
working together to perform an action as one. For example, the party
might sneak through a dark alleyway together, sing together as a choir,
form a circle and perform a magic ritual, or pool their arcane arts to
banish a demon. In situations like these, the group can collectively per-
form a single challenge.
1. Choose the skill for the group action, and define what success in
this action means.
2. Decide which Agents are participating.
3. Every participating Agent draws a challenge hand based on their
level in this skill. They may use vices, virtues, burdens and ideals
as normal.
4. The Seer draws a hand of cards as normal (based on difficulty and
modifiers), plus one extra card for every participating Agent.
5. The Seer plays one challenge card to each participant, and each par-
ticipant plays a challenge card in return.
6. The cards are revealed. They are evaluated as normal, as though each
participant had their own private challenge against the Seer.
7. If any participant is successful, the group action as a whole succeeds.
Any failures or complicated successes incur penalties or complica-
tions as normal. This could mean harm or penalties are applied spe-
cifically to failing or less successful Agents, or could begin a negative
clock that affects the group but does not cause them to fail the
goal outright.
Fortune cards can be played as usual. Non-participating Agents can still
play Fortune cards if they can justify how they help.
Note: If even one participant succeeds, the originally defined group action must
succeed for all participants. Penalties from failure cannot cause any participant
to fail to achieve the goal of the group action.

20
21
Harm Trauma
Being an Agent is dangerous: during your tenure you Trauma is the worst kind of harm. It is gained when a
may be physically injured or spiritually wounded. burden is fully leveled. It can only be healed through
This is represented by harm, which can be physical or personal growth (by leveling an ideal), or through the
spiritual. emotional support of an intimate contact. For more in-
formation, see “Cycle of Play / Downtime / Character
• 1 harm is a glancing blow or a wounding insult. transformation” or “Cycle of Play / Downtime / Visit
• 2 harm is a serious injury or a curse that shakes Contact”.
your spirit.
• 3 harm shatters your body or soul.
Harm consequences
When an Agent takes harm, the Seer tells them
whether the harm is physical or spiritual, and may Every time you use a skill in a suit with 2 harm, draw
specify where the harm should be received: into the 1 fewer card for that challenge. Having only one harm
player’s Swords, Wands, Cups or Pentacles suit. If the in a suit does not affect you in any way.
Seer does not specify a suit, or if the chosen suit is al- If an Agent’s harm slots are all filled, they are broken.
ready full, the player decides where the harm is taken. When an Agent is broken, they take 1 point of trauma
The player notes down the harm on their character to a harm slot of their choosing, and all their skills
sheet in the boxes labeled “HARM” to the right of have a value of zero. Their player then decides what
the skill suits. Each suit has two harm boxes. To note disaster they suffer: perhaps they fall unconscious, are
down harm, write either a “P” (for physical) or “S” (for captured, die, or are otherwise rendered incapable.
spiritual) in the relevant harm box. If the disaster is not permanent (eg. the Agent is not
dead), and if the Seer agrees, the Agent recovers from
Example: Chani is performing a song in a tavern. She fails the disaster after a short period. Even after recovering,
the challenge, botches the song and is booed by the crowd. however, their skills are still locked to a value of zero.
The Seer decides she takes one harm, since Chani is proud
of her skill as a performer and is grieved by this setback. Example: Saray has 6 harm. She takes another 2 harm, fill-
The Seer decides it is spiritual harm (because it wounds her ing her final harm slots, and is broken. Her player decides
spirit, not her body), and is taken to the Wands suit (since it to take 1 trauma to Swords, overwriting 1 physical harm
is related to the “Perform” skill). Chani writes an “S” in one with 1 trauma. Her player decides she crawls into an alley-
of the harm boxes to the right of her Wands suit. way and falls unconscious. After twenty minutes of in-game
time, the Seer announces Saray has woken up in the alley-
Suits relate to harm as follows: way, still dazed. Saray may continue play as normal, but
all her skills will be locked to zero until she can find healing
• Swords harm: mental clarity and precision
(most likely in Dioscoria).
• Wands harm: magic, performance and passion
• Cups harm: stealth, inner feelings and social Example: Anton takes harm and is broken. His player takes
connections the trauma to Cups, and says Anton is overwhelmed and
captured. Later in the same session, the Seer explains Anton
• Pentacles harm: pragmatism, business and
has been taken to the adversary’s ship and is tied up in the
dexterity.
hold. Anton may now try to escape, his companions can try
Harm may be healed during the downtime phase. to free him, or they can abandon him and try to rescue him
in a followup mission.
Note: An Agent can only die with the player’s consent. Seers
cannot unilaterally kill Agents.
If a broken Agent removes any harm, their skills re-
turn to their unbroken levels. The trauma remains.

22
Abilities Experience points
Agents can perform impressive or noteworthy feats, Experience points (xp) are gained after each scenario.
known as abilities. They may have picked up these abil- They symbolize Agents becoming more skilled and
ities before they came to Dioscoria, or learned them learning from their experiences, and can be spent by
while serving on the island. Abilities are things your players to improve their skills or abilities.
Agent can just do, so rarely require a challenge draw.
When a player gains xp, they may put that xp in one of
You can find the complete list of abilities later in this five xp tracks: the four suit tracks, and their abilities
book (see “Classes and abilities”), including descrip- track. Players may put their xp wherever they like in
tions for how they are used during play. Players should whatever combination.
write any abilities they learn in the central box on
Example: Chani gains 2xp at the end of the scenario.
their character sheet.
She opts to put one point into her abilities track, and one in
By themselves, Agents can only learn abilities of their her Cups track.
own class. By visiting their contacts, however, Agents
When a suit track is filled, gain a skill point in that
can potentially learn abilities from any class; see “Rules
suit and reduce the track to zero. Note that, by de-
/ Experience points”.
fault, all skills have a maximum of 3 points. A fourth
skill point can be unlocked by leveling your burden
Magical abilities or ideal. (See “Cycle of Play / Downtime / Character
transformation”.)
Some abilities are magical in nature, but do not follow
the standard rules for Agents performing magic. By Note: Having at least 1 point in each skill of a given suit
gaining this ability, an Agent has mastered this tech- grants a bonus to your fortune cards, encouraging players to
nique and, as with any other ability, a challenge draw spread their points across more skills. For more information,
is not required. see “Game Rules / Challenge Resolution / Suit bonuses to
(See “Magic / Using magic in scenario play / Changes fortune cards”.
and sources”) When the ability track is filled, choose a new ability to
learn and reduce the track to zero.
• You may choose any ability from your class’s
ability list.
• Or, if you have a contact at maximum affection,
they are willing to teach you one of their abilities.
Select an ability from any class’s ability list that
this contact could be skilled in.

23
Visions
Dioscorian agents are trained to open their inner eye Example: Anton receives the Death vision card during sce-
to receive visions of other places or times. This can re- nario divination. During the scenario, he meets a sword-
veal useful information, fill in explanations or back- master he would like to kill. He plays the Death vision card,
story, give Agents a glimpse of possible futures, or let explaining that he receives a vision of the fight to come so
players nudge the future of the scenario. that he is forewarned when it occurs. The Seer agrees, and
describes Anton’s vision.
During scenario divination, all players receive a vision
card from the Seer. They do not yet know what vision Anton attacks the swordmaster. Since he is armed with
they will witness, but they are ready to receive it. The foreknowledge, he knows the swordmaster’s tricks, and
Seer also has vision cards, which can be used to give draws one extra challenge card while attacking.
visions to Agents. Note: If a vision grants an advantage to a challenge draw
A vision is a brief glimpse of the past, present, or a (eg. giving a player an extra card), the vision must be trig-
possible future. They need not be things an Agent gered before the player has seen the cards of this draw.
could directly witness, and can be from any point of
view. Think of a vision as a brief shot from a movie, or
a glimpse through someone else’s eyes. Visions of the future
If this vision is of a future that may come to pass, place
the vision card on the table. (Otherwise, discard it.)
Triggering visions This future may occur, or it may be averted.
At any point during scenario play, a player or the Seer If the future from a vision becomes more likely to pass,
may play a vision card. This signifies that the Agent, the Seer should put a token on the relevant vision card.
or the entire party, is experiencing a vision. The vision If it becomes less likely, remove tokens. If this future
must be somehow related to either the vision card’s comes to pass, or is definitely averted, remove its to-
meaning, or the imagery on the card. Feel free to con- kens and discard the vision card.
sult the Vision Guide for inspiration.
Note: Tokens placed on a vision card should loosely convey
• Whoever plays the vision card may ask for ideas how close the vision is to being fulfilled. Placing or removing
or inspiration from other players about what their tokens should be an expressive act conveying the shifting of
card could mean. possible futures, not a mathematical count system. There is
• If the player played the vision card, they suggest no upper limit on how many tokens a card can have.
the content of the vision. The Seer takes this sug-
gestion as their starting point, modifies it as nec- Example: The Seer plays The Tower vision card, and ex-
essary, and narrates the vision. The player’s Agent plains that the Agents witness a vision of a library in
receives the vision, and can share the vision by flames. As the scenario goes on, and the Agents fail to stop
touching others. the arsonist, the Seer places more and more tokens on The
• If the Seer played the vision card, they narrate the Tower card, showing that time is running out.
vision and decide which Agents receive it. Eventually, they kill the arsonist. The Seer does not re-
The Seer may decide whether the vision gives an Agent move any tokens. They continue searching, and realize
some kind of advantage: perhaps hidden information is the true cause of the fire is not the arsonist, but a ma-
now known, or a challenge is easier, or so trivial as to gician performing experiments in the basement. They
no longer require a challenge draw. kill the magician. The Seer declares the crisis averted,
and discards The Tower and its tokens.

24
 The Hidden Isle’s inventory system is more flexible than in many other
Items and inventory RPGs. There is no need to keep an exhaustive list of everything your
Agents are carrying. It is assumed each Agent is competent enough to
pack for the journey ahead, without the player doing the tedious work of
planning or trying to predict what their Agent will need.
Items can grant many advantages. Lockpicks, for example, allow an
Agent to attempt to bypass a lock, an action that might otherwise be
impossible. Other items may grant a bonus to a challenge: for example, a
shimmer cloak (which partially conceals the user) might give the Agent +1
Slip while using it.

Using items
When an Agent needs an item, they simply reach into their pack and pull
it out: they had the foresight to pack it before the trip. Circle the item
in your Agent’s inventory box and tick one of the “Load” checkboxes. If
the item in question is not listed on the sheet, write its name in the space
provided.
Players can only do this with items it is plausible their character would
pack ahead of time. To pull a very specific item from their pack—which
the Agent could not have foreseen—fate must be on their side. Thus, if a
player wishes to pull a specific, unforeseeable item from their pack, they
must first discard a fortune card.
Example: Jamal wants to convince a magician to help him. The magician is in-
terested in Jinni. Jamal decides he is going to bribe him with a book on Jinni, but
this is not an area Jamal has any connection with. As such, he would only pack
such a book as a fluke of fate. He discards a fortune card, writes “Book on Jinni”
in his inventory box, ticks 1 Load, and pulls out the book.
Note: Using a downtime action to research or investigate ahead of time is a great
way to make having a very specific item more plausible.
Some inventory items are single use; this is indicated by items written in
italic text. If desired, Agents can choose to have multiple instances of sin-
gle-use items, but each instance costs 1 Load.
Note: Being caught using a rare inventory item (eg. a Concealment charm) might
cause NPCs to become suspicious of you, or for world powers to research and
then use such items in the future.

Load
Each Agent has a Load of five: this means they can carry five items at a
time, and can therefore pull items from their pack five times per sce-
nario. If they try to retrieve a sixth item, they realize they didn’t have
room to pack it.
Carrying other items during the scenario (eg. an armful of books) can
further reduce Load.

25
 Adversaries

The Agents will encounter and foil many enemies during their tenure.
Some enemies are so important or driven that they could feature across
numerous scenarios. These are adversaries.
An adversary is someone with an ambitious, dangerous plan that is not
limited to one single territory or scenario. Adversaries can be one per-
son, or an entire organization. The Seer does not have to know the plan
in any detail for the adversary to be classified as such.
Adversaries are tracked on the Adversary Sheet, which stores the name
of the organization, their leader, its plot and progress toward it, their mo-
tivation, and other members of this organization. Seers may add infor-
mation to the adversary sheet even if the adversary has not been encoun-
tered: this represents rumor and gossip about this foe.
Note: An adversary’s progress track cannot increase unless the adversary is writ-
ten on the sheet. But note that very little need be known about an adversary for
the Seer to write it on the sheet.
The Adversary Sheet can be viewed by players at any time. Any secret informa-
tion the Seer wishes to withhold should be kept in their private notes.
Example: The Hand encounters a mysterious death cult and prevents them from
sacrificing an entire town. Though they know little about this strange organiza-
tion, this is enough for the Seer to add “Death cult” as an adversary. The Seer
will fill in the cult’s motivation, leader, its true name etc. as the Agents discover
these facts.

Adversary plot progress

When an Adversary clears the first section of its progress track, the
group’s identity becomes known to the Hand.
When an Adversary clears the middle section of its progress track, their
plot enters its final phase. This becomes an urgent problem for Dioscoria;
the Agents must focus all their attention on it if they are to stop it.
When the progress track is full, the adversary’s plan is put into motion—
but may yet be foiled.
To learn what happens when an adversary is defeated, see “Cycle of Play /
Wrapping up / Advance Adversaries”.

26
27
Magic
Magic in The Hidden Isle is an open system, allowing But magic has one constant: something cannot come
players to experiment with these otherworldly forces from nothing. Magic must always have a source. Your
without breaking the game. There is no mana pool, source could be ambient magical energy, the life en-
spell list or complicated spell slot system. This isn’t a ergy of your own body, the power of nature found in
rigidly defined science: it’s magic! As such, Agents can storms or forests, heavenly bodies, magical creatures
attempt to bend reality however they wish; the Seer such as Jinni or ghosts, magical reagents, or entities of
then decides whether this action is feasible, and what immense, divine power such as angels or demons.
risks and complications could arise. You can tweak
magic to follow whatever norms or rules resonate with Dioscoria and magic
you and your group, while still enjoying the structure
and risk that comes from this system. Dioscorian sages have been gathering magical texts for
centuries, transforming and synthesizing them into the
The following section is designed to inspire players, so most advanced magical knowledge in the world. Mag-
they can cast more creative and interesting magic—in- ical training programs for agents have been carefully
formed by the magical theories and worldviews of the honed; a neophyte can be taught the basics of magic in
Renaissance and Islamic world—and to help Seers de- a few weeks, feats which take most sorcerers a lifetime
cide which spells are simple, which are complicated or to attempt.
risky, and which are impossible.
Dioscoria does not discriminate against, or forbid,
any school or source of magic, except that summoning
What is magic? demons is only permitted to trained Occultists. All
sources are permitted, if no harm is done without con-
Occult—literally “unseen”—forces are all around us. What sent. But this does not mean all sources are safe. Each
is it that makes trees grow, or gathers a storm? What dif- source comes with its own risks and costs, and some
ferentiates gold from iron, or living things from inani- contain hidden snares.
mate objects? How can some commune with spirits, or
the Divine? Clearly, there are invisible forces all around Dioscorian agents are taught to use magic discreetly.
us, capable of causing visible changes. To master these Magic is rare outside Dioscoria, and will draw atten-
forces, and bend them to one’s will, is magic. tion. Everyday people are not accustomed to it, and
will react with fear or wonder. This could result in
For centuries sages have sought to understand these agents being arrested and interrogated, forced to teach
forces. Every culture has its magical tradition. It is un- magic to greedy or irresponsible scholars, or could
derstood that each planet, each creature, each spiritual kickstart magical research in a foreign nation, leading
entity, each and every particle of the material realm to an empire armed with sorcerer soldiers. It could also
emits rays which touch and affect other things, pass- lead to Dioscoria being targeted by other powers who
ing on something of its own nature in the process. This believe their magic is heretical, or simply too powerful
is why, when the planet Mars is ascendent, strife and to be allowed to flourish.
conflict erupt in the hearts of men: the world is bathed
in its warlike rays. While magic among the masses is rare, there are se-
lect individuals who have mastered it. Vizir magicians,
The reality we perceive, then, is like many lights pass- long-lived sorceresses and forest-dwelling witches all
ing through many prisms. To practice magic is to wield have some magical capability. Important figures such
a prism of your own, to bend these forces as you wish. as rulers often wear protection charms, making them
An experienced sorcerer can bend human perception immune to all but the strongest magic. While magic is
and emotion, the physical properties of all material a powerful tool in an Agent’s arsenal, it is by no means
things, and even the forces of fate and fortune. guaranteed to achieve its goal, especially if your ene-
mies are aware of, or proficient in, the magical arts.

28
Using magic in scenario play Magical proficiencies
In the world of Dioscoria, an Agent’s Channel skill Agents do not have a list of spells they can perform,
is used to sense or perform magic. All Agents receive nor do they have a limit to the number of spells they
basic training in the occult arts and are able to open can cast per day. The only limit to an Agent’s magical
their minds and perceive the magical energies and capabilities is whether or not they are willing to accept
entities around them. Some Agents will not pursue the consequences of their casting. Performing magic
magic further, but others will study it and hone their often results in an Agent taking harm as they exert
proficiency in various magical disciplines. themselves and wrestle with great powers. To minimize
this risk, Agents train in distinct magical arts, allow-
To sense magic, an Agent makes a Channel draw, ing them to recognize and avoid risks. The training of
and the Seer explains what they sense in the spiritual a distinct art is called a proficiency and is included on
realm based on their success. The challenge difficulty the Agent’s character sheet as a clock, their rank, and
depends on how difficult it is to sense your target the proficiency’s name (eg. “Summoning”). A suggested
through ambient magical noise, or the specificity of list of proficiencies is available below, or on the back of
the information you wish to gather. each character sheet.
Performing magic is more complex. Agents gain a new proficiency the first time they at-
1. The Agent chooses which proficiency to use. (eg. tempt a new form of magic. When this happens, write
Summoning, Transmutation etc.) the relevant magical art in a new proficiency space on
the character sheet; you are now a novice of this profi-
2. The Agent describes the magical change they ciency. There is no limit to the number of proficiencies
wish to accomplish. Remember: even with mag- an Agent can have.
ical power you can’t make something from noth-
ing. All magic is a manipulation of something When an Agent begins using a proficiency, they are a
already present in the world. novice. Due to their inexperience, all challenges using
3. The Seer judges the scale of this magic, and in- this proficiency are hard: the Seer will draw four or
forms the player of its risks and potential conse- more cards every time this proficiency is used. Once
quences. The Seer determines whether the Agent’s they gain more experience, they become an adept:
channeling power is sufficient, whether a source challenges are of medium difficulty, and the Seer will
is required, or if the change is simply impossible. draw three or more cards. With practice and study,
they can attain the rank of master, at which point such
4. The Agent performs a Channel draw. The chal- challenges become easy, with the Seer drawing two or
lenge’s difficulty is determined by their profi- more cards.
ciency. If the magic’s scale is high, this increases
the difficulty further. Each time an Agent uses a proficiency, they fill one
5. The success of the magical action, and the compli- segment of its proficiency clock. Each time a profi-
cations or consequences arising from it, are deter- ciency clock is completed, tick the adjacent box to in-
mined by the outcome of the challenge draw. dicate your gained experience, then erase the clock to
begin anew. When you fill the first clock, tick the box
6. The player fills in one segment on their labeled ‘adept’. When you fill the second clock, tick the
proficiency clock: they have gained experience first ‘master’ box. You must fill the second ‘master’ box
with this style of magic. before becoming a master. This means that it takes six
segments to become an adept, but twelve to become a
master, reflecting how easy it is to learn the basics of a
skill, but how difficult it is to master it.

29
 Changes
Changes are the distinct ways a magic user can bend or alter reality. Be-
low are the most common schools of magic, and an example of a straight-
forward and complex change for each:
• Summoning or banishing a spiritual entity or natural force.
◦ Straightforward: Banish a vengeful ghost while the Hand trav-
els through a graveyard.
◦ Complex: Summon a demon or angel without preparation or
protection.
• Binding or unbinding a spiritual entity or natural force to a person,
creature or object.
◦ Straightforward: Bind a cooperative ghost to a spirit flask for a
few hours.
◦ Complex: Bind an angel to yourself as a permanent protector
and guide.
• Blessing or cursing a person or creature to alter their fate and
fortune.
◦ Straightforward: Curse a wicked person to suffer a minor
misfortune.
◦ Complex: Bless a location to keep all who enter safe from harm.
• Mentalism to steer the thoughts or actions of a person or creature.
◦ Straightforward: Leverage a city watchman’s compla-
cency to urge them to ignore a suspicious sound rather than
investigating.
◦ Complex: Inspire a mob to revolt against a ruler by planting
false memories of injustice in their minds.
• Illusion to alter the appearance of things, or cause hallucinations.
◦ Straightforward: Fill an alley with a billow of mist and fog.
◦ Complex: While a ruler is giving a speech to a large crowd,
change their appearance so they seem to be a devil in disguise.
• Transmutation to alter or transform the material properties of a
person or creature.
◦ Straightforward: Turn a disk of iron into a gold coin.
◦ Complex: Turn a guard into a pig.
• Brigomancy to manipulate or transfer the life force of a person or
creature.
◦ Straightforward: Transfer a fellow Agent’s wound to your own
body.
◦ Complex: Leech the life force from a small group of soldiers
and use it to augment your own power.
This list is non-exhaustive, and meant to be tailored to the interests of
your group. What other schools of magic would add richness to
your world?
Note: Attempting a change might cause the magician harm before the Channel
draw has even begun, so potent and unpredictable are the forces involved.

30
31
Magical sources
Sources are wells of magical power that Agents can Spirits of nature such as nymphs, water spirits or in-
draw from. They can be used to make a dangerous, carnations of the forest.
difficult challenge easier and less risky. Some magic is
impossible without a source. Sources must be acquired • How to acquire: Aiding a spirit in protecting its
before they can be used in spellwork. domain may earn you its favor.
• Consequences: A nature spirit is limited in its
The following sources are listed from most to least reach, and largely powerless outside its own do-
powerful; the more powerful a source, the more diffi- main. A spirit which has been betrayed will wreak
cult it is to harness. revenge if you return to its territory.
Angels, messengers of the Divine and protectors of Jinni, spirits of the desert who wield magical power.
Creation. Some jinni wield immense power, and can grant
• How to acquire: Call an angel to your aid by con- wishes. These are sometimes captured and impris-
secrating yourself and convincing it of your pure oned in objects such as lamps or rings. Other jinni are
intentions. This is a lengthy process requiring fo- weaker: invisible to human eyes, and able to wield mi-
cus and piety, so must be done during the down- nor magic.
time phase. • How to acquire: An imprisoned jinn must obey
• Consequences: Angels are sticklers for righteous- its master and grant wishes. Jinni are sentient,
ness and view most humans as flawed, irritating reasoning people, and could be persuaded to aid
creatures. Persuading one to support you will be you if it helped them or their people somehow.
difficult, and will attract divine attention—mean- They are sometimes found in the desert living in
ing you had better be on your best, holiest behav- invisible or ruined cities.
ior, or the angelic host may require a demonstra- • Consequences: A bound jinn will obey its mas-
tion of your righteousness before you may contact ter to the letter, and may find creative ways
them again. to subvert its instructions. Jinni at large have
Demons, fallen angels or god-like entities who enjoy no particular interest in the wellbeing of hu-
wreaking havoc on the material realm, or have their mans and would need a good reason to continue
own inscrutable motivations. cooperating.

• How to acquire: Strike a costly bargain with a Spirits of the dead such as ghosts.
demon in exchange for its assistance. This would • How to acquire: Ghosts linger in the mortal
either require a lengthy summoning ritual during realm due to having unfinished business, or being
the downtime phase, or for you to have caught the killed via magic. They are found where their host’s
attention of a demon already. body lies, or where they were killed.
• Consequences: You may be forced to help the • Consequences: Ghosts might be destroyed by the
demon further its own goals, and may be locked effort of supporting your magic. They might also
into a nefarious contract. The demon may decide become aggressive if forced to be part of a spell
to summon you to its presence and demand ful- they didn’t agree to.
fillment of a favor. You may also have to convince
the demon you are worth sponsoring: demons sel-
dom waste time on losers.

32
 Judging scale
Forces of the natural world such as trees, mountains, The scale of a magical action determines how difficult
rivers, and storms. it is, and how much magical energy is required. When
determining scale, the Seer considers these factors:
• How to acquire: In contrast to the other sources
on this list, these are elemental forces and do 1. The physical size of the effect. (Turning a pebble
not possess personality or the ability to reason. to sand is easier than turning a boulder to sand.)
Their power, while limited, can nonetheless be 2. The deviation from a target’s natural state. (Turn-
harnessed. ing a stone to sand is easier than turning a stone
• Consequences: Channeling these powers of na- to metal, which is easier than turning a stone into
ture is difficult, like directing lightning. Failure a sparrow.)
might mean the explosion of devastating energies, 3. The number of people affected. (Inspiring one
or the death of a forest. person to enter a blind rage is easier than inspir-
Life force belonging to the Agent or other living ing a whole crowd to do the same.)
things. 4. If a source is required, consider the synergy be-
tween the change and the chosen source. (Using
• How to acquire: You can draw on your own es- an angel’s power to bind a demon is easier than
sence to perform magic. Note that this might using the power of a river to bind a demon.)
require you to take harm before you have even at-
tempted the Channel challenge. We suggest that straightforward magical actions (see
• Consequences: The change you intend may be above, “Changes”) are possible without a source, but
misdirected, or backfire and affect you rather that complex actions need a source for all but the most
than the intended target. The source may be seri- proficient magicians. However, this is a matter of taste.
ously injured or die depending on the scale of the It is the responsibility of the Seer, when judging scale,
change and the proficiency of the magician. to determine whether or not this action is possible by
the Agent’s power alone. If not, the Seer informs the
Some sources are better suited to certain magic; others Agent that an additional source of power is necessary.
are too weak, or too unrelated to a particular change, This judgment will establish the norms and overall feel
to have much effect. of magic in your world. For some groups, it may be
Example: David wishes to summon an angel. The Seer ex- normal for Agents to perform powerful magic by rely-
plains this is a huge magical task and requires a source. He ing on nothing more than their training and their own
opts to use the power of a peaceful ghost. He is an adept in power; for others the Seer may determine that a source
the proficiency “summoning”, so this challenge begins at me- is necessary to do anything but the simplest tricks
dium (3-card) difficulty. The Seer explains that angels are and illusions.
incredibly potent beings, whereas a ghost is a minor entity. Some actions are so great as to be impossible. Trans-
Due to this difference in scale, the Seer draws an additional muting an entire city into salt, for example, is beyond
2 cards for the challenge, making it very difficult. The Seer the power of human sorcerers without the aid of a host
also explains that even if the attempt is successful, it will of angels. Likewise, summoning a host of angels is a
only summon the angel for a minute or so. near-impossible task unless an Agent has made ade-
Example: Aisha wants to transmute a wooden cup into sil- quate preparations to do so.
ver. She is a novice in the proficiency “Transmutation”. The
Seer decides this is possible, and draws 4 cards since Aisha
is a novice. Aisha decides this is too difficult, and wishes to
augment the spell with some of her own life force. The Seer
agrees, and draws one fewer card. Aisha completes the chal-
lenge and achieves a complicated success. Since she used her
own life force, the Seer inflicts 1 spiritual harm and 1 physi-
cal harm on her.

33
Magical consequences Magical practicalities
If the spell is not a total success, or if the Agent is Performing magic requires some outward gesture or
wielding impossible energies, the Seer should dole out expression, such as a wave of your arm or hand, an
some hefty consequences. This is the flip side of the incantation, a ritual act such as lighting a candle, or
game’s “anything goes” magic system: when anything even a strange light coming from your eyes or fingers.
goes wrong, it can hurt. In general, the larger your intended effect, the larger
the gesture must be. Sensing magic does not require
The Seer is encouraged to give more severe conse- a gesture: senses are passive. Transforming a coin into
quences for Agents with lower proficiencies, and for a card would only require the wave of a hand; trans-
spells with larger scales, or mismatched sources and forming a man into a pig would require a loud incanta-
changes. Try to make consequences affect the target or tion, or the waving of a large wand or staff. This means
source in creative ways. that larger, more potent magic is, generally, easier for
Example: Anton is trying to transmute a wooden cup into a others to notice.
silver one, and is using a bound ghost as a source. He fails. Aside from direct sources, magic can also make use of
The Seer decides that the cup is now cracked, and the ghost ritual ingredients and reagents such as crystals, flow-
has been banished to the next world. ers or herbs. These ingredients are magical reservoirs of
Example: Deena is practicing the proficiency of energy: a plant, for instance, which grows and trans-
“Brigomancy” and is a novice. It is fitting that she would forms the energy of the earth and sky into its own
take 1-2 harm as the cost of attempting this change, since it life, can be crushed or set on fire to release this en-
is fueled by her life force, and an additional 1-2 harm as a ergy. Crystals are reservoirs of pure spiritual energy;
consequence if she fails the challenge. For a master of this the type of energy depends on the crystal structure.
same proficiency, the attempt may cost nothing and to fail For example, salt is dry and purifies, and can therefore
would likely result in only 1 harm. repel hostile spirits. Lapis lazuli is deep and blue, so
soothes and calms.
Charms and amulets have been used for centuries to
protect or heal, or bring good or bad fortune. These
are usually small rings, pendants or scraps of parch-
ment, inscribed with characters. This inscription re-
fers to a magical source, and channels this borrowed
power to achieve the desired effect. Some charms use
religious quotations or an epithet of God to channel
divine power directly.

Further reading
The Cunning Man’s Handbook, by Jim Baker.
On the Stellar Rays, by Al-Kindi, available at
archive.org.
Shams al-Ma’arif, by Ahmad al-Buni and others. We
could not locate a full English translation of this text.
This book is widely regarded as a cursed text; explore
at your own risk.
The Picatrix or Ghayat al-Ḥakim, available at
archive.org.

34
35
36
IV. Characters and Classes

Before you can play The Hidden Isle, you will need to prepare some player
Character Creation

characters: “Agents”.
While it is possible to think of a character ahead of time—as in many
other tabletop RPGs—we recommend coming in with no preconceptions
and letting the cards surprise you. If you still want to bring an existing
character to the game, try to keep character creation brisk: fill in only
the core self section and your name, age, culture and look ahead of time,
and perhaps some notes.
Character creation is about constructing the foundation of a charac-
ter, onto which you can later build an in-depth backstory. It’s better to
“show” your character traits during play, rather than “telling” them dur-
ing character creation, particularly if you can share these backstory de-
tails in a moment of crisis or triumph during a scenario. As such, there’s
no pressure to completely define your character by the end of character
creation. If it happens, that’s great—but if not, you can get to know your
character during play.

37
 To create a character, follow these steps:
Character Creation cont. 1. Pick your class, and take a blank version of that class’s character
sheet.
2. Look at the Core self section at the bottom of your character sheet.
We will now determine your past, and how it shaped you:
I. Draw a vision card, and consult the Character history table at
the back of this book. Choose a phrase to complete the sen-
tence “As a child, I solved problems by…” in your core self, or write
your own phrase inspired by the card. If the card doesn’t feel
right for the character you wish to play, draw again.
II. Do the same for the sentence “As an adult, I survived / flourished
by…” Choose whether you survived or flourished.
3. Look at the Burden box at the bottom left of your character sheet.
This is an emotional weight you carry. It must be either an adjective
(eg. “Reckless”) or a verb in the -ing form (eg. “Doubting”).
I. If you already know your burden, fill it in now.
II. Otherwise, draw a vision card and consult the Burdens table.
Choose a word from the list, or think of a similar word.
4. Look at the Ideal box at the bottom right of your character sheet.
This is an ideal you strive to live by. Like the burden, it must be ei-
ther an adjective or a verb in the -ing form.
I. If you already know your ideal, fill it in now.
II. Otherwise, draw a vision card and consult the Ideals table.
Choose a word from the list, or think of a similar word.
Note: During character creation you do not create a Vice or Virtue. These are
advanced versions of a Burden or Ideal and must be earned through play.
5. Choose two abilities from your class’s abilities list. (See p. “Charac-
ters & Classes / Classes and Abilities”.) Write them in the Abilities
box in the center of your character sheet.
6. Look at your skills: the twelve words (“Skirmish” to “Survey”) on
the left side of your character sheet. Three skill points are already
assigned.
I. Assign 2 skill points inspired by your core self.
II. Assign another 2 points wherever you want.
Note: During character creation, no skill may have more than 2 points.
7. If you are an Occultist, Illusionist or Siphoner—or if you have de-
cided your character has some magical experience, regardless of
your class—choose a magical proficiency. Write it on your character
sheet, and fill in the “Adept” marker.

38
 8. Fill in your name, your look (appearance), your age, and your culture
(eg. “Turkish”).
9. Decide what brought you to Dioscoria and write it in the “Notes”
section. For example:
◦ You were fleeing a famine, natural disaster or war.
◦ A government, church or cult persecuted you for how
you choose to live.
◦ You are a magician eager to practice your art in a
place where it is accepted.
◦ You are a native-born Dioscorian coming of age,
ready to serve.
10. Create a contact you know from your homeland.
I. To do this, draw 3 vision cards. Consult the Vision Guide for
inspiration about what these cards could mean, and/or take in-
spiration from the card imagery.
II. Choose one card to represent the new contact. Describe who
they are, their profession and personality.
III. On your character sheet, write their name under the “Contacts”
section.
IV. Fill in up to 6 segments of the “Affection” clock: 2 if you are ac-
quaintances, 4 if you are friends, 6 if you are very close. Write
their homeland under “Land”.
11. Create a Dioscorian contact you already know.
I. To do this, repeat the steps of creating your previous contact.
II. Fill in only 1 affection for this contact.

Introductions
Once you have all created your characters, you are What are your first impressions of each other? Each
ready to band together to become a party. You are player may describe something about another Agent
taken in by the Dioscorian authorities, given basic (or Agents) their character connects with, or has an
training in literacy, numeracy, magical principles and aversion to.
combat, and grouped together to form a “Hand of
Dioscoria”: a group of Agents ready for missions.
Choosing a mascot
Dioscoria has many Hands, and uses them to shape the You must also pick your Hand Animal. This is your
world as best it can. Sometimes they are flexible and Hand’s mascot. Here are some suggestions:
delicate, like the hands of a musician. Sometimes they
are sudden and violent, like a blow from a fist. Hound, wolf, rat, cat, lynx, horse, fox, snake, lion, gazelle,
crow, pelican, elephant, dove, bull, owl, camel, bee, ibis,
You meet for the first time before your first mission. jackal, hyena, ibex, vulture, jerboa, bat.
Introduce yourselves to each other. This can be done in
or out of character. Your Hand name will be complete once you have com-
pleted several scenarios together.
(See “The cycle of play / Wrapping up / Final cleanup”.)

39
On Dioscorian Agents Practical concerns
Dioscorian agents are sent out by the city’s seers to Agents are often sent to distant cities. To save time,
safeguard knowledge, protect the innocent, and pre- their vessel sails into the Dioscorian mist and magically
serve the city’s future. They are grouped into teams of emerges at one of the other veiled havens, allowing
two to six agents, called “Hands”; each agent is in- them to instantly travel to distant shores.
formally known as a “Finger” or “Nail”. Each Hand (See “The City of Dioscoria / History and Culture /
chooses a nickname, usually an adjective plus an an- The Seven Veiled Havens”.)
imal: “The puissant otters,” “the stubborn hogs”, “the Dioscorian agents learn the Speech of Eden, a magical
purple sparrows” and so on. tongue which allows them to speak in any chosen lan-
These agents come from many backgrounds: some are guage, and understand all languages. This means they
new refugees paying off their debt to their new home- do not need to learn the languages of their mission tar-
land, some are young Dioscorians taking their first gets to communicate.
steps into the wider world, some are veteran agents
who enjoy this task and volunteer year after year, and
some are criminals sentenced to agency duties.
Each Hand serves for a fixed term, often a year. When
the term is over, the team receive uniquely minted
badges commemorating their term of service. Diosco-
rians wear these with pride in public; veterans of mul-
tiple Hands often wear their pin collection on their
breast, or bristling on a sash.

Ethical concerns
The world beyond Dioscoria is a dangerous and arbi-
trary place, where violence is often the rule rather than
the exception. Nonetheless, Dioscoria’s philosophers
insist that agents should not stoop to murder or caus-
ing serious injury except as a last resort, for two rea-
sons. First, the people of the wider world do not have
Dioscorians’ education or spiritual experience, so it
behooves agents to offer them a chance to change their
ways. Secondly, violence tends to beget more violence:
killing may be the most efficient choice today, but will
cause a backlash tomorrow.
Agents may ignore these guidelines if the situation
demands, but the Council may hold them accountable
for too many infractions.

40
Classes and Abilities Resistance
As part of their training, each Agent chooses a guild Some abilities can be resisted. This means that if an
which will train and teach them. The guild chosen de- Agent uses this ability on an enemy, the enemy can
termines each Agent’s class. They are: attempt to cancel out the effect or turn it back on the
Agent. This is only possible if the ability has become
• Occultists, from the Guild of Spirits well-known, probably because you have used it in nu-
• Illusionists, from the Guild of the Prism merous scenarios. The enemy must also be powerful
• Hunters, from the Guild of Wolves enough to resist: for example, to resist “Shatter” the en-
• Champions, from the Guild of Shields emy must be a powerful warrior, and to resist “Master
of affect” the enemy must be mentally or emotionally
• Prowlers, from the Guild of Shadows grounded. As time goes on, news of your tricks will
• Scoundrels, from the Guild of the Lost spread, making these abilities easier to resist. Minions
• Performers, from the Guild of Song and Masks are unable to resist unless they are elite guards, and
• Siphoners, from the Guild of Blood this ability has become so infamous they have been
trained to counter it.
Each Agent can learn abilities from their guild sim-
ply by training. Cross-class exchanges are encouraged, If the Seer decides an enemy is resisting, they must
however, and many agents teach each other the tech- choose the skill with which they are resisting. For a
niques of their various guilds. purely magical ability this would probably be Channel,
or possibly soothe. For an ability that centers around
movement and sneakiness, Slip or Finesse might be
Ability terminology more applicable, for example. The Agent may attempt
to counter the resistance by drawing this skill; the dif-
Harm ficulty of the challenge is determined by how effective
the enemy’s resistance is. If the Agent wins the chal-
If an ability causes harm but does not specify which lenge, the ability is successful. If not, the ability fails or
type, the player may choose which type to take. its power is turned back on the Agent somehow, at the
Seer’s discretion.
Minions
A minion is a guard, henchman, soldier, servant etc. Magical resistance
These are generally unnamed enemies which are not Magical resistance is similar to normal resistance. The
critical for the plot of a scenario, and exist to create main difference is that enemies can resist magically
tension and obstacles for Agents to overcome. Adver- if they are experienced magic users, or if they em-
saries are never minions: they’re too important. ploy magic users who can prepare charms or talismans
to counter the ability in question. This means that a
mighty wizard could resist magically, but so could an
emperor who happens to be wearing an amulet that
counters the magical ability in question.
As with normal resistance, an ability must become
widely known before enemies can resist it, and min-
ions can only resist if they have been specifically pre-
pared—in this case, given magical amulets.

41
 The Occultist

An expert at the manipulation of spirits, magic, energy and otherworldly

forces. The occultist bends spiritual forces and binds or unbinds them
to the physical realm. This is the most aggressive type of magician, since
their craft is focused on the outward effects of magic.

42
 The Way of the Spirits

SPIRIT SHACKLE: Perform a medium channel draw to call upon a

spirit of the dead. They are bound to you until they have fulfilled one
command from you. On a failure, they struggle against the bond you
have created: take 2 spiritual harm.
WEATHER: Manipulate the weather. A mild change (eg. cloud cover-
age, fog, heavy rain) is free. Take 1 harm to cause more extreme weather
events such as a lightning storm.
SWAP: Trade positions with another person who you can see. Each time
you use it (except for the first time per scenario), your essence thins: take
1 harm. This can be magically resisted.
SHROUD: Shift partially into the spirit world for a moment. You can-
not take physical damage and are shadowy, but not invisible. Take 1 harm
to stay here for a few minutes rather than a moment, or to pass through
solid objects. After each use you need some time to rest before you can
use this again or you will take harm.
EVIL EYE: When you take this ability, start a three-segment “Law of
reflection” clock. Choose a target, and describe a misfortune that will
soon befall them. (The Seer decides when this occurs exactly.) If they are
seriously wounded, advance the clock by 1. If they are killed, advance the
clock by 2. When filled, take 1 trauma.
THE OLD WAYS: When you take this ability, create a new contact: an
ancient pagan deity. Create a ritual that calls on the favor of this god. In
addition to its standard effect, the ritual also has an extreme effect, only
available if your affection with this contact is at 6. Affection is raised by
communing with this god during downtime; distance cannot be gained.
Using the ritual costs 1 affection. Affection is also lost by betraying their
sacred principles.
CELESTIAL BARGAIN: When you take this ability gain a new con-
tact—an Angel or Demon— and set affection to maximum. This being
will assist you in the performance of powerful or devastating magic, and
can act as a magical source. Each time you use this ability, lose 1 affec-
tion. When affection is empty or distance is full, this being demands
your aid as their earthly representative and gives you a task. When you
have fulfilled this obligation, fill affection back to maximum. They will
not offer further assistance until the task is done. Distance does not in-
crease during downtime, but fill in one distance segment every time you
do something this entity disapproves of.
MASTER OF MATTER: When you take this ability, fill 4 segments of
your “Transmutation” proficiency clock. When using this proficiency,
gain +1 channel.

43
 The Illusionist

A magician who bends perception and senses, operating on the mind

rather than the world. Since each human connects to the world only
through the senses which are at the beck and call of the illusionist, this
can grant immense power, though of a subtle kind.

44
 The Way of the Prism

MIND READ: When you take this ability, start a four-segment “Mind
fracture” clock. You close your eyes and enter another’s mind. If they are
magically or mentally strong, they try to force you out: face a channel
challenge. On failure, you gain no information; on anything but a total
success, advance the clock. When the clock is filled, take 1 trauma.
MIRAGE: Perform an illusion to fool one of the senses. The illusion can-
not affect your appearance. You may take 1 spiritual harm for each addi-
tional sense affected by the illusion, and/or take 1 spiritual harm to affect
more than a dozen people.
UNRAVEL: You reverse the fate of a nearby object, undoing the work
that led to its present state, such as untying shoelaces or unlatching the
lock of a door. If the work you are undoing took more than a few sec-
onds, take 1 physical harm. If it took more than a few hours, take 2 phys-
ical harm. Undoing work performed by more than a few people is not
possible.
MIRROR WORLD: Choose one target and unleash a full-sensory illu-
sion to make them feel terror, euphoria, or misery. Take 1 spiritual harm
to affect up to five targets. This can be magically resisted.
GLAMOR: Change how you appear. You can change anything about
your appearance but may not become invisible. Each time you use this
ability (unless this is the first time this scenario), your essence thins: take
1 harm.
SPIRIT DOWSING: You seek the location of a specific creature or ob-
ject by entering a trance. You must know what your target looks like.
MASTER OF THE MIND: When you take this ability, fill 4 segments
on your “Mentalism” proficiency clock. Gain +1 channel when using
mentalism.
WHISPER: Telepathically whisper in another person’s mind, inserting
an idea, suspicion, fear or fantasy. This can be magically resisted.

45
 The Hunter

Hunters do not fight their prey: they simply kill it. These implacable sol-
diers are trained to within an inch of their lives, and will achieve their
goal no matter the pain and injury they sustain. They are the anti-heroes
spoken of in soft tones, equal parts reverence and fear.

46
 The Way of the Wolf

BUTCHER: You kill, at any cost. Create a four-segment “butcher” clock.

When you use this ability, kill three or more minions effortlessly. Draw a
pip card; aces have a value of 1. If the value of the pip card is equal to or
less than the number of minions you butchered, advance the clock. Each
time you use this ability in a scenario after the first, fill one clock seg-
ment. When the clock is filled, take 1 trauma.
PREDATOR: When you reach a target without being seen, describe how
you eliminate them. This can be resisted. If you dispatch them in a spec-
tacular way, nearby people panic and are more prone to blunders.
HEART STOPPER: You know secret pressure point techniques. Per-
form them on an unsuspecting target and they will drop dead after tak-
ing a number of steps that you decide.
FEARSOME: Before a challenge roll, explain how you intimidate some-
one and gain +1 for the challenge. You may also take 1 physical harm to
perform a feat of almost superhuman strength, and gain an additional +1.
MATCHLOCK: A team from Dioscoria has smuggled a matchlock ri-
fle with tripod to a sniping spot. Once per session you may trigger this
ability: declare that you have reached the spot and retrieve the gun. It’s
cumbersome, hard to move and unwieldy in close combat, but effective at
longer ranges.
UNSTOPPABLE: If you have 4 or more physical harm, gain +1 to all
Skirmish or Unleash challenges, and do not draw fewer cards during such
challenges due to the effect of harm.
RESILIENT: You naturally heal faster, and may heal +1 physical harm
with the “Heal harm” downtime action.
ASSASSIN: Gain +1 Slip when the end goal of a Slip challenge is
ending a life.

47
 The Champion

Champions are sincere devotees of some deeply held value. Perhaps they
are medieval knights hankering for a lost age of decency and justice, or
Ottoman janissaries determined to defend those who cannot protect
themselves. They live by a code—even if that code, as with so much in
Dioscoria, is self-written.

48
 The Way of the Shield

STIRRING SPEECH: Once per scenario, give a stirring speech to the

group. (Actually give this speech at the table.) All players who hear it ex-
cept you take a fortune card.
CHIVALRY: During challenges where you are directly protecting those
who cannot protect themselves, gain +1 to all skills.
WARRIOR OF FAITH: After you invoke your ideal during a challenge,
you find yourself closer to your faith: gain +1 Channel or Unleash for the
rest of the scenario.
SHATTER: Throw caution to the wind and obliterate enemy defenses.
Take 1 physical harm to destroy your enemy’s sword or shield with a
mighty strike. This can be resisted. The Seer will decide whether they flee
in terror, their defenses are in tatters, or they stand in awe and await the
killing blow.
BODYGUARD: Before or during combat you may choose one person to
protect. Every time they would take physical harm, you defend them and
take it instead. You may then make a counterattack, drawing 1 extra card
for each harm you just protected them from.
PHALANX: Before combat begins, if you are outnumbered, make a
Survey or Study draw. If successful, you guide the party to fight like a
well-oiled machine: for the rest of this combat all Agents gain +1 to all
combat-related draws. If you fail, your plan comes apart: the Seer gains +1
for the first attack each Agent makes.
DUELIST: Pick a target. You and that target will be 100% focused on
each other until one is victorious. Gain +1 to challenges where you fight
this target. If you abandon the duel, or are not the one to strike the final
blow, your pride is wounded: take 1 spiritual harm.
CONSECRATE: Take some time to commune with angelic or demonic
forces, and consecrate or curse this location. If consecrating, every player
draws one extra card for challenge draws while in this location; if curs-
ing, the Seer draws one fewer. What demands do these forces make
in exchange?

49
 The Prowler

Prowlers are thieves, burglars and pilferers. They slip across moonlit roof-
tops or half-open windows to acquire what should, by rights, be theirs:
money, items, an entrance or access point. They are masters of stealth,
and would rather steal into the shadows than join the fray.

50
The Way of the Shadows

LIVING SHADOW: +1 to challenges which involve remaining unseen; +2

if they are searching for you.
LEVITATION: Use magic to float through the air. This slows your fall,
lets you leap great distances or climb a wall that would be impossible to
scale. Each time per scenario you use it after the first, your magical ener-
gies wane: take 1 spiritual harm.
SLEIGHT OF HAND: +1 to Finesse if you are trying to steal or plant
something on a person. +2 if you’re trying to conceal an object.
WISP: Disappear in a wreath of smoke and teleport through a wall, ceil-
ing, or floor. Each time per scenario you use this after the first, your es-
sence thins: take 1 spiritual harm. After each wisp your character must
also wait a few minutes before the power can be used again.
SLIPPERY: It looked like you got injured, but it was only a glancing
blow! When the scenario is over, remove 1 physical harm. Also gain +1 to
Finesse or Slip when climbing, running or leaping in a creative or
unorthodox way.
BURGLAR: +1 to Survey or Study challenges while casing a joint. +1 to
Finesse when gaining access to a forbidden area or container.
GETAWAY: Once per session, when you are discovered somewhere you
shouldn’t be, draw a fortune card.
THIEF’S INSTINCT: When you take this ability, start a 4-segment
“Loot” clock. You have a knack for knowing where your target would hide
their treasures: when searching for a secret hiding spot, you find it imme-
diately. Each time you do this, fill a “Loot” segment as you pocket treas-
ures or information. When the clock is full, you may trade it in during
the downtime phase for free training and information: gain 3xp.

51
 The Scoundrel

The Guild of the Lost takes in the black sheep who are refused elsewhere.
These mountebanks and ne’er-do-wells live by their wits, their tongue
and, when those two fail, by the panache of their swordplay. It is said the
Guild sacrifices to Fortuna herself, which explains how their Agents can
survive so many absurd brushes with death.

52
 The Way of the Lost

DESPERATE GAMBIT: Gain +2 for an attack challenge, but if you fail

take 2 more physical harm.
SHOW FIGHTER: Make a difficult Finesse attack against a target. If
successful, you may choose to do something showy rather than cause
harm. This pauses the fight and lets you talk to them for a second, and
you impress any onlookers with your skill.
ADAPTIVE STYLE: You allow your opponent to strike you; take 1
physical harm. You now have a better understanding of their technique:
gain +1 to combat challenges in this scenario when fighting them, or oth-
ers trained in the same way.
INTERROGATOR: Gain +1 for a challenge when trying to get informa-
tion using ruthless intimidation or threats of violence. Gain an extra +1 if
you have 3 or more harm.
UNCANNY LUCK: Every time you use a fortune card to win one of
your own challenges, flip a coin. If it’s heads, keep the fortune card. Also,
the first time per scenario you fill your final Harm slot, ignore that harm.
QUICK TONGUE: +1 to Bargain when negotiating with corrupt or
criminal NPCs. If you are negotiating for your life or the life of someone
else, also draw a fortune card.
MELT INTO THE CROWD: +2 to Slip or Mingle when evading
pursuers in a crowd.
OUTCAST: Take -1 Mingle when consorting with regular folk,
but +2 Mingle when consorting with exiles, outcasts, criminals and
ne’er-do-wells.

53
 The Performer

The Guild of Song and Masks dedicates itself to all forms of music, as
well as performance and theater. This guild finds all classes of perfor-
mance worthy of study, from the lowest tavern drinking song to the most
delicate tragic opera.

54
 The Way of the Song

METHOD ACTING: You are an expert at inhabiting disguises. +1 to

Perform and Convince while disguised.
THE SHOW MUST GO ON: When you take this ability, start an
eight-segment “washed up” clock. If you fail a Perform, Bargain, Convince
or Mingle challenge, you may draw the top pip card and play it as a free
fortune card. If the card does not make you succeed, fill in one segment
of the clock. When it is filled, take 1 trauma.
CHARACTER STUDY: If you observe or converse with a character,
you can imitate their mannerisms and convincingly speak in their voice.
Gain +1 to all challenges when impersonating them, as long as you
disguise yourself appropriately.
ART FROM PAIN: For every 2 harm you have, draw +1 card for chal-
lenges regarding artistry and performance. If you wish, you may inflict
spiritual harm on yourself at any time by opening your heart to the
darkness of the world.
MASTER OF AFFECT: Gain +1 Perform when performing a song,
poem or other theatrical work. On a success, you determine exactly what
emotional reaction the audience has. If the result is a total success, or you
take 2 spiritual harm to give it your all, you inspire the audience to take
immediate action in response to the emotional message.
This can be magically resisted.
FACE STEALER: When everything is quiet and you can concentrate,
you can change your face and voice. You must have already seen the face
you are trying to steal. Make a medium Channel challenge; on failure it
lasts minutes, on total success it lasts up to a day.
JACK IN THE BOX: When not in combat, distract a soon-to-be enemy
with a performance, then attack when they least suspect it. Gain +2 Un-
leash or Skirmish for this attack.
THRIVES IN THE SPOTLIGHT: +1 to Convince, Perform and Mingle
when all eyes are on you.

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 The Siphoner

The Guild of Blood is dedicated to healing the body and the mind via
the manipulation of humors. Emotions, traumas, illnesses and spiritual
blockages may be healed or soothed by their intervention. The legends of
rogue siphoners maiming and destroying the minds of others to feast on
their humors are certainly exaggerated.

56
 The Way of the Blood

LIFE’S BLOOD: You sacrifice your humors to beseech the fates. Take
any amount of physical harm. Draw the same number of fortune cards
and distribute them to yourself or other players.
LIFE THIEF: Inflict any amount of physical harm on the rest of the
party; heal half the amount in yourself. If any of the affected Agents re-
sist, make a Soothe draw against them; if they win, this action has no ef-
fect even on other Agents and you take 1 spiritual harm.
BLOOD OATH: You make a binding agreement with someone, written
or verbal. They must consent to this agreement. If you break the oath,
take 6 physical harm; if an NPC breaks it, they are gravely wounded.
DRAIN: When you take this ability, create a three-segment “drain”
clock. You reach out and touch another person, draining them of their
humors. This can be magically resisted. Decide whether they pass out or
die; heal 1 or 3 harm respectively. If they die, flip a coin; on heads, the
drain clock advances. When the clock is filled, take 1 trauma.
SIPHON HUMORS: You touch another person and adjust their emo-
tional state. Take 1 spiritual harm to make them happier, sadder, angrier,
calmer, lazier or more reasonable.
EASE PAIN: You may transfer any amount of spiritual harm from an-
other Agent to yourself. If you do this during combat you must use a
siphon glove.
HEAL: Heal another Agent for 1 physical harm with a medium soothe
challenge. If you fail, they still heal 1 harm but you take 1 harm as well.
During downtime, you may heal 1 physical harm for another Agent
for free.
REBALANCE HUMORS: When you take this ability, start a 6-seg-
ment “Flesh fatigue” clock. During a scenario, you may move a skill point
from one skill to another. You can use this ability multiple times per sce-
nario, but for each skill point you move after the first, fill a clock seg-
ment. When a scenario is complete, return all skill points to their origi-
nal position. When the clock is full, erase a skill point of your choice and
take 2 physical harm.

57
 Item Descriptions These item descriptions should be used to inspire what these items could
be. They are not intended to be definitive or limit your ideas. Feel free
to deviate from these definitions if the Seer or Agent has a better or
more creative idea. Seers: if your players ask “What is this item?”, we
suggest first asking them “What do you think it is?” to encourage their
imaginations.
Items listed on a character sheet in italics are consumable and one-use
only, though an Agent may choose to bring multiple.

Generic items
A blade or two
The world of the Renaissance is dangerous, and it is foolish to travel
without a weapon. This could be a dagger, knife, dirk, throwing knife,
sword or other bladed weapon.
Sleep charm
A small item, maybe a stone or necklace. When activated and placed on
someone’s person, they will fall into a slumber for a few hours.
Documents
Perhaps shipping manifests, an invitation to a private party, maps of the
sewers of London or a summons to see the Sultan. Dioscorian forgeries
are quite thorough, though an equally thorough clerk might see
through them.
Tarot cards
Suitable for play, card tricks, or divination. A divination should be a hard
Channel challenge. On a total success, they should draw three vision
cards and keep one; on a partial, they should draw two and pick one, per-
haps taking spiritual harm from failing to channel the energy of fate; on
a failure they should take spiritual harm, and either fail at the divination
or receive a single card.
Signal flare
A new Dioscorian invention. A pouch filled with what seems like wet
sand. When squeezed in the palm it holds its shape and activates by fly-
ing a hundred meters or so into the sky before erupting into a light that
will float and linger for 5-10 minutes. Too bright to look at directly.
Seal of Dioscoria
A small token, coin or sigil. When presented to a sailor or captain with
knowledge of Dioscoria, this will grant the holder passage to the
hidden isle.

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Occultist Illusionist
Spirit flask Flash powder
A bottle or vial that can contain a ghost or spirit. Creates a bright flash that can disorient and
Meant for former humans, it could perhaps hold a jinn temporarily blind those nearby.
or demon but might crack under the pressure.
Shimmer cloak
Ritual materials A cloak that shines and reflects when drawn about
All the materials necessary to perform a ritual that the shoulders. The user does not become invisible, but
you have created with the Seer. seems semi-transparent while the cloak appears like
rippling water.
Spirit lure
Each spirit lure is unique, designed by and known only Concealment powder
to its user. When activated, the lure draws out nearby When rubbed onto an object or person, this causes
ghosts and spiritual entities. most observers to glance over it without taking notice.
Cannot prevent a thorough search.
Other-sight lens
Perhaps a mirror, a monocle or a shard of glass. When True-sight mask
looking through it, you are able to see things or crea- When worn, this mask allows you to see through all
tures that are otherwise invisible. deceptions and illusions to the true nature of things.
Book of demons and angels Truth-bend mirror
A catalog of the many known demons and angels. This mirror absorbs sights, sounds, faces and so on,
Their names, how to summon them, and their atti- and reflects back what you deeply want to see or hear.
tudes, quirks, and dislikes.
Angelic ward
Has it been blessed by angels to protect the owner via
angelic power, or is this a charm to keep angels away?
Alchemy powders
Substances and powders necessary to perform a transmu-
tation: turning lead into gold, or iron into quicksilver.

59
Hunter Champion
Wheel-lock pistol Expandable shield
A clockwork pistol capable of firing a single shot be- A defensive tool that can collapse on itself for easy
fore it must be rewound and reloaded. transportation. Invented by cutting-edge Dioscorian
clockmakers and smiths.
Tracking charm
When placed on a person, this allows you to vaguely Blessed water
sense which direction they are in. Holy water from a font or sacred well. Repels demonic
or deathly spirits. When drunk, it allows you to attain
Snares inner peace.
Tools and materials for laying traps, capable of captur-
ing someone and holding them in place. Numbing salve
Grazes and scrapes can be ignored when this substance
Doppelganger charm is applied.
This charm is bound to you. When placed about some-
one else’s neck, it will cause everyone to see your face Protection charm
in place of the wearer’s. Bends fate to assist the bearer in combat.
Gag of truth Psalter
A tattered bit of cloth. When stuffed in someone’s A collection of Holy Psalms. Some pertain to blessing
mouth, the only words they are able to speak are those or warding, others to banishing evil. Can inspire and
that are entirely true. focus a devout champion.
Warning skull
The skull of a sinner, bound to demonic forces. Must Prowler
be kissed to activate. Whispers when powerful spirits
are close. Laughs when someone is trespassing against Caltrops
you, or sneaking up on you. Pointed, angled metal shapes. When strewn on the
floor they force guards to step through them carefully,
or risk their ankles.
Scoundrel Powdered shadow
Charisma charm When thrown, this powder fills a room with darkness
A gold tooth or enchanted makeup which makes the for a few minutes. If outside, it fills a space of roughly
user charming, encouraging others to see them in a 10-15 cubic meters.
friendly light.
Distraction charm
Disguise kit When thrown, this emits an irritating sound. It is also
Enough materials to make a single, convincing dis- enchanted to draw the attention and focus of those
guise. Clothing, prosthetics, false beards, hair dyes etc. around it.
Lust powder Dousing arrow
When inhaled, all inhibitions dissolve. Vices and pri- Can be fired at lanterns, candles and torches to douse
mal desire now hold sway. their light.

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Performer
Archetype masks
When worn, these masks help a performer channel a
theatrical archetype.
Bravado charm
When activated, the user is more charismatic and
confident.

Siphoner
Leeches
The most basic tool of any self-respecting healer’s trade.
Can be used to draw blood from patients, to store it
and keep it fresh within the living creature.
Blood net
A small pouch filled with tempered blood. When
thrown, the blood expands and congeals across its tar-
get. Cannot be cut by metal.
Bile pump
When attached to a willing or sleeping target, this
pump can increase or decrease the bile in their system,
making them more or less passionate, confident, and
prone to anger. Features a useful galvanic charge to
quickly wake them.
Phlegm tablets
When swallowed, these tablets increase focus and
thoughtfulness for a short time. Can make the patient
prone to flights of fancy.
Melancholy charm
Set the charm first—by uttering an incantation into
it—to make it inhibit, or increase, melancholy. Place it
on someone’s person to subsequently make them more
or less prone to despair and depression.
Siphon glove
A leather glove covered in microscopic needles to swap
humors between the patient and siphoner without the
need for a blade or incision.

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62
V. The Cycle of Play

Once each player has created an Agent, you are ready to play!
The Hidden Isle takes place across several phases, in this order:
• Downtime
• Scenario divination
• Playing the scenario
• Wrapping up
A detailed explanation of each phase can be found below.

Downtime
In the downtime phase, Agents spend time in Dioscoria, visiting con-
tacts and improving themselves while waiting for their next mission. This
phase has several steps:
1. Vices cause harm
2. Contacts drift away
3. Character transformation
4. Agents do downtime actions
Note: If this is your group’s first session—particularly if you have spent time
creating characters—ask your players if they want to skip the Downtime phase
and get straight to the action. You could be flexible about this: some players keen
on Dioscoria could do their downtime actions, and impatient players could skip
theirs.

63
Vices cause harm Character transformation
Vices are, ultimately, a form of self-harm. While they Given time, Agents may learn to embrace their darker
can be useful, over the long term they cause problems, self, or wield their ideal with greater confidence.
make Agents unhappy, and hold them back.
If an Agent’s burden and/or ideal track is at maximum,
Every Agent takes 1 spiritual harm for each of their they experience a moment of transformation: this trait
vices, and explains how the harm comes to be. becomes a more central aspect of their character.
Note: There is no reason, from a mechanical perspective,
Contacts drift away why an Agent cannot level both an ideal and burden at this
stage if both tracks are full. However, there may be narra-
While Agents can make many personal connections tive or emotional reasons why this may not make sense. The
during their time in Dioscoria, those relationships player and Seer should work together to decide what fits the
must be maintained or they will fall apart. character.
Each Agent looks at the Contacts section of their char- Follow these steps for any filled burdens or ideals:
acter sheet, and marks +1 distance for each contact.
If distance is now at maximum, reset distance to zero 1. Erase the ideal or burden in question. If this was
and remove 1 affection with this contact. If you cannot a burden, move it to the Vices box; if this was an
remove any more affection, you and this contact have ideal, move it to the Virtues box.
lost touch. You may remove them from your character 2. If the Ideal you just leveled was linked to a Vice
sheet. Affection can never drop below zero. (indicated by an asterisk), you may remove the
Vice.
3. Create a new ideal or burden (see below).
4. Either gain 4xp, or unlock the fourth skill pip for
a chosen skill by outlining the diamond on your
character sheet. (You do not gain this fourth skill
point immediately, but it can now be gained via
the regular xp leveling system.)
5. If you just acquired a virtue, either remove one
trauma or gain 2xp. If you just acquired a vice,
gain one trauma. Trauma can either be added to
an empty harm slot, or can be “upgraded” from
an existing harm.
6. Describe how your character integrates this vice
or virtue over the next few days, and what they
have learned about themselves. Consider explain-
ing how these developments make you better at
any skills you just unlocked or improved.
Note: Trauma is the worst kind of harm. It is represented by
writing a “T” in a harm box on your character sheet. It can-
not be removed as easily as physical or spiritual harm.
You can never have more than three virtues. If an
Agent has more than three virtues, they must move
one into the “Fulfilled virtues” section of their core self.
This virtue once served you, but has settled down to
become a passive, content part of your psyche. There is
no limit to the number of vices an Agent may have.

64
Creating a new burden or ideal
When one burden or ideal is dealt with, another rises to take its place.
Your characters are never “complete”: there is always another internal
challenge to master.
Creating traits with a card draw
The most straightforward way to create a new burden or ideal is:
1. Draw two vision cards.
2. Consult the “Burdens” or “Ideals” table as appropriate.
3. Find the rows of that table that correspond to the two vision cards.
4. Choose a word from one of these rows which resonates for your
character. Write it in the burden or ideal box on your character
sheet.
5. Discard the vision cards.
If this process does not result in a burden or ideal you are satisfied with,
you may abandon this draw and try again, or write your own word.
Creating an ideal from a vice
If you are creating a new ideal and already have a vice, you may create an
ideal inspired by your character’s attempts to conquer this vice. For ex-
ample, if you have the vice “Reckless”, you could gain the ideal “Patient”
to symbolize trying to overcome the vice. You may consult the “Ideals”
table for inspiration.
Mark an asterisk beside the Vice and Ideal in question, to indicate they
are linked. If you level this Ideal, you may remove the Vice entirely, or de-
cide that it is still a part of your character and keep it.
Creating a burden from a virtue
If you wish, you may create a new burden by taking one of your virtues
and rewording this as something you are emotionally hampered by, per-
haps because you no longer embody this virtue. This is the inverse of cre-
ating an ideal from a vice.
Note: Remember that burdens and ideals must be an adjective, or a verb in the
-ing form.

Losing Burdens and Ideals

If a burden or ideal track is ever reduced below zero, you no longer strug-
gle to overcome, or live up to, this aspect of your personality. Remove it,
and choose a new burden or ideal as above.

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Downtime actions
You can now prepare for the upcoming scenario in Note: The first time an Agent works towards a ritual, they
Dioscoria. Each player has 2 free downtime actions. are performing research, gathering ingredients and laying
You may gain a third action by pushing yourself and necessary groundwork — hence having to fill a multi-seg-
taking 2 spiritual harm. ment clock. An Agent may repeat an already established
ritual, eg. to refill a supply of magical items, with a single
You may do any of the following actions:Heal harm downtime action.
• Heal harm A ritual could theoretically do anything, as long as the
• Train Seer agrees that this is reasonable and won’t break the
• Make preparations game. It could confer a +1 advantage to a skill for the
• Reflect on Burden or Ideal duration of a scene or scenario. It could improve an
existing ability, perhaps reducing its cost or expanding
• Visit contact (once per downtime) its power. Or it could effectively be a brand new abil-
• Make new contact ity, designed by the player and balanced by the Seer.
For inspiration about what a ritual could achieve, see
Heal harm “Magic / Changes”.
Decide whether you wish to heal spiritual or physical Example: Aisha the Occultist loves the idea of embodying
harm. Remove up to 3 harm of that type from your demons, and begins a ritual called “Embody demon”. She
character sheet. tells the Seer she wants to use this ability to have a demon
possess her and mutate her body, giving her advantages
during combat. The Seer agrees, saying this could grant her
Train +2 to Unleash, but would reduce all other skills by 1. Also,
Gain 2xp in a skill or ability, or fill 1 segment of a mag- each time she does this she must make a Soothe check; on
ical proficiency clock. Explain in a brief vignette how a failure, she must tick up a 4-segment “Mutation” clock,
you improve that skill. which will cause her body to be warped beyond repair if it
ticks over. The Seer tells Aisha to draw a 6-segment “Em-
body demon ritual” clock to represent her preparing for the
Make preparations ritual, and Aisha makes a Channel challenge to determine
This could involve doing research, creating or acquir- how successful her preparations are. She has a complicated
ing some unusual items, or asking around for infor- success and fills in 2 of the 6 segments.
mation on adversaries. This may create an item, a new
magical ritual, or reveal some useful knowledge. This If the Seer feels it is appropriate, the Agent should
action could be short term or long term. If it is long perform a challenge draw to find out how successful
term, start a clock to represent making progress to- this effort is. But even a failure should yield something
wards this personal goal. Performing this action might useful. This will most often be done when a progress
involve a challenge draw to determine how successful clock is involved; we recommend that a failure result in
you are. Even a failure should result in some progress 1 filled segment, a complicated success result in 2 seg-
towards the goal. ments, and a total success result in 3 segments.

A player can use this phase to create a ritual. This

is a unique magical item or rite which confers some
advantage. To begin work on a ritual, start a clock: 4
segments for a minor ritual, 6 for a major. When the
clock is filled, the ritual is ready. Each time the player
works on this ritual, they should perform an appropri-
ate challenge; on a total success, complicated success or
failure, fill 3, 2 or 1 segments respectively.

66
Reflect on burden or ideal
You spend some time on self-reflection. Add or sub- Make preparations bonus (requires 3 affection):
tract 1 point from your burden or ideal track. Narrate
how you reflect on this. If your contact has 3 or more affection, you can ask
them to help you prepare. If this involves making a
If this fills your burden or ideal track, experience challenge draw, gain +1 for the challenge. If this results
character transformation. This raises this ideal or bur- in a clock filling up, fill one additional clock segment.
den into a vice or virtue. (See “Cycle of Play / Down- If the contact is distant, but their help is largely in-
time / Character transformation.”) If your burden or formational (eg. consulting a contact regarding their
ideal track falls below zero, replace it with a new bur- occult knowledge) you need only spent 1 downtime
den or ideal. action writing to them, instead of spending 2 to visit
them in person.
Visit contact These preparations could even involve planning or
You spend some time with one of your contacts and carrying out a ritual. This is an action you co-cre-
put in the work needed to forge a deeper connection. ate with the Seer. (See “Make preparations” above.) A
You may do this only once per downtime. ritual performed with a Dioscorian contact should be
slightly more potent than one an Agent would perform
You must have a contact to perform this action. If the alone. Rituals performed with contacts who live far
contact does not live in Dioscoria, and the last scenario away from Dioscoria could take advantage of local fea-
you played was not near where they live, you must also tures such as sacred pools, volcanic forges, or healing
spend a downtime action traveling to their home. springs; this should make the ritual powerful enough
that it is worth the extra downtime action spent on
1. Choose which contact you wish to visit.
traveling to the contact.
2. Remove all distance from this contact on your
character sheet. Training bonus (requires 4 affection):
3. Decide how you spend time with this contact: If your contact has 3 or more affection and has exper-
Heal harm, Train, Make preparations, Reflect on tise in the method of your training, gain an additional
burden or ideal, or have a Heart-to-heart. 1xp or one more segment in your magical proficiency
4. Draw a vision card to suggest how their life is go- clock.
ing, or the topic of your conversation. Heal harm bonus (requires 4 affection):
5. If you wish, you may invite another player to play
your contact in a short narrative scene inspired by If you heal with a contact who has 5 or more affection,
the vision card. your healing is not restricted to one type of harm. In-
stead, heal up to 3 harm of any type (except trauma).
6. Gain +1 affection with this contact. (Gain an ad-
ditional +1 affection if you had a Heart-to-heart.) Reflect on burden or ideal bonus (requires 5
7. Apply the effect of your chosen action. This is the affection):
same as if you had performed the action alone, If your contact has 5 affection, you may add or remove
but may also include bonuses based on your affec- an additional point to either the burden or ideal track.
tion. (See below)
Heart-to-heart bonus (requires 6 affection):
Note: If you have a contact with maximum affection, they
can teach you a special ability you would not otherwise If your contact has 6 affection, you may remove a point
have access to. (See “Game rules / Abilities.”) of Trauma. However, this is not an easy process: gain 2
spiritual harm.
Note: If you perform an action but do not qualify for the
contact bonus below, you perform the action but with no
bonus.

67
 Make new contact
Dioscoria is filled to bursting with unique and fascinating people. An Agent
who chooses this action takes a leisurely stroll through a district of the city,
opening themselves to fate and serendipity, hoping to make new friends.
1. Decide in which part of the city you are looking to strike up a
contact.
2. Draw 3 vision cards. Consult the Vision Guide for inspiration on
each of the three, and/or take inspiration from the card’s imagery.
3. Choose one card to represent the new contact. If you wish, suggest
who this person might be.
4. The Seer and you flesh out the character further. If you wish, you
may describe how you meet.
Note: Use the Vision Guide as a loose inspiration for these people’s personalities,
not necessarily their occupation.
5. Write their name, description and the card which represents them
on your character sheet, under “Contacts”.
6. Mark 1 point of affection with them.
Note: There is no limit to how many contacts you can have. If you run out of
space, note the contact’s details somewhere else.
An Agent may choose to make one of their fellow Agents into a con-
tact. If you do this, you are indicating that the two of you are more than
coworkers, but rather friends. Every time you go on a mission or spend a
downtime action together, clear distance. The other player gets to decide
when Affection goes up or down.

68
 Scenario Divination
In the Scenario Divination phase, the Seer—adopting the role of an Ora-
cle—and the Agents will work together to determine their next mission,
guided by a spread of Vision Cards. At the end of this phase, you will be
able to answer these questions:
• What is the main action of our mission? Retrieval, rescue, protec-
tion, sabotage, prevention, or contending with earthly or magical
forces?
• Who is the antagonist we will be facing? Something or someone will
stand against us as we try to accomplish our goal.
• What are the stakes of the mission? What would happen if we didn’t
take action?
• What is the specific goal of the mission? This will provide more de-
tailed information about the mission’s action.
• Who or what is our lead, our first clue or contact?

Mission types Goal question Card value

Retrieve a text, map or artifact. What are you retrieving? 2-3
Retrieve or rescue a person. Who are you retrieving? 4-5
Protect a person, group or structure. Who or what are you protecting? 6
Recruit a person or group. Who are you recruiting? 7
Contend with despotic or dogmatic forces. Which forces? 8
Contend with demonic or magical forces. Which forces? 9
Sabotage a stronghold or facility. Which facility? 10
Prevent a disaster, eg. assassination, magical ritual. What disaster are we preventing? A

To plan or improvise?
The Seer may choose to prepare a scenario ahead of time, or improvise
one during scenario divination. Preparing is better for Seers who have
the free time to plan a scenario, and are less comfortable thinking on
their feet. Improvising is better for Seers with less time, who are com-
fortable telling stories on the fly.

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Preparing a scenario ahead of time
The goal of preparing a scenario is not to exhaustively 8. Will any player contacts feature in this mission?
plan every moment, challenge, or interaction, but to 9. How could the scenario progress? Think of op-
block out the possibility space of the scenario so you portunities you could give players, considering
are more prepared for the unexpected. their characters’ strengths.
To prepare a scenario, answer these questions: 10. What dangers or challenges might the party face?
1. Will this scenario tie into any existing events, in 11. What might the adversary do during the
Dioscoria or the wider world? (Consult the Terri- scenario?
tory sheet.) 12. Do you have any twists, surprises or tricks
2. Choose a mission type from the table above. This planned?
will help you contextualize the scenario you are 13. What visions will you bestow on the party?
planning. You need not be limited to this list, but Choose one vision card per Agent.
it should help focus your planning.
Now, place the vision cards you have chosen on top of
3. Which adversary will the party face? This may be the deck so they will be drawn in this order: Adver-
a character from a previous scenario drawn from sary, Stakes, Goal, Lead, and finally the Agent vision
the adversary sheet, a new character that will cards.
be relevant only for this scenario, or a powerful
figure that will become a recurring antagonist. Proceed to the divination ritual. You are now ready to
Choose a vision card to represent this. begin the ritual as though you were improvising the
4. What are the stakes of this mission? What would scene. Since you have stacked the deck, you already
happen if the Agents did not intervene, or failed? know what mission they will face, and will use the div-
Maybe the Agents are trying to avert a disaster, ination as a ritualized way of conveying this.
protect knowledge or culture, or keep Dioscoria
secret. Choose a vision card to represent this.
5. What is the mission’s goal? This must be a spe-
cific target and will further clarify the mission
type selected above. For example, “Steal the Book
of Souls from the Necromancer’s cave”, “Rescue
the visionary artist before the Shah can imprison
them”, “Stop the play and burn the cursed script
before it infects the minds of London”. Choose a
vision card to represent this, consulting the
Vision Guide if necessary.
6. What lead can the players follow to get this mis-
sion started? This could be a person or a book
with key information, or a location to scout. This
will be the first scene of the scenario, granting
the Agent’s the information they need to create a
more detailed plan of action. Choose a vision card
to represent this.
7. In which territory does the scenario take place?
Which locations or buildings within this territory
would be interesting to explore or exploit?
(See: “Cities of the Sixteenth Century”)

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Improvising a scenario
If the Seer is improvising, each time a card is drawn for the divination
ritual, fan the cards and let an Agent pick one. The Seer then reads the
card’s entry from the Vision Guide: its overall meaning, characters, loca-
tions, bad outcomes, etc. They ask the players for suggestions about what
the card could mean in the context of their chosen mission type. If the
group has trouble finding an interesting interpretation, you may draw a
clarification card: a card that should expand or clarify the meaning of
the first card.
Example: The Seer draws Temperance as the adversary card, and asks the group
for suggestions. The group has trouble conceiving of an adversary who is patient,
calm and temperate, so the Seer draws a clarification card: the Knight of Swords.
Different players now chime in with suggestions: perhaps the adversary was a
patient, calm person but they were driven to sudden action, which made them
reckless. Or maybe they are a reckless knightly order who believe they are bring-
ing balance, but don’t see the full picture of the damage they will cause.
Note: A clarification card can augment the original card or even replace it en-
tirely, if it speaks to you much more than the first. The goal is to inspire powerful
ideas; the cards are just a means to that end.
Do not make a final decision about a card’s meaning until all cards have
been drawn. It is common for later cards to inspire new interpretations
of the previous, or add more nuance or detail. Only when all cards have
been drawn will the Seer be able to understand each in the context of the
others, and describe the mission in full.

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 The divination ritual
Whether the Seer has chosen to prepare or improvise the scenario,
Agents will receive their mission via a divinatory ritual. This is where the
Oracle, speaking with the authority of fate, performs a Tarot reading and
determines the Agents’ task. We encourage the seer to make this as ritu-
alistic an experience as possible. Dim lights, light candles, and welcome
the Agents with ritualized speech: “Welcome Agents. May the fates guide
us, like feathers in a storm…”
To perform the divination ritual, follow these steps:
1. If improvising, the Seer asks what type of mission the Agents wish
to attempt, drawn from the “Mission types” table. If the players can’t
pick, the Seer either chooses, or draws a pip card to decide, consult-
ing the table’s “Card value” column.
2. Draw cards to generate the scenario.
I. The Seer, on behalf of the group, asks the cards: “Who is our
adversary?” One Agent draws a card. This inspires your
adversary. This could be an existing character, or a new one.
The card could describe the adversary’s character, profession,
or internal state.
II. The Seer, on behalf of the group, asks the cards: “What will
happen if we don’t intervene?” One Agent draws a card. This
inspires the stakes. Maybe the Agents are trying to avert a dis-
aster, protect knowledge or culture, or keep Dioscoria secret.
III. The Seer, on behalf of the group, asks the cards: “What is our
goal?” One Agent draws a card. This inspires the mission. This
must be a specific, tangible objective. For example: “Steal an
occult book”, “Rescue an artist”, “Stop a play and burn the
script”, “Assassinate the king”, or “Protect the palace from a
mob”.
• This should answer the goal question posed by the chosen
mission type from step 1.
IV. The Seer, on behalf of the group, asks the cards: “What is the
first step on our path?” One Agent draws a card. This inspires
the lead: a clue for the Agents to follow, such as a Dioscorian
spy, a witness, someone who knows the adversary, or a location
to scout. This will be the first scene of the scenario: a low-stakes
situation where Agents can get the information they need to
make a plan. For example: “Talk to the explorer with the silver
tree pendant”, or “Investigate the warehouses near the docks”.
Note: Scenario divination should only paint the situation in broad strokes. Play-
ers don’t need actionable information yet: just the basics of the mission. They
will only form an actual plan during the “Cut to the action” scene later.

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 3. The Seer determines the scenario’s setting by choosing a territory.
This could be anywhere in the world: an enchantress’s isle in the In-
dian Ocean, a village in the English countryside, or a French mon-
astery. For new Seers, or for the early scenarios of a campaign, we
recommend you choose one of our pre-prepared hubs: they tend to
be richer and more full of options than other settings.
4. Distill the meaning of all cards into a succinct and complete answer
to all questions.
“You are facing adversary, whose plans will result in stakes. You must
travel to lead in territory to gain more information about how to goal.”
Example: “You must stand against the wealthy aristocrat Rotherford whose min-
ing operations will unearth a new resource that will destroy the balance of the
spirit realm. Travel to London to meet with the former overseer of the mine to
learn how the operation can be sabotaged and production ceased.”
5. The Seer bestows visions to guide the Hand to victory.
I. The Seer draws vision cards one by one, laying each one face up
on the table. When the Seer finds a card that resonates with the
scenario or an Agent, they give that card to an Agent, saying “I
bestow upon you a vision of…” followed by the card’s name or
one of its meanings.
Example: The Seer flips through the deck until they reach the Queen of Swords,
which is suggestive of Anton’s Agent. The Seer gives Anton the card, saying “I be-
stow upon you a vision of enlightenment.”
II. Repeat until each Agent has one vision card.
III. The Seer keeps the vision cards that were used in the divina-
tion. These are the Seer’s vision cards. The Seer cannot take
more than 4 vision cards: if they drew clarification cards, some
must be discarded so they have one card representing
each question.
6. The Seer blesses the journey ahead.
I. The Seer gives each player two pip cards. These are their
fortune hands. This represents the spiritual energy Agents
bring with them: focus, passion, flexibility, pragmatism
and so on.
7. The Seer bids farewell.
Note: While most scenarios take place in foreign climes, Dioscoria itself is a valid
territory in which to set a scenario. Seers may find it effective to set the first and
last sessions of a season in Dioscoria to add shape to its narrative and reinforce
the fact that all missions are an effort to support the Hidden Isle.

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Playing the Scenario Non-player allies
The Agents have made their final preparations, re- An ally is a non-player character who assists the
ceived their mission, and are now ready to travel to the Agents. Perhaps they are a character created by the
mission location. The Agents are granted passage on Seer solely for this one scenario, or a contact who lives
one of Dioscoria’s merchant ships to travel the world at the scenario’s location and wishes to help.
without drawing attention to themselves. If the loca- This is best handled by having these characters act
tion is distant from the Arabian sea, the helmsperson somewhat independently, while following the Agents’
makes use of the magic of the Seven Veiled Havens to lead. Help from allies should result in Agents draw-
mystically travel to the nearest haven. ing more cards during challenge draws as they benefit
from their assistance during fights, their magical ex-
Cut to the action pertise, their local knowledge and so on.
Thanks to the lead from scenario divination, there’s
no need to narrate the players arriving at the docks,
disembarking and getting their bearings. Instead, the
Seer cuts to a scene where the party is in a position to
pursue their first lead and get the information they
need.
The lead need not be a pushover! Agents might need
to do a challenge to unlock the information the lead
is holding. If the interaction with the lead does not go
smoothly, it should still result in the Agents gaining
necessary information, but may lay the groundwork
for a complication in the future. The lead scene always
gives the players the information they need—the ques-
tion is, at what cost?

The scenario
The Agents know their goal and have gained more in-
formation by pursuing their first lead. The rest of the
scenario will be a conversation and improvised perfor-
mance between the Agents and the Seer as the Agents
attempt to achieve their goal and the Seer introduces
obstacles, opportunities, and challenges.
The players should try to embody their characters and
achieve their goal. They can overcome problems any
way they see fit; this will probably involve addressing
challenges with their skills or special abilities.
The scenario ends when the players achieve their goal
and reach safety, or they fail their goal and retreat. Not
all players need to make it back: if a player is broken
(see “Rules / Harm”), they might be left behind.

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Narrative thresholds
At certain points during the scenario, the Seer might not know exactly
what is coming next, or you may sense a shift in the scenario’s energy:
perhaps the stakes have been raised, players have transitioned from gath-
ering information to confronting the adversary, or there has been a reve-
lation or plot twist. It can be powerful to allow the Hand to experience a
shared moment of divination and narrative control.
Inform the Agents that, together, they are stepping out of time and see
beyond the veil of reality. They begin to divine together, and share a vi-
sion of this moment and the coming action. Fan the Vision Deck; each
Agent draws one card and lays it face up on the table. Together, the
Agents decide whether each card pertains to the coming action; a po-
tential future; pertains to one (or several) Agent’s emotional state; or
whether the card is irrelevant and should be discarded.
By interpreting the cards, Agents can clarify or develop information they
already know, or invent new elements of the story. The Seer has final
say on these interpretations, but they should ultimately come from the
Agents. As with scenario divination, narrative thresholds are an oppor-
tunity for the players to help determine the flow of the story and inject it
with their imagination, inspired by the Vision Deck.
Example: The Hand steps through a hidden doorway into the sorcerer’s ritual
laboratory, where no one knows what to expect. The Seer tells them they see
time slow to a standstill and share a vision. The Agents draw The Devil, The
Tower, The Fool, and the Queen of Cups. Together they decide that The Devil
and The Tower pertain to the scene; Eleena claims The Fool and explains that al-
though she has never faced this evil before, she is feeling optimistic and ready to
face whatever comes. Jarvin claims the Queen of Cups and explains how he feels
a sense of empathy towards the villain and hopes to save him from his evil path.
The group then decides that The Devil indicates the sorcerer has been under the
control of a demon this whole time. Considering The Tower, they decide that a
magical experiment has been running for some time on the floor below, and has
just hit a breaking point and explodes, shattering the floor beneath their feet.
The vision fades, time returns, and the group resume regular scenario play as
the ground collapses below them.
This brief scene should not interrupt the momentum of your scenario
and should be kept to a few minutes at most. When used correctly, this
technique can build the group’s anticipation, and allow them to add sug-
gestions, inspirations, and potential plot points for the coming action. By
working together, the group can combine their imaginative potential to
refocus the scenario. It is the Seer’s job to prevent the group from slip-
ping into endless ‘what-if’ brainstorming and to maintain final say on
what does and does not occur. We recommend a maximum of two narra-
tive threshold moments per scenario to avoid too many interruptions to
regular play.

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Wrapping Up Distilling experience
Whether the scenario was a success or failure, it has The Agents reflect on their choices and the challenges
now reached its conclusion. The Agents discuss what they faced. They gain experience to be better prepared
transpired, and deepen their relationships with each for the next scenario. It is the responsibility of each
other. During this phase they can reflect on their ac- player to decide for themselves how much xp their
tions and focus on their development, to be better Agent receives for each prompt.
prepared for the next mission. Finally, unbeknownst to
the Hand, the world changes around them. For each Agent, ask:
1. Did you solve a problem in a way that reflects
your class? Reading the class description text is
Agent relationships helpful in determining this.
Every Agent chooses a moment from the scenario ◦ If your actions overwhelmingly reflected
when another Agent’s actions stood out to them, for your class, take 2xp.
good or ill. ◦ If your actions reflected your class more of-
Play a brief scene where the Agents share their feelings ten than not, take 1xp.
about these moments, be it congratulations, confron- ◦ If your actions were mostly unrelated to your
tations, etc. After hearing how their actions affected class, take 0xp.
the rest of the group, each Agent whose actions are 2. Were your actions influenced by your vices, vir-
commented on may increase or decrease their burden tues or core self? (Not your burden or ideal.)
or ideal track by 1. This represents their emotional re- ◦ If many of your actions were influenced, take
sponse to this criticism or praise. 2xp.
Example: While below deck on the journey home, the three ◦ If some of your actions were influenced, take
Agents reflect on the previous scenario. Alois thanks Janda 1xp.
for catching her before she tumbled over the cliff. Janda ◦ If very few or none of your actions were in-
congratulates Orwell for his first successful summoning of a fluenced, take 0xp.
ghost. Orwell confronts Janda about how she always tries Finally, ask:
to do everything alone, and how it would be better if she al- 3. Did the Hand leave the world a better place?
lowed the group to support her.
◦ If the world will be much better for your ac-
Janda takes the criticism from Orwell to heart and tions, every Agent takes 2xp.
adds one point to her “Harmonizing” ideal. She could ◦ If the world will be slightly better off, every
add an additional point due to the thanks from Agent takes 1xp.
Alois, but her player decides that this would actually ◦ If the world will not be better off, or if the
strengthen her “Over-exerting” burden, and adds one damage you did outweighs the benefits,
point there instead. Feeling empowered by his suc- every Agent takes 0xp.
cess and Janda’s recognition, Orwell removes one point Note: Remember that xp can be divided between as many
from his “Aimless” burden. xp tracks as you wish. There is no need to put all your xp in
one track.
If these points cause a burden or ideal to fall below
zero, or to reach their maximum values, undergo
character transformation now. (See “The cycle of play /
Character transformation”.) If the actions of a particu-
lar Agent were not commented on, that Agent should
not adjust their ideal or burden track.

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Advance adversaries Answering violence
If an adversary created during this scenario seems If nobody died as a result of your Agents’ actions, skip
important or interesting, add them to the Adversary this step. However, if your Agents killed anybody in
sheet, either as the leader or member of a new or ex- the latest scenario, they must answer for it.
isting organization. Add any new information you dis-
covered to the Adversaries sheet, such as an organiza- Your Agents are taken to the Pool of Mourning, a shal-
tion’s name, their motivation, leader and so on. low pool in a cave deep beneath the city. Here a silent
oracle, their cheeks stained white with tears, stirs the
If there are any adversaries on the sheet, decide if their pool and shows them a vision concerning each person
progress ticks up now and explain why. Progress could killed in the latest scenario. This could be a scene of
be decreased by player action in the scenario. their family grieving, or a vision of the past when they
still had dreams and ambitions—before they were bru-
tally cut down.
Defeating adversaries
If the Agents just faced an adversary whose progress Any Agent who killed in the last scenario must face a
is on the final or penultimate space, consider whether Soothe challenge. Before the challenge, the player de-
this adversary was decisively defeated. When this hap- cides how affected the Agent is by this killing.
pens, remove them from the adversary sheet. Since • If the Agent is blasé and unaffected, the challenge
the Agents have a new perspective, having defeated is easy. If they take this seriously, the challenge is
this major enemy, grant each Agent 4 ideal or burden medium. If they are emotionally devastated, the
points. Each point can increase or decrease an ideal or challenge is hard.
burden by one segment. If these points cause a burden
• If this Agent killed more than one person, the
or ideal to fall below zero, or to reach their maximum
challenge difficulty is increased by one.
values, undergo character transformation now.
(See “The cycle of play / Character transformation”.) • If this Agent killed many people, the challenge
difficulty is further increased by one. (The Seer
If this adversary has been a major force over multiple decides what constitutes “many”.)
scenarios, you may find this a good point to wrap up
this “season” of your campaign. If this is the final sce- If the Agent achieves a total success, they are largely
nario of your campaign, you may find it more narra- unaffected by the vision. While they may or may not
tively satisfying to not create a new ideal or burden to take it to heart, it does not affect their day-to-day
replace one that is leveled now, leaving your Agents on function.
a high note. (See “The cycle of play / Ending a season”.) If they suffer a complicated success or a failure, the
vision affects them deeply—even if they didn’t believe
it would. The Seer decides how this manifests, but it
must be some kind of mechanical effect. For example:
• The Agent is emotionally wounded, and takes 1
spiritual harm.
• The Agent realizes this killing betrayed their
Ideal, and loses 1 Ideal progress.
• The Agent is overwhelmed, and spends much of
the next week locked in their quarters. They can
perform 1 fewer downtime action in the next
downtime phase.
• The Agent is compelled to confess what they did
to a contact, who loses 1 affection for them.

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The world changes
Put the territory sheet in the center of the table and The Seer should also draw a card and describe how
look it over. If any clocks should be ticked up, or if the world has changed. Their contribution, however,
there are any obvious developments that should hap- should always be about how the Hand’s actions have
pen or have concluded, update the territory boxes ac- affected the world around them. This does not have to
cordingly. If there are any unfulfilled visions of the fu- refer to actions the Hand took in their latest scenario;
ture left over from the scenario, decide if they should it could refer to actions taken by the Hand several mis-
be added to a territory box. sions ago.

Each player may now draw a vision card and use it Example: The Seer draws The Lovers, and narrates how the
to inspire how the world changes in some way. This city of Venice, which the Hand visited four scenarios ago to
could be inspired or affected by the outcome of the rescue a kidnapped pair of lovers, has been celebrating the
scenario. They may interpret the card as they wish, or same lovers’ wedding.
consult the Vision Guide for more inspiration. Add
a note about the event to one of the territories or to
Dioscoria; include a clock if suitable. These events may Final cleanup
become a catalyst for a future scenario, or may simply Discard any remaining fortune and vision cards.
provide a bit of flavor to the world.
If the Hand has been on several missions, it is now
Example: After a scenario in which a dangerous magical time to choose a full Hand name. Do this by choosing
substance with enormous mystical potential was discov- an adjective which will be placed before your Hand
ered, Anton draws The Fool. Inspired by the “Explorer” and mascot. For example: “The stealthy foxes”, “The brave
“Reckless” elements of the card, he explains that the court of lynxes”, “The puissant badgers”.
Lisbon has sent explorers to seek new sources of this danger-
ous material. He writes this in the Lisbon territory box, and If this is the final scenario of the season, proceed to
starts a clock; when it is full, Lisbon will have found their “Ending a season”.
source.
Possible tensions that could be leveraged into Dioscorian
events:
Immigration, food security, the gulf between old families
and newcomers, the gulf between priests and guilds, disa-
greement over whether the city should intervene abroad,
disagreement over whether the city should focus on helping
the vulnerable or mercilessly acquiring knowledge, Cabinet
of Extremis secrets coming to light, demonic possession, the
ends justifying the means.
Note: Developments within a territory during
“The World Changes” can affect adversaries, particularly
their progress tracks.

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Ending a season
Your season ends when a significant adversary has been defeated, leaving
your Agents with a notable victory.
When a season ends, your terms of service as Agents also run out. This
is achieved via the magic of narratively satisfactory coincidence, which is
also why all TV shows end when they do.
When Dioscorian Agents finish their terms, their service is acknowl-
edged in an awards ceremony. For one day of the year the city stops, and
the entire populace gathers in the city plaza beneath the council tower.
Of greatest note are these traditions:
• Speeches are made extolling the accomplishments of each Hand,
often by the people the Hand has helped so they can thank them in
person. This gives the Agents a feeling of pride and achievement in
having helped others.
• The Agents who served this year are awarded commemorative pins.
These pins are custom made for each Agent: the front bears the icon
of the Hand (such as an animal), but the back bears an icon com-
memorating something noteworthy for the Agent in question, such
as an achievement they accomplished or an enemy they defeated.
Each Agent should pick the icon on the back of their pin, though
the Seer and other Agents are free to offer suggestions.
• Once the award ceremony is complete the crowd moves to the wa-
terfront, where the bodies of Agents who gave their lives lie in state.
Those grieving the fallen Agents speak in remembrance of them.
That evening, the bodies are taken on a barge draped in black cloth,
and buried at sea.
• The night is then filled with feasting and gambling. The next morn-
ing, Dioscorian authorities start the work of assembling next year’s
Hands.
The Seer should describe the scene to the players, give some (short!)
speeches made in the Hand’s honor, describe the icons printed on the
front and back of each pin, and give the Agents a chance to speak for any
dead comrades. You could also have players’ contacts talk to them and re-
flect on their progress during the evening feast.
This scene should be the culmination of everything your Agents have
accomplished this season. Be sure to remind them of how far they have
come, and what the effects of their actions have been.

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 VI. Advice for Seers

We consider tabletop roleplaying to be a collaborative storytelling ex-

perience. The adventure belongs to all of you together. The Seer’s role is
a combination of world builder and referee. It is your job to create an
interesting world for players to experience, and to fill it with narrative
stakes and challenging obstacles. It is the players’ job to act in that world
and figure out how to overcome those challenges. By all means consider
how players might solve these problems, but don’t assume that you know
the best solution: they might surprise you!

Wielding the Pips Deck

Atmosphere and style

While it is possible to play the game with a static Pips deck with a dis-
card pile beside it, we have found the best way to use this deck is for the
Seer to keep it in their hand during scenario play, to fan the deck when
players need to draw, and to shuffle pip cards back into the deck as soon
as the challenge is concluded. This has several benefits: it ensures each
draw is as random as the next, something that is not true of a deck with
a discard pile. It also means players feel more agency and mystery when
drawing: drawing from a fan gives players more feeling of luck, fortune,
and divine intervention than drawing from a fixed stack.

Divination atmosphere
Feel free to enhance the atmosphere of Scenario Divination by explain-
ing what is happening in-universe. Describe the sights, sounds and smells
of the Oracle’s sanctum. Vision cards can be granted by blessing Agents
with the foresight of this or that god, by touching their forehead, by serv-
ing them a magical brew and so on.
If you are roleplaying an actual oracle during Scenario Divination, we
suggest you punctuate the steps of the ritual with ritualistic phrases.
When giving out fortune cards, try “May Fortune guide and keep you.”
When bidding farewell to players, marking the end of divination, some
variation of “Go now and [serve your home / spread light in the darkness
/ defend the defenseless / drive back the forces of evil]” should hit the
right tone, perhaps tailored to the mission at hand.

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Clocks
Often, you may want to track something that doesn’t happen right away.
Segmented circles or “clocks” are an excellent tool for this purpose. Some
clocks will simply fill as time passes, others may fill as the result of a
challenge draw.
• Time-consuming challenges: Use a clock when an Agent wants to
do something that isn’t as simple as immediate success or failure
and they are under a time constraint, such as the time-consuming
endeavor of picking an enchanted lock with regular lockpicks (see
above).
• Foreshadowing complications: Use a clock to build tension slowly.
When an Agent fails a sneaking challenge, rather than immediately
raising the alarm, start a “Guards suspicious” clock.
• Territory events: Use a clock to track events in Territories. For ex-
ample, a clock titled “Lisbon Inquisition” can be used to inform
players that Inquisition forces are becoming more aggressive, and
that something drastic will happen when the clock is filled.
• Character clocks: You may instruct Agents to add clocks to their
character sheets. For example, you could tell a player to start a 3-seg-
ment clock that will fill when they act in a way that is inconsistent
with one of their virtues; when it is full, the virtue will be lost.
• “Health Bar”: For a main adversary or very strong opponent you
may use a clock to represent their remaining health, or their abil-
ity to keep fighting. Successful attacks made by Agents will fill the
clock rather than subdue the enemy directly.
• Tug of war: This type of clock is useful if the Agents are competing
against another group, such as a chase through twisting alleys. The
clock begins half-filled. When it fills entirely, the Agents catch their
quarry. If the clock is emptied, the quarry escapes.
• Campaign: Clocks can be used to track long term campaign events.
On the Dioscoria territory sheet you could have a clock for a long
term problem, eg. “Unrest over immigration”. Each scenario that
the Agents don’t address the problem, or in response to the “world
changes” scene, the clock fills by one segment until the crisis reaches
a breaking point.

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 Challenges
When determining the difficulty for a challenge draw, it is best to deter-
mine the baseline difficulty of what the Agents are attempting first, and
then modify the value based on circumstances.
• If circumstances make a challenge easier, feel free to allow the chal-
lenger to draw one extra card, rather than drawing one fewer card
yourself. This helps them feel rewarded for making preparations, or
engineering a situation to their advantage.
• You may wish to keep a list of modifiers that might affect such a
challenge, eg. “Guards distracted”, “Inquisitors at the gates”, “Light-
ning storm” etc.
As the Seer, you have more power to manage the pacing and flow of play
than the Agents. When resolving challenges, it is not essential that you
always play the best card in your hand. Use this to your advantage to
keep the story moving, especially in the earlier parts of a scenario that
may be more about gathering information than overcoming obstacles.
Also remember that a failed challenge does not need to mean serious
consequences. Even during scenario play, you may decide that an action
is guaranteed to succeed to some extent, and the challenge will only be
used to determine the scale of the success. For example, if an Agent fails a
challenge while researching in a library, it is more natural to decide they
find only scraps of information, rather than inflicting harm or having the
city watch turn up out of nowhere.

Scaling difficulty over a campaign

As your Agents become more skilled and acquire more abilities, vices and
virtues, the challenges they face should also scale in difficulty, perhaps in-
spired by the consequences of their earlier actions... For example:
• The Hand is now facing a more formidable enemy, with better
guards.
• Because the Hand was spotted during a previous scenario, this loca-
tion is now dotted with wanted posters and guards are on high alert.
• Because the Hand used magic openly in a previous scenario, the
guards around this palace all have magical protection charms.
• Because the Hand used magic openly, the general populace is now
on the lookout for magic, and have turned to their local magic users
to teach them how to sense magical channeling.
• Because this adversary has faced the Hand several times, they have
trained elite troops to specifically counter the Hand’s advantages.

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Complications and warnings
It should never be possible for an Agent to succeed at a challenge draw
and not have the result they intend. A challenge draw is only to be used
if success is possible. If an Agent wishes to try something impossible, you
should tell them ahead of time either by narrating their attempt and how
they learn it cannot be done (before the draw has begun), or by inform-
ing them that the Agent would realize it cannot be accomplished.
Example: Amir wishes to pick an enchanted lock with regular lockpicks. Rather
than performing the challenge draw, the Seer simply narrates “You insert your
lockpicks, but it feels like there is nothing inside but empty air.”
In some cases, anAgent may wish to do something that borders on the
impossible, but which could be achieved with enough time. In this case,
we encourage you to start a clock and introduce time pressure.
Example: Despite learning that the lock is enchanted, Amir wishes to proceed.
“You can’t feel the pins and tumblers but are certain this is still a physical lock. I
have started two clocks, one called ‘fumbling tumblers’, another called ‘enchanted
alarm’. Someone has been alerted that this lock is being picked and your time is
limited.”
Occasionally, players may attempt something particularly ill-advised.
This may be because they do not understand the difficulty of the chal-
lenge, or the narrative momentum of the scene. If this is the case, there is
little harm in pointing out why this course of action is unwise. This pre-
vents players feeling misled, or like the Seer is being unfair. If they still
want to, they can fully buy into their decision.

Flexible benefits and consequences

Feel free to offer players tough or interesting choices using whatever tools
you deem appropriate. The mechanics of The Hidden Isle are designed to
be flexible, and can be combined or altered in any way that you see fit.
Example: Jeera has caught the guards’ attention, and the Seer has started a
“Guards alerted” clock which will raise the alarm when filled. Hashim, mean-
while, is trying to slip into the guards’ camp. The Seer offers Hashim a choice: if
he waits for the guards to investigate Jeera further, this will take time, ticking up
the clock, but make his Slip challenge easier.

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 Narrative thresholds
Dealing with advanced rules Narrative thresholds are an advanced mechanic to give players more nar-
rative control, and to add context and raise stakes for important mo-
ments. However, they are not necessary for the game to work. If you feel
this mechanic bogs down your game too much, or your players feel over-
whelmed by the narrative responsibility or creative demands, feel free to
ignore this mechanic.

Visions
This mechanic can be overwhelming for players new to The Hidden Isle.
If you’re worried about overwhelming your players, feel free to leave this
mechanic out until they have more confidence and familiarity with the
game. To do so, follow these steps:
• Do not give your players vision cards, but keep your own to demon-
strate how they can be used in play.
• When you think the Agents are ready to have their own visions,
tie it in narratively: “Before this third mission, the seer gives you a
strange-smelling potion. When you drink it, you feel pregnant with
premonitions.”
You could also hand each player a card during scenario divination, as
normal, and tell them not to worry about it too much. Then, during play,
you could suggest a relevant vision for them to trigger, easing them into
this mechanic and providing an example of how it can be used.

Subverting visions
The premonitions that result from playing a Vision Card are brief flashes,
so visions will often lack important context! Feel free to creatively sub-
vert expectations—even betray the Agents and the assumptions they
made—when the vision actually comes to pass.
This technique of subversion is more effective when the Seer presents a
vision to the Agents. When an Agent uses a vision card, it should ideally
give them a sense of power and control over the situation to encourage
them to use visions in future.

Unfinished visions
If you wish, a vision that has not come to pass by the end of the scenario
might still come to pass in the distant future. If so, write it in the appro-
priate territory box or on the Adversary Sheet.

84
Holding back vision information
You may wish to hold back key information regarding a vision, in order
to surprise players or give the story a twist.
Example: The Seer draws the King of Pentacles for the adversary. They tell play-
ers their adversary is unknown, except that they are wealthy beyond imagining,
and are greedy of their riches. When the Agents arrive in the scenario, the Seer
uses the card to give them a vision of a wealthy mansion, with servants scuttling
to and fro frantically carrying out “The Boss’s orders”. Later, the Agents meet a
jovial merchant who helps them infiltrate their goal. Near the end of the scenario
the merchant betrays them: he was the adversary all along!

85
 Agents

Losing virtues
Virtues are not just mechanical benefits that can be banked and forgot-
ten: they are core elements of an Agent’s personality. If an Agent consist-
ently acts contrary to one of their virtues, consider taking it away from
them. See the above example under “Clocks / Character clocks” for a sug-
gestion on how to do this.

Items and load

If a player has already drawn five items from their pack, they are carry-
ing a lot and might find it hard to carry out loot, such as an armful of
occult books. You must decide how much they can carry, bearing in mind
how many items they have already used and whether any of them were
consumable.
Being overburdened could make some challenges more difficult for play-
ers, granting you an extra card during challenge draws.

Harming Agents
There is no upper or lower limit on how much harm to give Agents during a
scenario, but do not be afraid to dish out harm now and then. If the Agents
receive 3-5 harm from you per scenario, things will work out just fine. Ad-
ditionally, the threat of harm can be a powerful way of communicating the
stakes. When facing off against an adversary in a final showdown, it may be
appropriate for an Agent to take 4 harm from a single failure.

Bonus xp
When a player does something awesome, unexpected, or finds a really
creative solution to something you intended to be a major challenge, feel
free to give them an xp point as a treat.

86
Storytelling

The Vision Deck as Inspiration

If you aren’t sure what to throw at your players next, or you feel the
scenario is too generic, or if you’re just curious what might happen, feel
free to draw a card in the middle of a scenario and use it as inspiration
for an unexpected encounter. Feel free to elicit suggestions from players.

Exploiting narrative opportunities

If a player makes a promise, sets a personal goal or pursues some kind
of relationship, this is meaningful, player-directed narrative setup. Hold
players accountable for their promises, refer back to their goals, and en-
danger contacts they care about to get as much juice out of that setup as
possible.

Using chance within scenarios

Sometimes you, as the Seer, may not know exactly how a situation will
turn out. Sometimes events occur beyond the players’ control which
could go either way, and you’re not sure which way they should land.
When this happens, you may draw a Vision card and use it to inform
what happens. For more complex interactions, you could perform a chal-
lenge draw between two opposing NPCs or NPC groups.
Example: The Hand are witnessing a military parade through a capitol city. The
watching crowds, unhappy with the regime, are getting restless and jeer at the
soldiers. The Seer doesn’t know whether this will erupt into violence. They draw
a Vision card: the Page of Cups. They decide the tempestuous emotions of the
crowd overflow, and the bystanders form into a mob and rush the soldiers.

87
 VII. The City of Dioscoria

Adapted from the Voyages of Beatrice of Grantabruge

Dioscoria: an island of alchemy and hope, of a dozen faiths and a hundred

magics. A rowboat’s journey from the Arabian coast, but only reachable
by those who already know where to look. A city founded by gods, main-
tained by their blessing, and ruled by the winds of fate.

Or so it is said.

What is undeniable, at least, is that Dioscoria was founded millennia

ago. In this, the year of our Lord 1562, the city has reached a golden age,
built on centuries of spiritual tradition, culture, and prosperity. My time
here—welcomed by the Dioscorian council to record their culture with
fresh, unbiased eyes—has opened my mind to the possibilities of life. But
I fear this calm will not last: when the seers look into the island’s future
they speak of unseen forces building, soon to spill out into the open.
Who knows what the fates have in store?

88
 Origins
Dioscorian History and Culture

Though I am unable to find an exact date for the city’s founding, legends
claim it was shortly after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great.
Led by the fabled Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus, a group of Heca-
tean priestesses fled the city to protect both their lives and their magic
from the invaders. Fleeing across the sea, they washed up on an island
blessed by the divine twins Castor and Pollux, the so-called “Dioscori”.
Here they gave thanks to their new patrons, marshaled their magical
abilities, prepared defenses, and began to rebuild their lives.
The accuracy of this account is suspect. Firstly, Hermes Trismegistus
was not a historical figure, but a mythic combination of the Greek god
Hermes and his Egyptian counterpart, Thoth. Why this figure, half
Greek and half Egyptian, should dwell in Egypt only to flee his Greek
brethren is a mystery—assuming he existed at all. But gods are known to
possess the living, or appear during times of need. Perhaps some myster-
ies belong in the past.
Though the island’s population was initially small, Hermes and his priest-
esses befriended other victims of Alexander’s conquests, and brought
them and their knowledge to their island haven. Its population grew. This
tradition of rescuing those in need—and their knowledge—persists to
this day as a pillar of Dioscorian culture.

Political Development
As the population swelled, some form of government became necessary.
Five wise priestesses were selected by lot—four embodying the elements,
and one for magic—to form the original ruling council. At the same
time, more laborers, craftspeople and professionals were emigrating to
Dioscoria and forming guilds to better manage their resources. Eventu-
ally the guilds felt their needs were not recognised by the council, and
rose up to demand fuller representation. It is unclear how bloody this
conflict was—my sources become patchy—but the result was the addi-
tion of four guild representatives to the council, raising the council total
to nine. The ruling chamber was established at this time, giving common
Dioscorians a space for their political needs and court cases to be heard.
By this time, Dioscoria’s unique culture and governmental style was fully
formed: a knowledge-loving, game- and chance-obsessed people, governed
by a mix of spiritual and worldly representatives.

89
 The Seven Veiled Havens
As empires and oppressors gained power across the world, those they
persecuted fled to remote sanctuaries and made them their homes. Like
Dioscoria, these became freehavens for the outcasts of the world, each
with a unique tradition and culture. Including Dioscoria, there are seven
such havens: Vazimba, the hidden city within the cliffs of Madagascar
whose name is not spoken to outsiders; the Kingdom of Scythia in the
Black Sea, founded in ancient times by those fleeing the Gothic conquest
of Scythian Neapolis; Aeaea, the wandering sorceress’s isle in the Tyrrhe-
nian sea; the island of Kachwa, hidden among the thousand isles of the
Lakshadweep archipelago; Antillia, the Atlantic island of seven sages who
fled the terror of Isabella’s Alhambra Decree; and Hybra, the isle of the
druids in the Irish Sea.
In its early years, the Dioscorian council reached out to these fellow lovers
of freedom and knowledge. Natural allies due to their shared values and
vulnerability they began to work together, sharing their innovations and
magical craft, eventually binding the seven isles under The Veiled Accord.
Under this accord, Hekate’s daughters found ways to step through the
mists encircling one island and onto the shore of another. To this day, one
can sail into fog off the shores of Dioscoria and emerge off the Lakshmi
archipelago, the Tauric peninsula, or in the midst of the Atlantic. Those
untrained in the ways of the fog only lose their way.
As the centuries passed, Dioscoria shifted from myth to rumor to cu-
riosity, and back again. By the 16th century its existence, once common
knowledge, has been widely forgotten, though it remains an open secret
among the powerful.
Although Dioscoria is happy to cooperate—even collaborate—with other
world powers, it has no interest in expanding its territory. Firstly, Diosco-
ria flourishes through, and depends on, its secrecy. If Dioscoria raises an
army and attacks its neighbors, it would step onto the world stage—a
stage filled with stronger powers, who would quickly regroup and snuff
out this new contender. Better, the council believe, to maintain their se-
crecy: their greatest shield. Secondly, the wisdom the council has accu-
mulated tells them that conquest and glory are false idols: only by look-
ing inward can a person, or a state, reach its true potential. Taking this
lesson to heart, they are focused on nurturing Dioscoria rather than de-
manding fealty from its neighbors. The island has everything Dioscorians
need: why stoop to conquest?
This is not to say the island has never been discovered or threatened: nu-
merous attempts have been made over the centuries by militaristic for-
eign powers. All were rebuffed, however: the island’s impenetrable fog
makes Dioscoria unreachable without a guide, and the island’s defenses
have seen off any fortunate enough to slip through.

90
Culture
Anti-orthodoxy
The most prominent feature of Dioscorian culture is Dioscorians’ dis-
trust of authority, and hatred of orthodoxy. Religious zealotry is particu-
larly loathed, and many popular plays and songs feature the downfall of a
Pope or Caliph, often at the hands of an enlightened Dioscorian hermit.
As a result, Dioscorian society strives towards egalitarianism. Even if it
falls short of this ideal, its denizens feel their society is fairer than the al-
ternatives. Better to attempt justice and fall short than to never try at all.
Dioscorians hail from across the globe, many seized from the jaws of or-
thodoxy and spirited through the mist to an incredible, and incredibly
strange, island. To accommodate this culture shock — not to mention
the city’s countless philosophies and religions — Dioscoria is, politically
speaking, neutral ground. Although newcomers must study the history
and values of Dioscoria in order to integrate, some differences will always
remain. The city makes no attempt to expunge these differences: rather, it
celebrates and embraces them.
Although tolerance and representative government are cornerstones of
Dioscorian culture, this is not to say the city is entirely harmonious. Ten-
sions are rife: between priests and guildspeople, between the council and
the ruling chamber, between those with the time and money to step into
government and those whose livelihoods would suffer, between newcomers
and old families, between high-minded scholars who see magic as pure and
street magicians who use it for a quick buck… The island is replete with
disagreements, and its anti-authoritarianism means these often become
heated. But Dioscorians have also learned, through the harshness of life be-
yond the island, that working through arguments is better than erupting
into violence. As such, a compromise can generally be reached, even if it re-
quires divinatory guidance or a literal, otherworldly soul-search.

91
 Games
Dioscorians adore games and gambling; since Tarot cards and the throw-
ing of knucklebones or dice were vital to ancient Dioscorian fortune tell-
ing, it is likely games grew out of the island’s ritualistic origins.
Walking through the main plaza or the narrow backstreets, one finds
gamesters of all kinds: card players hunched over a barrel; couples playing
senet or backgammon, with rings or jewels as playing pieces to foretell
their future; old men and children hunched over chess sets, until a piece
is taken and they whip out dueling sticks to determine the combat. I am
proud to say I was invited to make up the largest Trionfi-style game ever
played, in a great ring of dozens of players in the city plaza. I am prouder
to say I lost my entire fortune that afternoon, and won most of it back
that evening at dice.
This love of games has molded Dioscorians over the centuries. They prize
intellectual prowess, forethought and tactical skill, but also play for joy,
pleasure and excitement, or to access their spiritual, unconscious selves.
A number of games have emerged from the island over the centuries,
most notably the mystical game whose cards, they say, inspired Tarocchi.
The national game, of course, is Sefirot: the card game of divine orders.
This is played on street corners, on the walls of buildings, and in gaming
houses everywhere. It is a test of skill and flexibility, an idle pastime, and
a divinatory or meditative aid. When two grandmasters compete, entire
gaming houses are cleared and spectators are charged entry; it is said such
games reveal a lesson to the onlooker that must not be ignored. On the
new year a game of Sefirot is begun in the Temple of the Dioscorii, played
over the next few months by one random, anonymous citizen. The out-
come of the game is said to portend the future of the city.

Spirituality and knowledge

Dioscoria treasures knowledge, especially of a spiritual kind. From its
founding, the council has been aware of the inevitability of change and
the ceaseless turning of the wheel of fortune. Ironically, it is this commit-
ment to flexibility, and the wisdom that emerges from it, that has al-
lowed Dioscoria to weather the storms of history.
But Dioscoria also hungers for knowledge, its archives devouring scrolls
and books. Should the empires beyond Dioscoria fall, these vaults will
preserve knowledge that would otherwise be lost. Tensions are always
high between those who value knowledge for its own sake — as a lantern
to illuminate truth, for even false information reveals something — and
those who insist Dioscoria must protect the oppressed first and foremost,
honoring its history as a haven, whether or not they bear precious knowl-
edge. They force us to confront the question of which is more valuable:
a human life, vibrant and fully lived, or a book which lasts a thousand
years, teaching all that time?

92
Love and sexuality
A society of those rejected by convention, Dioscorians express their love
and gender in uncountable ways. Femininity is seen as the desire to pro-
tect and lead, to nurture something until it is prosperous or powerful.
Masculinity, meanwhile, is expressed as the need for stability and or-
der. Bad laws may be the tools of tyrants, but good laws are necessary for
peace, and their maintenance is seen as a masculine responsibility. These
messages have been enshrined in the symbolism of the Empress and Em-
peror Tarot cards.
Dioscorians believe that both impulses are necessary for a healthy soci-
ety—indeed, for a healthy individual—but neither stands above the other.
Dioscorian priests stress that these two forces move in each of us, in in-
finite combinations, and should be equally embraced. Some Tarot decks
reflect this, depicting female Emperors and male Empresses.
It is therefore natural, to a Dioscorian mindset, that each person be re-
spected as a rare jewel, and that one’s sex has no bearing on the matter.
Many Dioscorians also see friendship, love and sexual desire as facets of
the same powerful forces, and openly take multiple lovers. In some cases,
citizens who wish to sculpt their body may do so with the help of power-
ful magicians and priests. This attitude toward gender and love is en-
shrined in the Dioscorian Lovers card, which can show any combination
of different lovers. Bespoke Lovers cards, depicting the owner and their
loves, are a typical mark of affection.
Incidentally, I was shocked to learn that the sorcery concealing the isle
is driven by the fertilizing energy of the island’s countless lovers. This
means that the concealment spell doubles as a method of contraception,
permitting lovers to explore the sexual arts without fear of an unwanted
pregnancy. Families wishing to conceive often journey away from Diosco-
ria for a few weeks for the purpose.

Language
As Dioscorians hail from across the world, it should be a Babel of a hun-
dred languages. Thankfully, the city’s founders accounted for this: one of
the mysteries they brought to the island was the knowledge of the Speech
of Eden, the first language and the one spoken by the Divine. Unlike hu-
man, “fallen” languages, the Speech of Eden maps perfectly onto reality.
Anyone who hears this language understands the words as though they
were in their native tongue. With time and immersion, this sacred speech
is learned by all inhabitants of the island.

93
 Immigration and refugees
Dioscoria’s oldest families can trace their lineage back to the city’s found-
ing. Nonetheless, one of the city’s tenets is that Dioscoria must be a safe
haven for those who have none. Dioscoria has therefore seen an influx of
new blood over the centuries.
When an émigré arrives in Dioscoria, they are housed in enormous refu-
gee barges anchored in the harbor until they have achieved minimal Di-
oscorian assimilation. Charitable guilds (usually a Guild of Cups) provide
food, clothing and basic necessities. A Dioscorian family will then wel-
come the newcomer into their home, adopting them as a new arrival to
the city.
Cultural clashes are inevitable—refugees come from all manner of back-
grounds, and Dioscorian culture is unique—but if they wish to settle in
Dioscoria they must accept the city’s creed: “All is permissible, all are
welcome, if no harm is done.” They are taught tolerance and Dioscorian
values by volunteer scholars. Later, they are encouraged to welcome new
arrivals from their own lands, easing the transition.
Newcomers also take on a debt to the city: to live in Dioscoria is a privi-
lege, and while it is available to many, it comes with a cost. This debt can
be paid off by providing free services to a guild for a set period, donating
a wealth of money or texts, or by becoming Dioscorian agents and pursu-
ing the city’s needs abroad.

94
Magic
Drawn from the brightest minds of the age and the The entities summoned can be of various types. Jinni
deepest recesses of tradition, Dioscoria is rich with are a popular target, but it should be known that most
magic. Citizens habitually wear talismans and charms: jinni are simply invisible people, akin to spirits. The
to protect from evildoers and sorcerers, from spirits powerful jinn of fables and legends, who grants wishes
and demons, to ward off disease, to aid sleep or banish of immense power or transports their master through
nightmares, to encourage smooth travels or business space—the ifreet or marid—is rare, and difficult to
transactions, or simply for good luck. overpower. The Guild of Spirits warns against trapping
or enslaving these creatures, for reasons both ethical
Advanced practitioners such as scholars or street magi- and practical.
cians manipulate unseen forces to achieve spectacular
effects. By the use of runes, herbs, incantations, candles Ancestor spirits are commonly invoked, and seen
and crystals they can bend the weft of nature, trans- as more trustworthy. Angels or demons may also be
forming themselves or others, making objects invisi- summoned: as in the Christian tradition, these were
ble or conjuring illusions. Alchemists can change the formed by God before humankind. Demons are a dan-
nature of metals. Illusionists can beautify themselves, gerous prospect: they are chaotic and manipulative,
or render themselves or others hideous. The Guild of and usually summoned accidentally. Angels, mean-
Blood trains siphoners in the manipulation of bodily while, are aloof and strict, fuelled by an inner piety no
energies and fluids; a trained siphoner can draw excess human can match.
blood, bile, phlegm or choler from their patient, or
supply them in case of a deficit. Despite its dangers, summoning is a notable part of
Dioscorian culture: during festivals, expert summoners
The most potent and dangerous magic is summoning call upon the spirits of trusted gods or ancestors, let-
and possession. By invoking a demon or spirit, and ting them speak directly to the people. Even this is not
sacrificing one’s lifeblood, one can invite the entity without risk: I have heard accounts of spirits who were
to occupy one’s body: to see through one’s eyes, speak not what they seemed, taking on the magical essence
through one’s lips, and use the body for whatever mag- of a trusted ancestor to trick their way into a corpo-
ical channeling takes the spirit’s fancy. This is excep- real body and abscond with it. In one case, this demon
tionally dangerous since some spirits, having tasted hunted humans and ate their flesh to sustain itself, ter-
the mortal realm, may be reluctant to leave. This magic rorizing the city for weeks.
is therefore forbidden to all but those trained by the
summoners’ school. The punishment for breaking this But divine access, Dioscorians claim, is worth the risk:
taboo is to have one’s humors drawn out to the point some suspect Dioscoria was founded not by the corpo-
of permanent debilitation—but never death, since tak- real Hermes and Hekate, but by followers possessed by
ing Dioscorian life is taboo. these gods. Whether this was consensual is unclear.

95
 An impression of the city
As I sit here in my attic room, hosted by the Özdemir family—whose
friendliness and welcome cannot be overstated—I find myself gazing over
the tiled roofs of this remarkable city and setting down my impressions.
It is a bustling city of markets and bazaars; some merchant is always call-
ing out their wares, or greeting a customer or friend. The harbors throng
with foreigners, newcomers and dock workers; the libraries shuffle with
the quiet feet of archivists and the rustle of antique pages; the lecture
halls ring with the tone of knowledge and the echoes of ancient wisdom.
Gaming halls and taverns rattle with dice and ripple with cards, each sip
of wine punctuated by the rap of game tokens. Festivals crack with fire-
works and shimmer with celebratory illusions; they are drink and song,
blood and spirits and the sacrificial bowl, the voices of the dead and the
raucous glee of the living.
Books, goods and people flow through this city like grain through a mill-
stone: they enter without a clear purpose, are refined, and leave with a
new sense of themselves and the world. Yet in Dioscoria we are our own
millstones: we refine ourselves, each the craftsman of our own soul.
To allow my readers to picture Dioscoria—to imagine themselves walking
its streets, admiring its plazas, sampling its delights—I have described a
journey through the city itself. We shall travel together, I as your guide,
you the marveling newcomer. I invite you to open yourself, that you
might experience Dioscoria as I have.

96
The approach by sea
Dioscoria is a hidden isle, cloaked by mist and magic. There is only one gate out of the port, set in an im-
As we approach, the air turns thick; our guide takes mense sandstone wall and flanked by two dozen
the helm, using her secret arts to steer the ship guards. Only Dioscorian citizens or refugees may pass
through the fog. I tumble on the deck, unable to tell beyond this point: merchants are free to conduct busi-
up from down, sea from sky. Though the bow remains ness within the port square, but may not pass into the
fixed on the horizon, I should never know the way for- city proper. To make their stay more pleasant, and re-
ward. There is no sound but the creaking of the hull lieve them of their heavy profits, a number of boarding
and the wash of the ocean. houses and entertainments have sprung up within the
port walls. Immigrants and refugees are housed in the
Then, like a blindfold snatched away, the fog lifts and immigration flotilla: large ships that once sailed deep
my senses settle. The island stands before us: dry and waters, now gutted and transformed into dense lodg-
sandy, and along its spine a line of mountains. But ings. One often sees groups of wide-eyed refugees led
patches of green speckle the landscape, and whole onto dry land and ushered through the gate by an offi-
flanks of the isle are painted lush with chalice-shaped ciator, wielding a seal of passage and an air of
trees. smug generosity.
As we near the coast, the island’s sandy beaches come THE NAVAL ACADEMY lies off to one side of the
into sharper focus. The city and its harbor draw closer, harbor, and has its own dock. A low, long building,
a projection of lighter stone against the darker moun- here Dioscorians train for a naval career, preparing to
tains. The harbor waters are crowded with all manner defend the island. Carracks and galleys lie anchored
of vessels: small rowboats to travel up and down the just off the coast, manned by crews of sailors who drill
coast, uncountable dhows used for trade and fishing, often but go to war rarely.
the occasional caravel, and the immense hulks of the
immigration flotilla. Their masts are a forest to match If an enemy fleet were to approach, these brave souls
the thick woodland of the nearby shore. would be called on to defend the isle and prevent land-
fall. Every citizen is trained in evacuation procedures,
THE HARBOR is nestled within a natural bay, and so the city would quickly be deserted, its people fled
is built of massive granite blocks. A bronze colossus inland or onto ships hidden around the coast.
towers over the harbor entrance. Five long piers project
into the sea, allowing goods and travelers to disembark THE ISLAND’S DEFENSES would, in such circum-
into the port proper. The square is buzzing with activ- stances, be activated. The bronze colossus watching
ity: goods and materials are loaded and unloaded, mer- the harbor mouth is, so the rumor goes, a golem: an
chants hawk their wares from stalls, and travelers must animated warrior of metal awaiting its masters’ sig-
push through the crowds to reach the city itself. The nal. Somewhere below the harbor waters sleeps a sec-
market here is chaotic and disorganized: whoever sets ond golem, this one of coral, fashioned from the reefs
up a stall by dawn claims the space for the day, leading around the isle. In the event of an assault these titans
to all manner of tricks and sabotage come nightfall. will rise, and lay waste to the aggressors.
The harbor master and their clerks patrol the docks,
Within the city itself, the streets are thronged with
ensuring that all ships have a berth, and that each new
statues of granite, bronze or copper, crafted by skilled
arrival pays the docking fee: one book or scroll per
artificers. These too would awaken and defend the isle,
ship, rendered to the city’s archive.
laying down their artificial lives so their creators
could escape.

97
 The city plaza
Passing through the harbor gate, citizens enter the city plaza. This is the
city’s central square, as vast as any in Rome. The space is lined with sand-
stone pillars; at its center is a great fountain, supporting a statue of Cas-
tor and Pollux welcoming Hermes.
This plaza is the center of Dioscorian public life. The square is ringed
with all manner of temples, theaters, and public buildings. Public de-
bates are often held here, with the disputants standing on marble plat-
forms built for this purpose. On the rare occasions that one councilor de-
bates another in public, the plaza is filled with a rapturous (and raucous)
audience.
Once a year, on the anniversary of the city’s founding, a great feast is
held here. All Dioscorians are invited, and enjoy rich food, speeches from
councilors and public figures, magical displays with coloured lightning
powder, theatrical re-enactments of the city’s history, and—if the omens
are favorable—a possession of the high priest by the spirit of Hermes or
Hekate themselves.
THE INNER MARKET is the city’s second, larger market. Here cit-
izens sell everything from the day-to-day necessities of life, to ecstatic
artworks meant only for fellow Dioscorian eyes. Whereas the harbor
market is chaotic and disorganized, here the stalls are laid out in sections
for each commodity, and each stall is apportioned to each seller via an
annual lottery.
Here one may observe an odd Dioscorian tradition: a customer may,
while paying for their merchandise, flip one of the coins with which they
are paying. If it lands heads, the coin is worth twice its minted value un-
til the transaction is complete. But if it lands tails, the coin becomes “the
merchant’s tithe”, and must be gifted to the merchant.
THE COUNCIL TOWER is the tallest structure in Dioscoria, and can
be seen from anywhere in the city nearly anywhere on the island. This
building has many functions, pertaining to the governance and stability
of the city.
At the top of the tower are the council’s chambers. Dioscoria is ruled by
a council of nine: five priests or priestesses, and four representatives of
the city’s guilds—one each for the Leagues of Swords, Cups, Wands and
Pentacles. This council oversees and governs the isle. Their tasks include
matters of import such as greeting ambassadors and merchants of stand-
ing, the maintenance and use of the navy, and the management of immi-
gration, housing, fiscal matters and the city’s food supply.
When a guild councilor dies—the councilor for the League of Wands,
for example—elections are held to appoint a successor. Any Wands guild
member—for example, actors from the Guild of Masks, or artists from
the Guild of Hues—may vote.

98
When a priest councilor dies, the process is rather es- ber business. They may also introduce laws, speak for
oteric. The remaining priests perform a divination, or against such laws, and vote on them. They receive a
seeking the next person who should be councilor. It small stipend from the state in exchange for this ser-
is believed that the Fates guide this fortune telling, vice.1 Chamber sessions are public, so any Dioscorian
revealing the qualities Dioscoria needs in her next may see how government is progressing. Most debates
councilor. Once the divination is complete, notices are pertain to taxation, the city budget, general upkeep
posted across the city asking for any Dioscorians who and the maintenance of the city’s defenses. Squabbles
match the prophecy. The council interviews every can- between guilds are often heard here, with the Cham-
didate, and selects from them a councilor. ber acting as a neutral third party.
This method has its difficulties. If no suitable candi- While the Council may not introduce laws to the
dates are found, the net is widened beyond Dioscoria. Chamber, each councilor has a contact or two within
Agents are sent to the far corners of the world, seeking the Chamber willing to introduce legislation on their
some foreign scholar or dignitary who fits the divined behalf. The Chamber’s order of business is determined
description. Many a council member first learned of by the Reader, a unique elected position within the
Dioscoria when the city’s agents approached them in Chamber. Anyone on good terms with the Reader and
private, offering a sealed letter and a council position one other Chamber member may, therefore, use these
from a mysterious isle. connections to introduce and rapidly pass a bill, before
opposition can form. Coincidentally, Readers who do
It is worth noting that the council tower’s likeness may this regularly are often granted Council positions later
be seen on the Dioscorian Tarot’s Tower card. This tra- in life.
dition dates back centuries. The council was perturbed
when the tower—the symbol of their power—was first Rumor has it that the CABINET OF EXTREMIS
depicted on the card, which stands for destruction, up- is located somewhere within the tower. This secre-
heaval and chaos. Their initial reaction was to imprison tive organization operates behind the scenes, sending
the artist responsible and seize his sketches. After the Dioscorian agents on clandestine missions, and bend-
island’s commoners and artists gathered in protest, ing—sometimes explicitly breaking—Dioscorian values
however, the council took the advice of priests and when it is necessary to preserve the city. Their mem-
historians. Accepting that Dioscoria’s tower must, one bership and leadership are unknown, though it is ru-
day, fall, they released the artist and his sketches. The mored they are led by a member of the ruling council.
tower has remained on the card ever since, a statement
of political protest and governmental humility. 1 I do not wish to clutter this account with the intricacies of
government, but I would have it set down that Dioscorians
Dioscoria’s AGENT RESIDENCES are on the tower’s are no fools when it comes to abuses of power: these peo-
middle floors. Here Dioscorian agents are educated in ple have seen many abuses in their history, and now guard
Dioscorian values and history, trained for agent work, against them. For instance, no council member may also be
fed, and housed. There are rooms for convalescence a member of the ruling chamber: this would create a funda-
and meditation, to allow agents to recover after ardu- mental conflict of responsibilities.
ous missions.
Furthermore, a Dioscorian representative requires the
At the foot of the tower lies the city’s RULING support of 100 non-ruling fellow citizens. This rule was in-
CHAMBER, a large hall where the city’s repre- stituted after the events of the “self-voting chamber” in the
sentatives discuss and pass laws. It is not unlike the twelfth century.
Great Council of Venice, or the parliament of Eng-
land: a congregation where lawmakers gather to keep A Chamber member can only be removed if half their erst-
the realm stable. Unlike England or Venice, however, while supporters publicly condemn them, or as the result of
membership is extremely open. Any Dioscorian with a Council vote. There is no way for the Chamber to di-
the support of one hundred citizens may sit in the rectly expel one of its members, though such a law has been
Chamber for one year. They are obliged to hear Cham- proposed. There is also no way for the Chamber to expel a
Council member.

99
 Beside the council tower is the TAX OFFICE, a low brick building of
modest design. Clerks and bureaucrats are often seen shuffling in and
out, in addition to bemused or furious citizens.
Taxation in Dioscoria is paid “in kind”: each citizen is taxed according
to their occupation. Merchants pay a monetary tax, as do artists, but
the latter receive a discount if they perform for civic events. Farmers are
taxed in crops, and laborers or craftsmen either pay in money, or by do-
nating some of their work to the city: boatbuilders, for example, either
donate small vessels to the city’s fleet, or work on city naval projects one
day a week.
Affluent citizens are also taxed: not by their income, but as a portion of
their total wealth at the year’s end. This has given rise to a custom at the
new year, in which citizens flock to the gambling halls to lose everything
by midnight, hoping to win it back in the early hours of the morning.
Needless to say, this has led the council to make some wide-reaching fidu-
ciary decisions over the years to maintain economic stability.
On the other side of the tower is the city’s COURTHOUSE. The build-
ing is elaborate and ornate: great sandstone steps lead through a line of
corinthian pillars and into the entrance hall, where a bronze statue of
Justice—identical to her Tarot incarnations—stands, the height of five
men. The floor is inlaid with mosaics depicting acts of justice throughout
Dioscorian history; most prominent is the image of Gaius Germanicus, a
roman centurion who laid waste to scores of gothic towns and attempted
to storm Dioscoria itself, before being captured. With time and fair judg-
ment, he came to understand those he had discounted as barbarians, and
became a model Dioscorian citizen. Notably, no written accounts of this
tale survive: our only sources are word-of-mouth.
To the left of the entrance hall is the city’s legal advisory, a series of
spaces and meeting rooms where citizens can seek free legal advice, and
find lawyers to try their case. To the right of the entrance hall is another
antechamber, leading to the city’s three law courts. During cases, the de-
fense and prosecution are performed by trained advocates; if the plain-
tiffs cannot afford an advocate, one is provided by the city. Eleven ju-
rors—the numerical value of the Justice card—are selected via divination.
It is their task to come to a ruling and, if necessary, determine punish-
ment. Dioscorian courts have no judge—the jury is the ultimate author-
ity—but each case has a legal administrator. This expert is tasked with
advising the jury, ensuring legal protocol is followed, and explaining or
bringing to light legal details which pertain to the case. The jury are en-
couraged to ask questions to clarify uncertainties. Legal precedent is used
as a guide, but is not binding.
Since many Dioscorians were subject to the unjust laws of cruel princes,
courts are reluctant to mete out “the justice of the sword”. Indeed, Jus-
tice’s sword—visibly brandished by her statue in the foyer—is a complex
and potent symbol. For Dioscorians, it represents the cutting force of

100
knowledge and clarity, and is often paired with her book of laws, held
in her other hand. Armed with both, Dioscorian courts focus on un-
derstanding the causes of wrongdoing, and guiding the evildoer back to
their path.
Legal punishments are used to repay the victim, and to encourage the
malefactor to mend their ways. Criminals are often sentenced to monas-
teries or holy places; to serve in the victim’s household for a number of
years; becoming a Dioscorian Agent; washing and preparing the bodies of
the dead in the city morgue; or serving in some cause that is important
to the victim. Capital punishment is forbidden, and exile is a last resort:
many feel Dioscoria is honor-bound to accept those who have nowhere
else.
As one passes by the courthouse, one cannot help noticing groups of citi-
zens gathered around its side wall. This has become a traditional place to
play the game of Sefirot: some vandal once chiseled the game’s board into
the courthouse wall. To this day people bring their decks and play the
game of divine orders as others look on.
Scattered around the wider plaza are diplomatic EMBASSIES. Few na-
tions know of Dioscoria, and fewer still have formal diplomatic relations.
But Dioscoria enjoys strong links with the other veiled havens. They are
the final homes of the exiled and lost, and must count on each other’s
support.
Countless TEMPLES sit around the plaza, with smaller shrines dotted
throughout the city. The oldest and grandest are the temples of Hermes
and Hekate—the island’s founding deities—and the temple to the Di-
oscori, the divine twins and patron gods of the island. Their architecture
is in the classical style of the Greeks and Romans, with grand pillars and
pediments, and statues of marble or bronze. These statues are seen as ava-
tars of the gods, through which they may perceive and act; each temple is
therefore the house of a god.
The temples’ priests commune with the gods through meditation, prayer,
or ecstatic trances. They perform ceremonies to celebrate the gods’ deeds;
each week there is some festival at another shrine or temple. Sacrifices are
burnt on temple altars to seek the gods’ favor, but temples are also places
of healing, both physical and spiritual. Those sick in mind or body seek
the medicine of priests’ unguents or herbs, or the cleansing of confession
or sympathy. Those afflicted by possession, or haunted by spirits or jinni,
will go to a priest for exorcism or to speak to, and come to terms with,
the spirit. Priests also create talismans; many a supplicant addicted to
gambling, drink or lust has come away with a charm to curb their urges.
As time passes, older temples that used to command huge audiences may
fall out of public favor. Immigrant communities are angered that these
temples lie empty, while their gods, newer arrivals to the island, make do
with roadside shrines.

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 The THEATER is the final location of note on the city plaza. An out-
door playhouse in the ancient Greek style, it is comprised of a circular
granite stage, ringed by a semicircle of stone seats rising away from the
center. Behind the stage is a flat wall, upon which scenery and decora-
tions are painted or hung. Actors enter and leave the stage via one central
double door, or one of two side doors.
This space was originally an outdoor temple: there was once an altar at
the center of the stage, on which sacrifices and rituals would be per-
formed before thousands of spectators, the blood dripping into runnels
around the edge of the stage. Though it can still perform this function
(the altar can be moved to its original position with a team of strong
bearers), it is more common for this space to be used for the performance
of plays, whether tragic, historic, comedic or satirical. Plays are staged
frequently. During the city annual founding festival, five plays are pro-
duced by five different playwrights; the best is awarded a crown of coral
and bronze, an homage to the titans of the harbor. Just as the golems pro-
tect the island physically, it is the responsibility of the playwright to safe-
guard citizens’ spirits by tempering their emotions.
This building has also been used, during moments of crisis, to perform
emergency summoning spells: the focus of the spectators increases the
potency of such rituals.

102
The streets and alleyways
Leaving the city plaza, a visitor to Dioscoria will choose a side-street and
strike out into the city itself. Dioscoria is a labyrinth of winding streets,
broad boulevards and twisting alleyways, peppered with the odd shrine,
statue, monument or well. The city is an architectural mongrel, with
styles pulled from across the known and ancient worlds.
Much of the city is made up of HOUSING. Houses are typically large,
with a common area for relaxation and cooking, adjoined by five to two-
dozen private rooms. These are often occupied by families, who some-
times take adjoining rooms, or by individuals, friends, lovers, or by refu-
gees and immigrants. Books and scrolls, often philosophical or religious,
are common throughout. A household “empress” is responsible for mak-
ing newcomers welcome, and organizing household events for fellowship
and bonding. Thus a sense of community forms within each household.
When children reach the age of majority (sixteen) they are encouraged
to join the Dioscorian military or trade fleets, or to seek their fortune
among expatriate Dioscorian communities. For example, my host’s young-
est son, aged fifteen, is considering an apprenticeship with a stonemason
in Antwerp, a Dioscorian citizen who moved away from the island and
found a home on distant shores.
This tradition is something of a necessity, since Dioscoria is always taking
in newcomers: the native-born should leave, or there would be a crisis of
housing. But there is more to this than pragmatism: growth is only pos-
sible with a balance of both security and challenge. Furthermore, those
born in Dioscoria might otherwise never see beyond its shores, and might
never understand the cruel and arbitrary empires which Dioscoria op-
poses. A free person who has never witnessed bondage will never under-
stand that freedom. These citizens also spread their philosophy of liberty
wherever they settle.

103
 GUILDHALLS can be found dotted among the streets. Each features a
coat of arms with the guild arms; many feature statues or frescoes depict-
ing the guild’s patron saint or god. Most are imposing buildings with in-
tricate stonework, a large dais or flights of steps, grand pillars, pediments
and other architectural flourishes. These extravagances are paid for by the
wealth or favors accrued by the guild. Each hall’s style and materials are
unique to the guild, and express their history and values.
There are dozens of guilds across the city—perhaps hundreds—encom-
passing professionals from all walks of life. These guilds are grouped into
four GUILD LEAGUES. The League of Swords includes the guilds of
soldiers, rhetoricians, scholars and mystics. The League of Wands incor-
porates the interests of the city’s artists, performers, magicians and eroti-
cists. The League of Cups includes the many guilds of healers, priests and
counselors, as well as dancers and acrobats. Finally, the League of Pen-
tacles encompasses merchants, gambling houses, farmers, fishermen and
laborers. Each League holds a quarterly conclave to settle differences and
resolve issues. Each League also elects one city council member.
Entrance to each guildhall is tightly controlled. Would-be apprentices
may tour a guildhall with an escort, as may honored guests such as my-
self. Foreign traders may often visit, but must be accompanied by a
guard. Guild members come and go as they please, but entry by the pub-
lic is not allowed: guilds are places of work and focus. This can cause ten-
sion: apprentices often live in guild residences, and are therefore unable
to host paramours. It is said that in the guild halls, trade and duty walk
arm in arm with lust and stealth.
Most guilds open into a courtyard, often filled with members’ works in
progress. There are usually living spaces for apprentices, lecture rooms,
workshops, and libraries or archives to house the guild’s records and mas-
ter texts.
Occasionally entire populations of refugees will be welcomed into Di-
oscoria, particularly if they possess a unique craft or method of pro-
duction. This gives the refugees a safe haven to continue their craft, and
benefits Dioscoria with new styles of pottery, cloth, steel and so on. The
newcomers often found a guild of their own, focused on these craft-
works. The Dioscorian authorities see this as part of their remit to pre-
serve knowledge in all its forms: such traditions can seldom be preserved
only in texts, but must be continually practiced. To this day, the Guild
of Glass and the Guild of Clay—the city’s glaziers and potters—maintain
the traditions of the Carthaginian refugees who founded them over a
millennia ago.

104
One notable guild is the GUILD OF HUES, the artists’ guild. This
structure is itself a work of art: painted a terracotta red with clean white
highlights, it stands out boldly from the lighter sandstone and coral of
the rest of the neighborhood. The twin pillars flanking the door are en-
twined in gold leaf vines painted onto their surface; frescos of Apollo and
Ptah flank the entrance, welcoming the worthy to hone their crafts.
These works, and others from the guild, feature gilt accents and stylistic,
angular forms. This “new art”, which to my eyes is both bolder and more
beautiful than the works of our Italian or German masters, is a style per-
fected by Dioscorian artists over the last century or so, and is widely used
in their Tarot decks.
Artists are not limited to this style, however; journeymen must submit
three masterworks in three different styles to become masters, and are
encouraged to learn many styles throughout their careers. Artists may be
called upon to create portraits or paintings for private clients, to adorn
the facades of temples, private buildings or public architecture, to fashion
votive objects, or even to depict supernatural or divine landscapes to aid
spirit work. As such, they must be ready to wield any number of methods
to complete their work.
The guildhall itself features dozens of workshops and studios; often mas-
ters will collaborate, or employ journeymen and apprentices, to complete
a larger work. The guild maintains strong links with models and athletes,
as well as the Guild of Forms—the sculptors’ guild—next door.
The GUILD OF CLEMENCY is another notable guild. Tucked just
behind the council tower, this guild’s function is to integrate newcom-
ers into Dioscoria. The building’s facade is full of symbolic meaning,
with two refugees—rendered after Hermes and Hekate—flanking the
entrance. They are bound in chains, which lead downward into a floor
mosaic depicting the Devil, signifying newcomers’ bondage to old world-
views. But the chains are broken by a scorpion, the astrological symbol
of change and upheaval. New Dioscorians may be in a tumultuous phase,
but this tumult can free them from the old world and its painful beliefs.
The Guild of Clemency also operates hospitals, houses of care, houses of
shelter, and charitable food wagons, for those who cannot care for, house,
or feed themselves. Each institution is named for a god, saint or prophet
revered for healing the sick, feeding the hungry and so on. The Guild is
therefore vital to Dioscorian government: without it, much of the heal-
ing and care within the state would cease, and newcomers would be left
rudderless. To reflect this, the Guild of Clemency pays no tax other than
a pledge to maintain these services, and is supported by city taxes.

105
 The GUILD OF MIST is the most vital guild for the island’s security.
The veil of mist which cloaks the island can only be navigated by a skilled
guide, trained by the guild; as a result, these guild members are highly
sought and indispensable for trade and travel.
The guildhall is of an unusual design: set into the cliff face near the har-
bor, the figure of the Hermit has been carved into the unfinished rock. In
his stone hand he clasps a lantern: an immense iron construction welded
into the statue itself, perpetually lit. Guildmembers enter the hall by
walking into the folds of the statue’s cloak, letting darkness enfold them.
Finally they emerge into the cavern of the guildhall itself, as though
emerging from a mist, or from the darkness of ignorance. I was not per-
mitted to visit the hall, but rumor claims apprentices train in great un-
derground grottos and lakes; to graduate, they must navigate the crags
and outcroppings in complete darkness.
Since the veil of mist is the first and most powerful defense against an
attack, guides must be absolutely trustworthy. A traitorous guide could
easily land a spy on the island’s coast, or lead a foreign armada to the
harbor itself. To prevent this, any council member can veto the appren-
ticeship of any guide. Furthermore, the guild itself has a number of secret
rituals to ensure loyalty. There are rumors of blood and binding spells, as
well as truth-telling demons and devices that see into one’s heart.
Not all guilds are ancient and storied. The PRINTERS’ GUILD—the
Guild of Ink—is a new addition, whose adherents make use of recently
invented movable type to print scores of books and pamphlets. This has
flooded Dioscoria with even more literature, from the highest spiritual
and philosophical texts to the lowest lustful scribblings. In a nod to the
guild’s technological foundation, the bell pull is a clockwork mechanism
activated by pulling the lever of a miniature printing press.
Every major street in Dioscoria houses at least one SCHOOL. Dioscori-
ans’ insistence on knowledge and learning means schools are revered. All
children living in Dioscoria, whether native-born or newcomers, must at-
tend school until the age of fourteen. This rudimentary schooling encom-
passes literacy, numeracy, logic, rhetoric and its abuses, history, the study
of culture, ethics, divination, theology, and civic duty. Each class has one
or two dozen students, and teachers are paid by the state.
Schools are open to all, not only children. Newcomers keen to bolster their
education, or children who left school early and wish to return to their
studies, are also welcome. Dioscorians believe that learning is a lifelong ac-
tivity. This has shocked some of my English fellows, who believe humans
are educated once—in a trade or discipline of import—and then join so-
ciety as productive members. But does not a stonemason master his craft
with decades of praxis? And if a stonemason takes the decision to give up
his acquired craft, and pick up another, who are we to prevent him? On
the mainland our educational abilities are slim and rare, but Dioscoria has
built what seems to this poor Englishwoman a paradise of knowledge.

106
Newcomers in particular require speedy, effective schooling, largely in
Dioscorian values. Some schools specialize in preparing these would-be
Dioscorians for the shocks and confusions of this vibrant city, and under-
standing its grounding principles. Their first lesson is Dioscoria’s found-
ing principle: all is permissible, all are welcome, if no harm is done.
Once schooling is complete, whether for a child or adult, the student is
encouraged to apply to a guild, or to join the wider world as part of a
Dioscorian enclave. If the student’s interest is in knowledge and infor-
mation itself, they are directed toward the academy. All are encouraged
to eventually settle in the wider world, ready to share their culture and
knowledge with others.
Those bound for the ACADEMY live and study in one of a dozen
colleges. Each college is a maze of courts, quads, halls and residences,
clustered around libraries and lecture halls. Each has its own architec-
tural style: some newer ones evoke European universities, with classical-
ly-inspired arches and windows; others take the Islamic style, and still
others are drafty, ancient shells dating from the island’s founding. Each
college, regardless of origin, is covered with the graffiti of countless stu-
dents. These crude daubings are usually snippets of beloved philosophy
texts, or scrawled debates back and forth from one wall-writer
to another.
Each college is a community unto itself. Each professor has a residence
and an office, where students can seek help and feedback, and where
long, elaborate discussions often wend into the afternoon. Students eat,
study and live together. Feast halls and libraries are places of camaraderie
and earnest debate, and both can be turned over to theatrical troupes for
light entertainment.
The city’s academy is a broader organization which allocates college re-
sources, and arranges inter-college cooperation, student transfers and
book loans. Eager students may apply to the academy; they must submit
a short treatise on their chosen subject, and are interviewed by a scholar
from the college of their choice. The college inspects their work and
weighs their discussion, to ascertain whether the mind before them can
be chiseled into a formidable substance.
Once admitted, students attend lectures and symposia held at various
colleges or, in the case of large gatherings, at the central LECTURE
HALL. This is a large, round building, with pillars and seats arranged
in circles six levels high. The acoustics of the space and the amplification
charms hanging from the domed ceiling ensure speakers can be heard
with ease. Students must also write frequent theses to hone their mental
and rhetorical craft. Their ultimate goal is to produce a work of scholar-
ship: a grand thesis or dissertation. After a term of one year their studies
cease, but many opt to re-apply, taking three, four, or more years to ana-
lyze their particular interest and complete their thesis—enriching
Dioscorian knowledge.

107
 If college libraries do not contain a particular text, scholars turn to the
GREAT LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE. It contains a copy of every text
published in Dioscoria, and countless others besides, saved from the rav-
ages of time, fire or ignorance. An immense structure, this building tow-
ers over much of the city: a huge block-shaped edifice, rendered in im-
mense red sandstone bricks, it seems like a fortress of knowledge flanked
by the saints of Truth. Statues of Thoth, Alfred the Great, Galileo and
countless others stand in niches around the walls, welcoming seekers of
wisdom. Inside, immense bookshelves are arranged like wheel spokes,
protruding inwards from the exterior walls. At the center is a vast empty
space guarded by bronze railings, where light from the great, round sky-
light swings down to illuminate the space.
Beneath the library lies the archive, where librarians scuttle to fetch texts
for eager scholars. It is a tightly-organized maw that swallows all writing,
for each ship docking at Dioscoria must pay it a tax of one book, scroll or
tablet. The depths below the city yawn with countless texts.
This tax of books, and the city’s ceaseless acquisition of knowledge, are
hotly debated topics among the citizenry and the council. Those against
this policy of knowledge claim their efforts would be better spent fo-
cused on practical matters: defense, commerce and so on. But those who
advocate for knowledge claim that knowledge, and its refined forms of
magic and wisdom, grant unexpected but vital boons, and are well worth
the pains. The new technology of printing complicates things further:
some argue that a book is now easier to acquire, and therefore worth less,
and that Dioscoria should simply tax newcomers in money.
While the citywide evacuation plan—in the event of assault by a foreign
power—is one of flight and the preservation of life, the archivists of the
central library have taken a vow to protect the texts to their last breath.
If attacked, most archivists must seize the rarest texts and flee by sea,
via some secret evacuation tunnel. The senior archivists, however, are to
hold out until the invaders arrive, then seal the library: enormous granite
blocks are suspended above each entrance, ready to drop and plug each
doorway at the pull of a fateful lever, or the burning of a merciless fuse.
This policy would trap the archivists inside, with no escape. The archi-
vists, however, are willing to make this sacrifice to preserve these works
from prying, greedy eyes.

108
Slipping further into the city’s backstreets we find countless TAVERNS
AND GAMING HOUSES: one on every corner, and two on every
square. Here one may forget one’s cares by eating, drinking, making
merry, and playing at dice or cards. Regulars saunter down to their local
gaming house, challenging strangers and friends alike to best them at
backgammon, Sefirot, chess or dice.
These houses are also host to various entertainments such as dancing,
singing, and the reading of poetry. Street magicians perform in promi-
nent taverns, amazing audiences with their tricks, wiles and prestidigi-
tations. Those unable to secure a booking fee often perform just outside
popular taverns, catching punters on their way in or out.
These local gaming houses are the most common, but the city has one
large hall of gambling: the so-called “House of the Fates”. This mansion
was converted into a gaming house by the Dioscorian council, to steer
and control gambling within the city and to raise public funds. This im-
posing, modern building—built in a new, clean style and festooned with
slender pillars—is the length of a playing field and spread across three
stories. Here one may play all manner of games. Money may be wagered,
of course, but one can also bet “in kind”, wagering food, goods and other
sundries. If one loses catastrophically, and has the ear of the council, one
may even be blessed by a miraculous return of good fortune—in the in-
terest of the city’s economic stability.

109
 Beyond the city walls
The city is ringed by ancient fortifications, placed—so the myths go—
by giants sworn to a contract with Hermes. These titanic parapets are
wide enough for two war chariots to ride side by side. Girdling the city
from sea to sea, they prevent attack from inland. They also mark the city
limits.
Sport and competition are vital for Dioscorian culture: mastering the
body goes hand in hand with understanding the soul, and Dioscorians
are always eager to outdo each other. To support such activities, many
SPORTING FIELDS have been laid out beyond the city walls, for run-
ning, tennis, and other pursuits. Numerous arenas and racecourses have
been erected, for discus and javelin throwing, archery, wrestling, horse
and chariot racing, and even armed combat—though bouts are only to
first blood.
But while these athletic arts are an end in themselves, to many citi-
zens the true game lies in betting on the outcome. Gambling stalls and
bet-takers sprout in every crowd like good-humored scavengers. Their
patter, I confess, is quite convincing, and I found myself parting with my
pennies each time I attended a race or bout, thinking the outcome a dead
certainty. While I never won, I could not find it in myself to resent these
rogues, as they consoled me so kindly after each loss, offering good odds
for the next round.
It goes without saying, of course, that to fix fights or matches is utterly
taboo. This cuts at the heart of Dioscorian tradition, and is punishable by
imprisonment, physical torment, or the seldom-used punishment of exile.
Beyond the sporting fields are the city’s FARMS, MILLS AND
GRANARIES. Much of the land around the city has been converted to
farmland, since the city’s population demands a constant supply of food
and grain. Here farmers and other laborers produce, store and process
the city’s food. This is also where many of them live: in farmhouses and
cottages dotted around the countryside.
For these citizens, whose farms keep them ever-busy, visiting the city is
rare. Council stipends are welcome, but often come with demands for
more grain and wheat. Dioscoria, ever welcoming to newcomers, is con-
stantly hungry. This strains the island’s farmers, fishermen, and food
merchants.
Past the farmland, one finds CAMPS OF NEWCOMERS. Here, long-
standing refugees from the immigration flotilla can find a temporary
home. The tents and shacks of this shanty town are administered by
nearby hospitals and houses of clemency, who do their best to keep the
refugees fed, clothed, housed and healthy. Life here is desperate, the days
pieced together from scraps and charity. Houses are little more than
boards or driftwood hammered together; tents are passed from family to
family, and must be patched often. With housing cramped and at a pre-
mium in the city itself, these camps seem to grow year on year.

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Out in the foothills one finds MONASTERIES and houses of seclusion
for monks, sages and other holy people. Away from the bustle and noise
of city life, these dedicated seekers can focus on spiritual growth and
understanding. These monasteries are isolated, towering structures, built
by holy hands over the centuries. One monastery I visited was a hulking
mass of gray stone, with a tower to the heavens and a great hall whose
coloured windows refracted the rising sun, as the stellar spheres refract
the light of the Divine. These monks welcomed me to their repast, though
to speak was forbidden: they ate in silence, one of their number reading
first from the Bible, then the Shams al-Ma’arif.
When I visited another order, I discovered these nuns were not permitted
to speak. For much of the day they sat in meditation, stopping only to
throw coins or stalks and consult their sacred text, the Chinese Book of
Changes. In this way they honor the divine through the study of chance,
since they believe fate and fortune are the chaotic windows where God
may enter.
While holy ones may go down into the city to study texts in the great
library, most are content with their own modest libraries. Their focus is
more on meditation, contemplation, and the purification of their souls.
These communities are often self-sustaining, keeping their own gardens
and plots of land. The labor of maintaining the monastery is often seen as
a sacred, nourishing offering.
Further out still, one may find HERMITS living in the mountains. For
these sacred sages, contact with society confuses the soul. For them are
the mountains, the rivers, the animals, and the contemplation of the
heavens. They lack no companions, for both within and without they
grasp the countless branches of the world-soul.
One may also find here the utterly destitute: those who cannot live in the
city, or on the land, and may barely live at all. Fallen on hard times, these
tortured souls roam the island, hoping for some unsuspected clemency.
These vagrants’ tragic stories remind Dioscoria that not all citizens are
free, and that more must be done.
There are rumors of SECRET PLACES tucked into the island’s valleys
and clefts. According to local legend, the “Cabinet Extremis” has seized
these places and uses them for its furtive projects. This clandestine group
answers only to itself, and operates in the shadows, crossing whatever
ethical boundaries it deems necessary to protect Dioscoria—sometimes
from itself. While these projects are sometimes necessary to ensure the
city’s survival, their questionable nature would disturb Dioscorians, who
pride themselves on their righteous values. Here, on the island’s far side,
assassins are rigorously trained, and magicians of the mind prepare spells
of mental violation in secret shrines. According to rumor this area houses
a hidden prison, for those possessed by demons or spirits and immune
to exorcism, or channellers who pursued forces that, once released, could
not be reversed.

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 The island COAST is a place of solitude and spiritual significance. Di-
oscorians are buried at sea, and funerals are held on the coastline, or on
ships just offshore. They are of the sea, and feel they should feed it in
return.
Beyond the island’s borders, Dioscoria employs countless sailors and na-
val officers, and has connections to a vast web of traders and expatriates.
Cities around the world harbor secret Dioscorian settlers, always willing
to help another Dioscorian set down roots in a new home. These secretive
emigres identify each other by the island’s motto and the secret sym-
bols of the sword, cup, wand or vine, and pentacle or coin: the island’s
spiritual guideposts.

Final thoughts
It has been my pleasure to walk the streets of this ancient and remarka-
ble city, and to record it for posterity. I understand the council’s decision
that an outside eye such as mine might see their world more clearly, or
at least with fewer preconceptions, than they might themselves. But as I
ready myself to depart, I confess I am torn: I am glad to have seen such
marvels, but despair that, having seen them, I shall never be content to
return to England, to be some merchant’s wife or lawyer’s mistress. My
time here in Dioscoria has changed me, as she changes all who touch her
shores.
This account will, of course, be copied and rendered unto the city ar-
chives, to tell future generations of Dioscoria in these, its golden years. I
pray that the council find it sufficient, and that—God willing—it earns
me a place among these islanders, where the sharp mind of a woman such
as myself is a thing to be treasured, not an aberration to be confined.

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113
 VIII. Cities of the Sixteenth Century

It can be challenging to tell stories and roleplay in a century so removed

from our own. To help both players and Seers with this problem, we have
researched a number of cities from the time period—specifically for the
year 1562, when the game is officially set—and summarized the features
we consider most interesting, or most relevant for play. We have tried to
avoid exotification wherever possible, particularly with regard to non-Eu-
ropean locations and cultures, and have done our best to simply report
what these places were like as faithfully as possible, given the limited re-
sources which have been preserved, and to which we have access.
Of course, the sixteenth century was a wide and varied place, and you
should always feel encouraged to do your own research and take your
Hand wherever strikes your interest. Think of these cities as promising
starting points, or lively settings to return to time and again.
If you want to do your own research, we’ve included resources we found
relevant or interesting under each city’s “Further reading” section. You
can also research other historical cities and take your party there instead.
The game’s setting is as rich and varied as history itself.

Overview of a century
The sixteenth century was a chaotic and difficult time for Europe and the
Middle East. Religious tensions between Christians erupted in the split
between Catholics (loyal to the Pope) and Protestants (reformers who be-
lieved the Papacy was corrupt). War between two great Islamic empires, the
Safavids and Ottomans, waged on and off, and the Ottomans also pressed
westward into Europe, besieging the Austrian capital of Vienna. The na-
tions of Europe fought over the states of Italy, and France. Spain and the
Holy Roman Empire (the German states) clashed in various configurations,
often dragging—or inviting—England or Scotland into the mix.

114
 The weaponry of these European wars were also undergoing changes.
Overview of a century cont.

Gunpowder, rare at the beginning of the century, became standard by

its end—although these guns were still quite unwieldy, inaccurate and
slow. Clockwork or “wheel-lock” pistols were invented, powered by a
wheeled spring. Medieval castles could now be knocked down by cannon-
fire, demanding new defensive architecture such as star or drum forts to
deflect incoming projectiles. Infantry combat also underwent a revolu-
tion: modern regiments were armed with pikes—very long spears—which
were used to push and gore the enemy while keeping them at a distance.
The days of knights dominating the battlefield were over by 1562, since a
horseman could be picked off by shot or skewered by pikes before reach-
ing their target. Instead, horsemen wore less armor, and wielded pistols
and a saber. The overall makeup of European armies also changed: it was
often more efficient for a ruler to hire professional mercenaries from
Switzerland or the Italian or German states, rather than training their
own countrymen.
These changes were less pronounced in the Islamic empires, but the Otto-
mans did wield immense cannons to break sieges, and mounted powerful
swivel guns on their ships and fortresses. Ottoman infantry mostly used
curved swords or maces. Their ranged troops mostly used bows, more ac-
curate and faster to fire than rifles but taking much longer to master.
Other technological advances were also critical to the history of the six-
teenth century. The moveable type printing press allowed books to be
printed and distributed cheaply across Europe, causing a boom in schol-
arship. The use of compasses and astrolabes to navigate the ocean, and
advances in cartography and ship design, allowed European explorers to
travel farther and map those places more accurately, opening the way to-
wards centuries of colonialism.
On a more abstract level, science and scholarship also developed during
this century. In Europe, the heliocentric model of the cosmos was pro-
posed, and deemed heretical by religious figures. In the Islamic world
advancements were made in astronomy, such as the invention of the sex-
tant, allowing the creation of more accurate star maps. Ottoman geog-
raphers also improved their methods. Toward the end of the century the
microscope was invented, opening up unsuspected scientific possibilities.

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 London
Straddling the river Thames in southern England, London allows access to the
English channel and thence to the Atlantic ocean.
The seven gates of London lead to a teeming metropolis filled with creaking
wood-and-daub houses thatched with ancient straw. A hundred thousand souls
are crammed within the city walls. The streets are winding and maze-like, nar-
row and dirty, and often the houses are built to such a height that they lean
across the street, blocking out the sun—or, more frequently, shielding one from
the rain, drizzle or downpours that wash the city’s refuse into the river.
Many come to London to seek their fortune, or escape from vagrancy after the
decline of the family farm. But the city is no more merciful, and the streets are
filled with beggars and the homeless. Alleyways hum with innovative criminals
finding new ways to snatch, steal, purloin or trick their way to a score. For those
with a sharp mind, quick reflexes and enough speed to outrun their debtors, Lon-
don is a city brimming with opportunity.

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Ruling power: Queen Elizabeth I (r. 1558–1603)

London is the capital of the Kingdom of England. It is administered by

the Mayor of London, who is responsible for keeping the peace, but is
ultimately ruled by Queen Elizabeth. Crowned only three years ago, she
has already taken confident steps toward securing her rule, stabilizing
the realm and addressing religious tensions.
The Queen rules absolutely, but new laws are made by parliament. Parlia-
ment is a necessary tool, but easily led: the Queen has planted her min-
isters there as Members of Parliament to keep it on track. The Queen is
savvy, but still early in her reign; as such, she relies on the advice of her
Privy Council. Her councilors are a mixture of the nobility, gentry and
business classes. The Queen manages the council by using flattery, pro-
motions, and the threat of revoking privileges.

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 Districts
Markets
Docks Sixteen markets are dotted around London. Each
The London docks are crowded and noisy. Work- sprawls across its chosen street or square, with scat-
men hurry to and fro, laden with baggage and bales tered stalls or stands offering food, spices or livestock.
of goods. Merchants harangue the harbor master for The most common goods are freshly baked bread, fish
docking rights, and with the high tide there are fre- or meat. One can also buy imported wine, sand (for
quent cries as ships weigh anchor and head out to sea. household cleaning and scouring) and small amounts
of sugar.
The Deptford docks, on the southern bank of the
Thames, are the busiest: trade ships arrive and alight London’s markets are patrolled by the Mayor’s men,
like honey bees on a flower, with most stopping at who keep an eagle eye out for malfeasance such as
the import quays so their goods can be inspected and profiteering or price gouging.
import dues paid. Deptford is also where the navy is
building its fleet: merchant vessels and warships are Cheapside market
assembled here and sent off to strengthen the English
Cheapside is London’s main commercial street, and the
fleet and merchant navy.
heart of the city’s economy and businesses. This long,
Men and boys flock here to seek adventure, or an es- wide street is filled with merchants calling out their
cape from their troubles, at sea. Before they board they wares. Poorer merchants lay out stalls in the street;
will pass the so-called “Execution dock,” where pirates those of some means can rent a tiny shop only one yard
are hanged. Though this “dock” is nothing more than wide, effectively a kiosk. Wealthier merchants have
a gallows, it does function as the ne’er-do-well’s “final larger shops, and serve customers inside.
gangway” to the hereafter.
The far end of the street broadens into “the Shambles”,
a large open-air slaughterhouse filled with a sea of
Streets and alleys butcher’s stalls. The smell is atrocious, as are the gut-
London is a maze of streets, alleys and byways: dirty, ters. At Cheapside’s opposite end is Goldsmiths’ Row,
narrow and unpaved. Houses are made of timber where rich merchants deal in precious metals, gems or
frames filled with wattle and daub, with tiled or luxury goods. These fine, high buildings feature ornate
thatched roofs. Tall structures are noticeably precari- facades of carved wood.
ous: to maximize space, each floor juts out a little from
On special occasions such as royal processions or pa-
the one below.
rades, fabrics are draped from windows and balconies
The streets are overcrowded and noisy. Tradesmen up and down the street like multicolored banners. Pag-
and traveling merchants hawk their wares: fish, fresh eants and performances accompany these events. The
fruit and vegetables, or the fast food of a cookshop: plain drinking fountains of the street, which dispense
baked apples, strongly seasoned (and suspicious) pies, spring water, can be made to flow with wine.
or oysters from the Thames. This English metropolis,
crammed beyond its medieval means, is a blur of faces
in crowds: more people than most English could im-
agine. Stories claim that if you see your own doppel-
ganger in the throng, death is not far behind.
Human waste is thrown from one’s chamber pot into
the street, there to be gathered up by muckrakers—
who sell it as fertilizer—or washed, by rain, into the
Fleet “river”—more an open sewer. Better-off London-
ers use privies located atop cesspits.

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Taverns, halls and gathering places
Most water is unsafe to drink, and wine is an expen-
sive import. Most households brew their own beer,
which is drunk in place of water. Londoners gather in
alehouses for gossip, companionship and hot meals.
These places are cramped, worn, warm and homey.
Songs are sung, and games and gambling are rife.
Inns are another favorite gathering place, where trave-
lers can spend the night. Of more interest to locals are
the shows staged at inn-yards, the large, square court-
yards in front of each inn, enclosed on all sides. Actors
and troubadours entertain hundreds of people at these
venues; entry is cheap, and you can get a balcony seat
for a little more. Actors also regale audiences in public
halls, city courtyards, universities, palaces, the homes
of wealthy patrons, and marketplaces. Female actors
are not permitted, so female parts are played by boys.

Houses of religion, clemency or

punishment
Churches are commonplace on the streets of London.
Some priests run multiple churches, pocketing multi-
ple salaries; this is unpopular, but Church salaries are
a pittance. The city houses several charitable hospitals,
such as St Thomas’ hospital—which supports those
who are poor or diseased—or Bedlam, for the insane.
London has several prisons: holding places for debtors,
heretics or traitors. Prisons are a temporary measure
to stop the accused fleeing their trial, not a sentence or
punishment.

Gates and walls

London is surrounded by sturdy fortress walls dat-
ing back centuries. The city is accessed via seven gates,
locked at night. The heads and body parts of traitors
and criminals are prominently displayed on London’s
gates and bridges, to encourage obedience.

The Liberties
Across the river, within the so-called “Liberties”, the
law is laxer and less attentive. Here we find Lon-
don’s red light district, blood sports such as bear- and
bull-baiting, and disreputable taverns. Gambling is
rife, as are cutpurses and muggers.

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 Locations and monuments
London Bridge
A mishmash of teetering wooden buildings, crammed precariously onto
an ancient bridge spanning the Thames. These houses are filled with
shops and facilities to serve people crossing the bridge. It only rarely
burns down.

Tower of London
A large square fortress on the river, enclosed by a moat: an island keep.
The most secure building in England, where traitors are imprisoned and
executed, and where treaties are signed.
Legend has it the Tower is haunted by the ghosts of those who’ve perished
there, such as the two child-princes murdered by their power-hungry
uncle, Richard III. It is also said that if the ravens roosting in the Tower
leave, both Tower and Kingdom will fall.

St Paul’s Cathedral
A magnificent gothic church with a towering spire, St Paul’s dwarfs all of
London’s churches, and is the seat of the Bishop of London.

Abandoned monasteries
Thirty years ago the English church broke from Rome, dissolving all
monastic orders, whose property was sold to the highest bidder. The
remnants of these monasteries and abbeys linger; some have been trans-
formed into housing, but most lie abandoned, inhabited by squatters.

Westminster palace
A sprawling gothic structure, this palace is arranged around several
courtyards and the great church of St Stephen’s Chapel. The English par-
liament use this chapel as their meeting hall.
The palace windows are stained glass; the building has rooms for dignitar-
ies, offices and servants. A bustling world of political hustle and intrigue.

Whitehall palace
The Queen’s usual residence, though in summer she tours the country. A
sprawling, luxurious palace built of white stone, with lodgings and offices
for prominent courtiers. The palace contains banquet halls, a bowling
green, indoor tennis courts, a cock-fighting pit, and a tiltyard for jousting.

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Notable groups
The oppressive or wealthy
Priests, from the lowly parish priest assisting his flock, to bishops and
archbishops whose proclamations are heard across the kingdom.
Magicians: astrologers and alchemists, employed by the powerful to carry
out research, or hired by the middle classes to tell their fortune.
Courtiers: aristocrats, gentry or assistants, perhaps hurrying between
Whitehall and Westminster.
Spies, members of the Queen’s nascent espionage ring.

Everyday people
Newcomers or Foreigners, seeking their fortune in the big city.
Cunning folk, low-born folk with passed-down knowledge of herbs,
charms and spirits. Hired by commoners to bless their future, lift a curse
or heal sickness.
Vagrants such as beggars or the homeless; found on every street corner.
Coney-catchers: hustlers. Often use rigged gambling to part newcomers
from their coppers.
Performers such as poets, actors and playwrights.

History
England has endured a trying half-century. The country has gone back
and forth over the question of whether the nation is Catholic (and owes
spiritual allegiance to the Pope), or Protestant (a reformed Christianity).
In the past 15 years the country has seen four different monarchs, each
with wildly different religious views. The nation has suffered the rigors of
Fortune’s wheel, and their spiritual and dynastic faith has been shaken.
Furthermore, Dioscorian seers predict that within a year the city will be
struck by a great pestilence. If this happens, anyone of means will flee
into the country, leaving the poor trapped in a plague city. Some will seal
themselves into their dwellings, others will organize quarantine proce-
dures, and others still will behave madly without regard for their safety,
knowing the plague is sent by God or the Devil and is beyond man’s
ability to control.

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 Culture Crime and punishment
The English are a proud, confident people, loyal to Punishment is a source of entertainment. Executions
their royal family despite recent hiccups. The English and corporal punishments are carried out in public: a
are proud of their warlike heritage in the Hundred jolly treat for the whole family!
Years’ War, but reticent when an older relative brings
Petty crimes are punished by a fine, or a turn in the
up the Wars of the Roses, a chaotic period of civil
stocks or on the whipping post. More serious crimes,
strife.
or repeat offenses, are punished by some form of muti-
Londoners are more independent and single minded lation: the amputation of fingers or hands, or branding
than their rural fellows. The metropolis – the highest on the hands, arms or cheeks.
concentration of people ever seen in England – forces
Some crimes (particularly treason) are punished by
people into close quarters and highlights the rift be-
death. Religious treachery, such as hiding a Jesuit
tween rich and poor. It also allows opportunities for all
priest, is punished by hanging or, in rare cases, burn-
manner of people to mix on its cobblestoned streets, of-
ing at the stake. Witchcraft is punished by hanging. If
fering the poor a chance to take advantage of the rich.
a witch earnestly repents, however, the sentence might
be commuted.
Religion
Due to the Queen’s recent reforms, the English church Race and oppression
is headed by the Queen alone, but retains many of the
England expelled its Jews centuries ago. They are per-
trappings of Catholicism such as choral music, lavish
ceived as deceiving, greedy tricksters and demonized
crosses and chalices. Catholicism is banned, but the
in plays, even though few Englishmen have ever met
Queen has no issue with Catholics as long as they keep
one. Ex-Jewish converts to Christianity are technically
their practice private. Radical forms of Protestantism
permitted, but are treated with suspicion.
such as Puritanism are banned.
In response, the Pope has sent Jesuit priests (stalwart
Catholic agents) to England in secret, as part of the
“counter-reformation”. These priests are hidden in the
homes of secret Catholics, and might attempt to fo-
ment a Catholic uprising.

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Geopolitics Further reading
England is a second-rate power, and is relatively weak • For a map, see the one spuriously known as the
against the threats of France or Spain. The English are “Agas Map”.
militarily belligerent—they remember the glory days • For daily life: an extensive summary of life in
of the Hundred Years War—but have not enjoyed a se- London at internetshakespeare.uvic.ca.
rious victory in some time. • For commerce: “Food in Elizabethan England”,
As such, the Queen avoids getting into foreign con- The British Museum (www.bl.uk).
flicts to conserve the nation’s resources, and relies on • For English magic: The Cunning Man’s Hand-
espionage to outmaneuver her opponents. Rumor has book, by Jim Baker.
it the Queen is recruiting a group of “Watchers”, spies • For details of the city and its response to plague:
who will interpret letters, crack ciphers and observe The Plague in Shakespeare’s London, by
suspected traitors. They might even frequent alehouses F.P. Wilson
and inns to keep their ears to the ground, and spy on • A firsthand account of London in 1603:
the public. A Survey of London, by John Stow.

Allies and enemies

England is officially allied with Spain, since the Span- Common names of the region
ish King harbors hopes of marrying Elizabeth, just Agnes, Alexander, Alice, Ambrose, Amy, Archibald,
as he married the last Queen. But Elizabeth is stall- Arthur, Barnaby, Ben, Brian, Charity, Chidiock,
ing to maintain English independence, and he grows Cuthbert, David, Edith, Eleanor, Ellen, Eustace,
impatient. Florence, Geoffrey, Gerald, Gertrude, Hubert, Hugh,
Across the channel, France looks on enviously, still Humphrey, James, Joan, Job, Lambert, Lancelot,
bitter after centuries of intermittent conflict—but re- Leonard, Leticia, Louis, Mabel, Mark, Martin,
ligious tensions are tearing the country apart. To the Maurice, Matthew, Michael, Owen, Peregrine, Perkin,
north, France’s old ally Scotland is preoccupied with a Peter, Philip, Piers, Ralph, Reginald, Reynold, Roger,
monarchical crisis. Ross, Rowland, Sabine, Simon, Stephen, Susan,
Thomasine, Walter, William.
English trade is heavily reliant on selling wool to the
Netherlands across the channel. Good relations with
the Netherlands, and with Protestant Germanic states,
are the backbone of English commerce.

Opinion of Dioscoria
To the Elizabethan court, Dioscoria is but a distant
legend. Its resources might be helpful for the Queen’s
pet alchemists and magicians—if it exists at all.

123
 Lisbon
Overlooking the natural harbor at the mouth of the river Tagus, Lisbon is per-
haps the wealthiest city of the time: a metropolis in its golden age. The seat of the
vast Portuguese trading empire, Lisbon is the place to be for the mercantile elite.
It is often said: “You haven’t seen anything good until you’ve seen Lisbon.”
Lisbon is a city of contrasts: muddy alleyways twisting between medieval hovels
clash with the wide, well-paved Rua Nova, renowned for its commerce. Ram-
shackle houses scattered around the outskirts rest in the shadow of cathedrals
and palaces in the new Manueline style, proclaiming Portugal’s newfound wealth
and splendor.
The Empire has achieved greatness. Its capital calls to all who would listen,
promising that if they seek their fortunes in Lisbon, the world can be theirs—just
as Portugal has allegedly made the world its own.

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Ruling power: King Sebastião I (r. 1557–1578)

The child-king Sebastião I, now a boy of nine years, has reigned for half
his short life. The regency is handled by his paternal grandmother,
Catherine of Austria, who is deeply concerned with her family’s educa-
tion. Catherine has accumulated a substantial library, holds a regular sa-
lon at the palace, and has welcomed women scholars into her household.
The functioning of the monarchy is ensured by the tireless work of the
Royal Council, representing all crucial parts of government, administra-
tion, religion, and most importantly, trade and commerce.
The Inquisition stands ready to stamp out heresy in Lisbon or, more
likely, to persecute ex-Jews. Ties are strong between the monarchy and
the Inquisition: the Grand Inquisitor is appointed by the King, and must
be a member of the royal family.
The Portuguese monarchs, once warriors, are now merchant kings keen
to secure trade and safeguard commercial influence. Their goals are most
often to steer trade towards routes that would advantage them commer-
cially. To this end, Portuguese explorers have been exploring and seizing
ports along the Arabian coast by force.

125
 Districts
Fleets to foreign climes, particularly India, tend to
leave in December and return in the summer, laden
Rua Nova
with luxurious new goods and exotic animals. These
The city’s primary commercial center, the Rua Nova fleets of six to two dozen ships dominate the life of the
is a wide street lined by two terraces of three- or city upon their return, the harbor buzzing with activ-
four-storied houses. Beneath the apartments overlook- ity as workers scramble to unload, and crowds gather
ing the bustling avenue, and behind a columned walk- to glimpse the unimaginable rarities they might buy
way at ground level, shops of all varieties can be found for themselves in the markets over the next few days.
offering goods, or services like changing and borrow-
ing money. Merchants of all kinds fill the immacu- City center
lately paved road, offering a ceaseless variety of prod-
ucts from the farthest corners of the globe: street foods Known as ‘Baixa’, the city center is oriented around the
and fragrant spices, luxury furniture and porcelain spacious Rossio Square, bordered by the São Domingo
from the Ming dynasty, textiles and carpets, precious Monastery and the Estaus Palace on its northern side.
stones and jewelry, exotic animals both living and tax- Though it fails to rival the Rua Nova as a center of
idermied, and notaries capable of transcribing one’s commerce, the square hosts the sales of particularly
correspondence and ensuring its delivery. large and luxurious goods, such as ornate cabinets or
rhinoceroses. Running the eastern length of the square
Walking down the Rua Nova, visitors brush shoulders is the palatial Todos-os-Santos hospital, the city’s
with a multitude of people: performers and priests, health provider where doctors also study anatomy.
grizzled sailors and newly wealthy merchants, knights
and slaves, common fieldhands and wizened academ- Baixa is also home to several smaller markets manned
ics. If there is a commodity to be purchased or a type by merchants unable to claim a space on the Rua
of soul to meet under the sun, they can be found on Nova, or whose goods are too niche to command such
the Rua Nova. a prominent place. Guild halls and industrial processes
flourish here; craftspeople, enslaved servants, academ-
ics, and artists wind through the streets and alleys.
Medieval quarter
Not remodeled in centuries, Lisbon’s winding medieval Intellectual quarter
streets show the contrast between Portugal’s past and
present. Unplanned and ramshackle, these homes and Nestled between the waterfront and the city center,
street markets are dirty, mud-caked, and divided by the district of Chiado offers a flurry of culture. Ca-
narrow, crooked streets winding up the hillside. fes, bookstores, theaters and the residences of writers,
artists, and intellectuals set themselves apart from the
Fortunate sailors who survive the perils of their first bustling hive of commerce to focus on the pursuits of
voyages and secure their fortunes often take up resi- creativity and the mind. Though lacking the refined
dence here. Though the homes here are no mansions, to splendor of Lisbon’s mansions, a wealth of culture is
own a place to lay one’s head is a sure sign that one has here for the finding. One only has to navigate the right
“made it”. smoke-filled halls, and strike up a conversation with
the right savant.
Waterfront
Lisbon is defined by maritime excellence: cartography, Wealthy quarter
shipbuilding, the production of naval instruments. Uphill from the hustle and bustle, featuring traditional
Shipwrights, assisted by immense cranes, are con- architecture and narrow streets, the neighborhood of
stantly building new vessels at the waterfront shipyard, Bairro Alto is home to the palaces, mansions, and lux-
visible to anyone wandering along the river. Some of urious apartments of the nobility, the wealthy, and the
these ships are large enough to rival the Ribeira Palace elite. Though removed and well-to-do, the district fea-
for scale. tures a vibrant nightlife for those with a bit more coin
to spend on pursuits of pleasure.

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Locations and monuments
Chafariz d’el Rei Church of St Dominic
The “São Domingos” is a convent of Dominican monks,
“The King’s fountain”, found near the waterfront, is a
but also the headquarters of the Portuguese Inquisi-
fixture of social life where people of all walks of life
tion, and the site of much of the Inquisition’s violence
meet and mingle. A brick wall with six gargoyle spouts
and torture. The Inquisition is headed by a Grand In-
dispenses water behind a colonnade; people gather
quisitor who must be a royal family member, named
nearby, or wait their turn, in the adjacent square.
by the Pope and confirmed by the King.
Lively and crowded, this gathering spot shows just how
multicultural this globe-spanning empire is, and the It wasn’t until 1536 that the inquisition was formally
breadth of people who have settled at its heart. established, but religious violence is not a new phe-
nomenon.Thirty years prior, in the square before this
São Jorge Castle church, thousands of “New Christians”—recent con-
verts from Judaism—were massacred, when three Do-
Once the palatial estate of the King, this hilltop for-
minican friars whipped a crowd into a frenzy.
tress stands as a reminder that the Portuguese Empire,
once a kingdom of crusaders ruled by a warrior king,
has left this medieval legacy behind in favor of trade Estaus Palace
and splendor. A palace to house courtiers, foreign dignitaries and
visiting rulers who lack permanent residences in Lis-
Ribeira Palace bon. Since it is next door to the Church of St Domi-
nic, the Inquisition uses its lower floors as a prison for
The newly constructed royal palace was built near the
heretics. The expanding Inquisition is eager to move
river, only a stone’s throw away from the Rua Nova,
into the Estaus Palace and make it their new, grander
to embed the monarchy at the nexus of commerce,
headquarters.
wealth, and exploration that has made the Empire so
powerful. Guests in the King’s court have been im-
pressed by his troupe of finely outfitted black mu-
sicians; their skilful playing is a sign of the Empire’s
reach, and its delight in the exotic.
The estate is also surrounded by the royal mint, ship-
yard, and armory, the areas of highest import to the
Empire: money and military might. The palace also
houses the Casa da India, the organization respon-
sible for managing Portugal’s trade and exploration.
Possessing the most advanced maps and charts in the
world, this customs house oversees the comings and
goings of trade fleets and manages all aspects of over-
seas commerce.

Tower of Belém
The ceremonial gateway to Lisbon and an important
fixture in the city’s defenses. This fortified waterfront
tower overlooks the mouth of the river, and serves as a
point of embarkation for explorers setting off to claim
glory and riches.

127
 Notable groups
The oppressive or wealthy
Constables: characterized by their distinctive red hats with white feath-
ers, and marked on the left shoulder with a golden badge of office.
Inquisitors: holy men in white tunics covered by black robes. Inquisitors
demand adherence to Catholicism, and often target ex-Jews.

Everyday people
Enslaved servants: making up nearly ten percent of Lisbon’s population,
slaves are predominantly from Africa, but also India, South America,
and Asia.
Merchants from all over Europe, drawn in by Lisbon’s economic boom.
Seafarers, sailors and explorers: either young and eager, terrified and
inexperienced, or grizzled with age. Many of these sailors don’t survive
their first few voyages.
Apothecaries and doctors, finding customers on the Rua Nova.

History
At the turn of the sixteenth century, King Manuel I undertook the task
of urbanizing the jumbled and medieval city of Lisbon. By reclaiming
land from the river, he demonstrated that the Empire was an imposing
force, capable even of ruling nature. From this effort emerged the Ter-
reiro do Paco square, the brand new Ribeira palace, and the Lisbon wa-
terfront that would become the nation’s economic backbone.
From this point on, Portuguese sailors and explorers began to sail and
chart the Americas, Africa, and the Indian Ocean. Their spoils began to
flow through Lisbon, attracting further trade and luxury goods, ready to
satisfy the tastes of the wealthy across Europe. As a result, Portugal con-
trolled all trade between Japan and the Straits of Gibraltar for decades.
Merchants now migrate from across Europe—even in some cases from
India, China or Japan—to claim a part of Lisbon’s wealth for their own.
Only thirty years later, in 1531, the city was struck by an earthquake
which destroyed a third of all structures and caused the deaths of nearly
thirty thousand people. The river flooded, and ships were cast onto rocks,
or stranded on the riverbed when the water retreated. The seers of Di-
oscoria know this was not the first such disaster to strike the area, and
are wary that the next such occurrence may come sooner than any dare
suspect.

128
Culture Race and slavery
Lisbon has been attracting outsiders for decades, ei- Europeans often remark that the streets of Lisbon
ther by making itself appealing to foreigners—who are like a game of chess, with as many black figures
come for commercial opportunities and to be “at the as white. This is a gross exaggeration—the number is
center of the world”—or by enslaving people, and forc- more like one in ten—but demonstrates how racially
ing them to live here directly. It is not clear whether diverse the city is in comparison to others, and how
this prosperity makes Lisboetas happier. They are seen noteworthy this is to its white population. Mixed cou-
as gloomy, melancholic, timid and unsmiling, unlike ples are accepted, but frowned upon by traditionalists.
their more jovial foreign counterparts.
Slavery is a major economic pillar throughout Lisbon.
Slave auctions occur in town or market squares, or
Religious persecution sometimes in the streets of the city center. The trade is
Lisbon has a large “New Christian” population: Jews largely unregulated except for the payment of taxes on
who have converted to Christianity. Sixty years ago all imported goods, slaves included. Enslaved servants
the Spanish expelled their Jewish population, many of work menial jobs such as cleaning, dock labor, boat-
whom fled over the border into Portugal. While they men, second-hand-clothes dealers, and water fetching.
were permitted to stay, the Portuguese King demanded However, not all non-whites are enslaved. Many are
all Jews convert to Catholicism. By 1562 the Old and free expats seeking opportunity in the city; some were
New Christian populations are integrated on a practi- once enslaved but have since been freed; and some are
cal level, though anyone with New Christian ancestry the free children of enslaved people. Some of these
is subject to religious suspicion. non-whites are wealthy and may even own land. These
free non-whites make up a significant portion of a vi-
This has become the obsessive focus of the Portuguese brant multicultural population.
Inquisition: far from focusing on the threat of Prot-
estantism or heresy, most of their efforts are bent on
stalking, accusing and punishing New Christians, in Geopolitics
some cases seizing their property. Old Christian busi-
nessmen jealous of their New Christian rivals have Allies and enemies
been known to drip a deadly rumor or two into the
Inquisition’s ears. In the most extreme cases, the In- Portugal has established colonies around the world,
quisition holds an “auto-da-fé”: a public ritual of mass sometimes via negotiation, but often through force and
torture to show what happens to unbelievers and the violence. These colonies, present through much of the
disobedient, held on the palace waterfront square. Arabian Sea, must tolerate their Portuguese oppres-
sors… for now.
Despite these measures, the Portuguese authorities are
still paranoid about Jewish influence. Visiting Jews Portugal is also envied by most European powers for
must wear yellow symbols to single themselves out its international economic success. Spain in particular
from the Christian population, and they are followed is eager to outpace Portuguese exploration and colo-
by the Inquisition during their stay to ensure they do nial expansion.
not foment any anti-Catholic activity or contact New
Christians as part of some grand conspiracy. Opinion of Dioscoria
Portugal has heard rumors of Dioscoria in its many
voyages, and are alarmed at the thought of a rival
power in the Arabian Sea—particularly since Diosco-
rian ethics may cause them to interfere in Portuguese
expansion. As such, the Portuguese monarchy keeps
a sharp eye out for Dioscorian Agents, or intelligence
pertaining to the isle.

129
 Further reading
• For a general overview: “Inside Portugal: Lisbon in the sixteenth
century”, by José Tadeu Arantes, from agencia.fapesp.br.
• For maps: Braun and Hogenberg’s panoramic view of Lisbon, or
Hoefnagel’s bird’s-eye view.
• For analyses of Lisbon paintings and commercial spaces: “New exhi-
bition sheds light on Renaissance Lisbon”, from Queen Mary Uni-
versity of London (qmul.ac.uk), and “Lisbon in the sixteenth cen-
tury: decoding the Chafariz d’el Rei”, by Stefan Halikowski.
• For a thorough analysis of the city, focusing on the Rua Nova:
The Global City: on the Streets of Renaissance Lisbon, by
Gschwend and Lowe.
• For a firsthand account: Urbis Olisiponis Descriptio by Damião de
Góis, translated and reprinted as Lisbon in the Renaissance by Jef-
frey S. Ruth.
• For images of Lisbon: the paintings of the Chafariz d’El-Rei and the
Rua Nova, both painted by unknown Dutch artists.

Common names of the region

Adelaide, Adriana, Affonso, Agueda, Alvaro, Amerique, Antonio,
Balltesar, Beatriz, Benedita, Bernaldo, Caetana, Candida, Christovam,
Cosme, Delfina, Diogo, Doroteia, Duarte, Efigenia, Eloisa, Fabia, Fatima,
Fernam, Francisco, Gabriela, Gaspar, Genoveva, Goncalvo, Ines, Ivone,
Joam, Joana, Jorge, Ligia, Lopo, Luciana, Luis, Lurdes, Mafalda, Manuel,
Marcia, Marina, Martim, Narcisa, Neves, Nuno, Ofelia, Orquidea,
Paulinha, Pero, Quinta, Rodrigo, Rosalia, Rute, Ruy, Silvia, Sol, Symao,
Tome, Ursula, Valeria, Vicente, Vitoria, Viviane.

130
131
 Venice
A city of 170,000 people and one hundred islands in the shallow Venetian La-
goon. Located in northeastern Italy in an enclosed bay, this nation of co-mingling
artists, merchants, clergymen and politicians is held in balance by the Doge’s em-
phasis on cooperation and social harmony.
Though largely orthodox Roman Catholics, the state is notable for its freedom
from religious fanaticism, earning it the ire of the Papacy. A once-powerful but
dwindling merchant empire, Venice is attempting to cling to its economic and
political laurels. For the layperson, however, it remains a thriving metropolis typ-
ical of Renaissance Italy.
The city’s villas emerge directly onto slithering canals, crammed beside its tall
cathedrals and vast squares. Its Jewish ghettos and lavish districts brim with art-
ists, sculptors and craftspeople, all squabbling, haggling, and mingling—often at
the same time.

132
Ruling power: Doge Girolamo Priuli (r. 1559–1567)

Venice is currently ruled by Doge Girolamo Priuli, and governed by lay-

ers upon layers of councils filled with savii (wise men), colleges, and as-
semblies. Venice is a government characterized by intrigue and political
maneuvering, within an official structure designed to limit the preva-
lence of both.
Dioscorian philosophers predict that this Venetian model of checking
and balancing power may gain traction on the world political stage and
influence future governments. But the iteration found in Venice, despite
its best intentions, is a political snake pit plagued by Papal and Ottoman
hawks. The city is held in balance by its dutiful servants, chief among
them the Doge’s College of Ten, under whose supervision justice is served
more-or-less fairly. Their efforts have, until now, prevented riots and po-
litical unrest—if necessary, by prosecuting treasonous citizens.
The city state’s mainland holdings provide a stable influx of aspiring
artists, tradespeople and manual laborers, as well as the city’s staple
resources.

133
 Districts Docks
A cacophony of ocean spray and the cries of sailors.
Venetian Arsenal The docks are a place of timber and rope and salt, far
The largest industrial complex found anywhere in Eu- from the gilt and marble of the Piazzas and mansions.
rope, the Arsenal employs nearly ten percent of the The quays belong to the merchants and, more than any
city’s population and is capable of producing up to one place in Venice, to the sea.
ship each day. A flurry of lumber and cloth, construc- Exotic goods are unloaded from the ships of the mer-
tion and assembly, permeated by the smell of bubbling chant fleet, each of which is obligated to pay an import
tar and woodsmoke, this complex builds the lifeblood tax in salt. Officials patrolling the quays ensure that
of Venice’s vast trade empire: its naval fleet. order is maintained and all fees are rightly paid.

Piazza San Marco Markets

The Piazza San Marco is the beating heart of the The heart of Venice’s commercial activity, the city’s
Venetian empire. The square is ringed by the palace markets are colorful, vibrant and thriving, and attract
of the Doge along with lesser mansions and palaces, people regardless of their station or prominence. Here
and crowned with St. Mark’s Basilica, a splendorous there is something for everyone. Those with expensive
demonstration of the city’s wealth, power and Catholic tastes can try the Mercerie: a shop-lined street sell-
heritage. ing luxury items, jewelry, textiles and clothing. Those
Administrators hurry past, heatedly discussing matters whose interests are more niche and central-European
of state. Wealthy merchants from around the world might visit the German merchants, who are only per-
conduct their business with clients, or simply per- mitted to sell in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi.
ambulate to be seen in public. Walking through this Whichever market a traveler finds themselves in, they
district, one is struck by a city seemingly overflowing can be assured of the fairness of the transaction thanks
with wealth, power and luxury: the thrumming of an to the city’s regulatory guilds and institutions. Their
empire struggling to return to its former glory. strict regulations allow the government to control the
flow of goods through the city, maintain economic
Canals dominance and ensure the protection of local mer-
There are only two ways to navigate the islands of chants above foreigners.
Venice: via the canals, or over them. Winding through
serpentine channels and ornate bridges, the canals
are thronged by gondolas, usually piloted by enslaved
black gondoliers. They stretch through the city: con-
necting, diverging, rejoining, and spreading like arter-
ies. Major canals are a flurry of boats and barges laden
with bales of goods.

134
Ghetto Nuovo Locations and monuments
Established in 1516, the Ghetto Nuovo is the small
area where Venice’s thousand-odd Jews are forced to The Molo
live. The Ghetto is crowded, and its gates are locked at This broad stone quay to the south of the Piazza San
night until noon the next day. Christian guards pa- Marco is the point of disembarkation for all distin-
trol the canals in boats to ensure compliance. Jewish guished guests and prominent officials. The quay is
Venetians are obligated to wear signs of identification: flanked by two granite columns, one topped by the
a yellow badge or sash. With limited opportunity to winged lion of St. Mark, the other by Venice’s first pa-
find work, the Jewish population are only allowed to tron, St. Theodore, standing on a crocodile. Among
operate as pawnbrokers and moneylenders, or to work esoteric circles it is rumored that these pillars ema-
in metal foundries. nate inscrutable magical forces to protect the city and
maintain its prosperity.
Art and industrial districts
The artists of Venice are experts at both their craft, The Doge’s palace
and at bragging about it: they are quarrelsome, jeal- The Doge’s palace is the core of Venetian political life,
ous, vitriolic, visionary or, in the worst case, all of and houses meeting places and offices for the city’s
these at once. In the districts housing their apartments councils and ministries. This is also where the Doge
and workshops, artists discuss their craft, commiser- welcomes dignitaries and esteemed guests. The Doge’s
ate over lost commissions, or gossip about the latest soldiers are Italian mercenaries armed with vicious,
prodigies—and how they’re actually not what they’re poisoned lances.
cracked up to be.
The palace structure is prone to burning, and had to
be refurbished after a fire in 1483 and another in 1547.
Even now, Dioscorian seers warn that the current ren-
ovations will still be underway when disaster strikes
again.

Campo San Paulo

The largest campo in Venice, this wide paved plaza is
a common venue for entertainment and spectacle. The
square frequently hosts elegant masked balls, mass
sermons, musical and theatrical performances, and
bullfights.

Rialto bridge
The oldest and greatest bridge across the grand canal,
the Rialto bridge is an architectural and engineering
marvel. It stands as a symbol of the quality of Ven-
ice’s craftsmen, as well as its wealth and opulence. The
bridge is a major thoroughfare across the canal, and
houses rows of shops for those merchants of too little
influence to secure a spot in the nearby Rialto market.

135
 Notable groups Culture
Venice’s unique position as an island cluster on the
The oppressive or wealthy edge of Italy has isolated it from the turmoils of the
The Council of Ten are the foremost of the powers of other city states, allowing its people to pursue the
Venice. As the Doge’s advisory council, they steer the pleasures of art. Its position at the crossroads of trade
state to prosperity and safety. between Europe and the Islamic world ensures a con-
tinuous flow of goods such as spices, pigments, fabrics
Savii (“wise men”): The uncountable army of bureau-
and luxury items, many of which have found their way
crats and clerks who administer the government, iden-
into middle class homes alongside locally made Vene-
tifiable by the regalia of their office.
tian glassware, and colorful glazed ceramics.
Scuole members, members of social clubs and frater-
Each February the city celebrates its famous carnival.
nities bound to support each other. Identified by fra-
During this period gambling is permitted, regulations
ternal symbols.
on dress are suspended and citizens go about masked
Constables are organized into distinct groups, each and dressed as they like. However, no masked person
under its own captain. Loathed by the people: “Cop” is permitted to gamble, since this would hinder the
and “Cop’s woman” are sharp insults. collection of debts. Underground gambling dens have
sprung up to meet popular demand.
Everyday people Dürer, a German artist traveling through the city,
Artists and craftsmen, such as goldsmiths, painters, claims Venetians are genial, welcoming and deeply en-
sculptors, glassblowers and glazers. gaging. He also warns his readers that “there are also
amongst them the most faithless, lying, thievish rascals;
Musicians, whose performances fill the canals with such as I scarcely believed could exist on earth; and yet
song every evening. if one did not know them, one would think that they
Performers, such as street actors and the improvisa- were the nicest men”.
tional experts of the Commedia dell’Arte.
Religion
Moneylenders and bankers, poised to make a killing
or a catastrophic loss when they discover whether their Although the people of Venice are mostly Roman
investments have survived piracy and robbers. Catholics, the Inquisition—fanatically present in
Rome, Spain and Portugal—has not taken root here.
Merchants, particularly of luxury goods. Nobody has been executed as part of the Counter
Reformation.

136
 Legal and community
Venetian citizens believe their city strengthens com-
History
munity, and promotes liberty and equality. Venetian Once the most prosperous city in Europe, Venice has
culture emphasizes relations between neighbors, living now been surpassed by the Portuguese and Ottoman
together in relative equality. Petrarch, in the mid-four- Empires. It is not only Venice’s pride that is wounded
teenth century, described Venice as “solidly built on by this development, but its very stability. Devastated
marble but standing more solid on a foundation of by repeated plagues, and now facing a shrinking of its
civil concord.” Its government, unlike many Italian economic power and the loss of its territorial claims
states, is only somewhat corrupt. to the east, the city’s mood is simultaneously a clamor
for political rejuvenation, and an air of lighthearted
Venice’s wealth has, however, led to a certain prof- thriving.
ligacy. Many Venetian households—even the older,
more established families—can be ruined by reckless
spending and a run of gambling debts. The Venetian Geopolitics
state has stepped in and regulated social dress, partly
to keep dowries affordable and prevent the marriage Allies and enemies
market from freezing: multiple affluent families have
been ruined by lavish spending on the latest fashions. Relations with the Papacy are tense: multicultural
Venice lacks the zeal to torment and execute its
A cornerstone of Venetian community is the scuole. non-Christian population.
These are brotherhoods, founded as religious insti-
tutions set up with the purpose of providing mutual Relations with the Ottoman Empire thrum with ten-
assistance and humanitarian work. They provide an sion. The Empire dominates the Mediterranean to
important guarantee against poverty and play a crucial Venice’s east, and is eager to continue expanding and
role in protecting individuals and families in need. To- seizing the city’s island and coastal territories. Unable
day, many scuole provide a more civic purpose, and in to stand up to Ottoman aggression directly, Venice has
some cases are purely corporate. invested heavily in its diplomatic arm, effectively in-
venting the modern embassy while attempting to keep
the Ottomans sweet. Occasional Ottoman-Venetian
Slavery wars show this strategy has mixed success.
It is unclear whether Venetians’ rosy view of them-
selves is also held by their slaves. Roughly three thou- Opinion of Dioscoria
sand of Venice’s people are enslaved, and typically
work either as gondoliers or as servants in the homes While the term ‘allies’ would be a vast overstatement,
of the wealthy. No patrician family is complete without Venice and Dioscoria feel themselves to be kindred
a retinue of three or four enslaved servants, and even spirits. The existence of Dioscoria is not common
Venetian artisans use enslaved workmen in their shops knowledge, even among the savii, but those in the
and workshops. know appreciate the existence of another island nation
that is lax when it comes to religious orthodoxy and
Enslavement is not inheritable: the children of slaves revels in the celebration of the arts.
are born free. It is typical for a slaveholder to free their
enslaved servants in their will.

137
 Further reading
• For maps and city views: Breydenbach’s 15th century panorama of
Venice; Braun and Hogenberg’s bird’s eye view in Civitates Orbis
Terrarum. Interactive maps with highlightable layers are available at
cartography.veniceprojectcenter.org.
• For images of Venice: Bellini’s Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of San
Lorenzo and Procession in St Mark’s Square; also, Carpaccio’s Miracle of
the Relic of the Cross at the Ponte di Rialto.
• For the experience of walking the city: “Walking in Sixteenth-Cen-
tury Venice”, by Filippo de Vivo.
• For a first-hand account, see Dürer’s Record of Journeys to Venice and
the Low Countries.
• For in-depth analysis of Venetian systems of credit and reputation,
see Inns and Bastioni: Credit and Poverty in Early Modern Venice, by
Matteo Pompermaier, from brewminate.com.

Common names of the region

Agnella, Alberto, Alegreza, Almerico, Anechino, Baldasera, Balsomo,
Benintendi, Bertuccio, Bianca, Blasio, Campagnola, Cristina, Cristoforo,
Cionisio, Dea, Donato, Elizabeta, Federico, Florentia, Francesca,
Geminiano, Geragio, Gerita, Ginevra, Giovanni, Gregorio, Guido,
Helena, Jacobo, Lenuzo, Leonello, Lucia, Luco, Mafeo, Magdalena,
Marco, Maria, Martino, Morosino, Palmerio, Pascal, Pasqualina, Pencina,
Prospero, Raffiano, Raynucio, Richa, Romaso, Tarvixio, Triadano,
Uberto, Vito.

138
139
 Konstantiniyye (“Istanbul”)
An ancient metropolis, “the city of the world’s desire”, Constantinople was once
the capital of the Eastern Roman (or “Byzantine”) Empire. But when it was con-
quered a century ago by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, it became the jewel in
their continent-spanning crown.
The city is built on the coast of the Bosphorus strait, the stretch of water linking
the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Across the strait, to the east, lie the cemeter-
ies of Üsküdar; to the north, across the harbor of the Golden Horn, lies Galata, a
cluster of fine houses for the rich and well connected.
The city’s two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants—dwarfing any European
city—is a diverse mix from Europe, Asia and Africa, though the majority hail
from Anatolia and the Middle East. The climate is warm and dry.

140
Ruling power: Sultan Suleiman I (r. 1520–1566)

Konstantiniyye is the capital of the Ottoman Empire, an Islamic sultan-

ate ruled by Suleiman I, known as “The Lawgiver”. The Sultan is served
by an army of pages and scholars who maintain his treasury, armory and
bureaucracy. He is supported (and entertained) by his wife and other
consorts, and his will is executed by the Grand Vizir, his highest minister.
The Grand Vizir is responsible for the safety and administration of the
city, and makes regular inspections on horseback. Each district is admin-
istered by a qadi (judge); below him, each neighborhood is overseen by
the local imam (priest). Each imam is responsible for one neighborhood,
and the administration of local charitable donations. Since donations are
often of land or houses, each imam is a mix of priest, landlord and local
bureaucrat. Naturally, every imam is above reproach: petty corruption is
surely below him.
Rumor has it the Sultan does not leave the city solely in the hands of his
officials, but roams the streets in disguise, seeking out corruption and
illegality and punishing it on the spot. But Sultans can also be wrathful:
someone caught flaunting clothes beyond their station is ordinarily fined,
but could be put to death if the Sultan is feeling impatient.

141
 Districts
Bazaars
Harbors A bazaar is a grid of wide, covered tunnels lined with
stalls and shopkeepers calling out their wares. Istanbul
The Golden Horn bristles with merchants, ships and has two: the older Grand Bazaar, and the New Bazaar.
cargo. From these harbors, vessels travel across the A cluster of traders have set up stalls bridging the two,
strait to Galata, into the Black Sea, or toward the creating a market district. The area is surrounded by
Mediterranean. The edge of the city is peppered with caravansaries: inns to house foreign merchants, offices
harbors and wharfs. Every wharf has a warehouse or for business transactions and storehouses for goods
two nearby, where goods can be stored after being and merchandise. Performers entertain crowds in each
unloaded. caravansary’s central yard: wrestlers, acrobats, snake
In the middle of the Bosphorus strait sits the Maiden’s charmers, fire dancers and animal trainers.
Tower, a garrisoned guard- and watchtower. In case of Gems and luxury goods are produced and sold in the
invasion, a great chain can be raised between Istanbul Grand Bazaar, where the air is rich with gold dust.
and the tower, cutting off sea access to the city. Several bankers occupy the Bazaar’s core. At its outer
edge, merchants produce elaborate goods of stone,
Streets and alleys wood and leather. In the Newer Bazaar merchants sell
Konstantiniyye’s streets are a winding, unpredicta- textiles, materials and clothing.
ble maze. Poorer areas are unpaved. Down the dark- According to legend, if you wander long and deep
est, most winding alleyways one might find a bar that enough in the Grand Bazaar you will find a portal to
serves alcohol: forbidden under Ottoman Islam and another world.
only drunk in secret.
Most dwellings are single-storey houses of timber, Mosques and külliyes
adobe or mud, often just a single room for living and Istanbul has countless mosques. Each features a prayer
sleeping in. Amenities—toilets, kitchens, wells and so hall for men, covered in prayer mats, and a maqfil: an
on—are shared by several houses, enclosed in a com- upstairs gallery for women.
pound wall.
Most are surrounded by a külliye: a complex of build-
Each neighborhood has its own mosque, market, and ings to support the mosque’s community. A külliye
a hamam (bath complex). These Turkish baths, de- might feature drinking fountains, a hospital, a soup
scended from the baths of ancient Rome, are not just kitchen or a convent for sufi (Islamic sages). Many
places to get clean, but places to relax alone or with külliyes also house schools: most have a primary school
friends, and for Muslims to ritually purify themselves. where children study religion, logic, astronomy, philos-
The city is a tangle of streets, courtyards and mosques, ophy and mathematics, but larger külliyes have school-
but the streets are spacious: Constantinople was vast, and lecture rooms for all ages, up to academic levels.
and when the Ottomans rebuilt the city they had
plenty of space for greenery and public compounds.

142
Wealthy districts The underground
Located in the oldest, densest part of the city, these Below the city, the Byzantine underground slumbers.
neighborhoods are located across the water from Ga- Tunnels run through much of the city, many of them
lata, between the old palace and the Topkapi palace. forgotten. It is said there is an entrance within the
These mansions have higher roofs and an upper story, Grand Bazaar, and locals know many others, but they
housing a courtyard, garden, dining room, kitchen, are sworn to never divulge them.
and living room, as well as slave and servant quarters.
The upper floor has private rooms for family members. The city also has a number of cisterns: underground
reservoirs which served Byzantine basilicas or forums.
The residents of these wealthy neighborhoods are rich They evoke both underground lakes, and crypts or
merchants or courtiers, many Jewish. Ottoman Jews temples. Rowing across, one glimpses fish rushing by
can work in any profession; many of the city’s wealthy in the flicker of torchlight. It is said these cisterns are
merchants, businessmen and doctors are Jewish. haunted by the ghosts of Roman slaves who died in
their construction.
In addition to shops and inns, these neighborhoods
contain numerous coffee houses. This recent trend has
gripped the Ottoman middle class. Coffee houses are The walls and coast
not just places to buy a hot drink, but to relax and dis- The walls of Constantinople are old, crumbling and
cuss the intellectual pursuits of the day. They are also legendary. The land around them is sparsely populated,
venues for performers and entertainers such as magi- and somewhat rural. Orchards, vineyards, beehives,
cians, storytellers and folk poets. food or rose gardens and the occasional windmill clus-
ter at the city’s edge. The houses here are simpler, with
Hippodrome only one room. Each has a garden or small plot of land.
Once the city’s racetrack, the Roman Hippodrome has This is also where the Sultan’s shipwrights work, in en-
decayed into a long, ruined public square. It is deco- closed shipyards against the city walls. Many shipyard
rated with crumbling pillars, obelisks and statues, long laborers are enslaved Christians, forced to build the
ago plucked from the far reaches of the ancient world. Ottoman fleet.
Between the hippodrome and the seawall lie the ruins Beyond the western walls is the slaughterhouse dis-
of the Byzantine imperial palace. Little is left of this trict, located outside the city. This is the city’s source
structure, which has been scavenged for stone, except of meat, and is where the Janissary barracks obtains its
the spirits of long-dead Emperors and the spiders and food. Every day Janissaries lead a grisly caravan of ani-
owls who attend their ongoing funeral. Some nearby mal carcasses down Butcher’s Road to feed the troops.
Byzantine churches have been creatively repurposed: Since Janissaries have the right to go about their busi-
one is now a stable for the Sultan’s elephants. ness unobstructed, anyone blocking the way—or cross-
ing the street at an unwise moment—could be put to
death on the spot.

Across the water

Galata, a suburb across the Golden Horn to the
north, is a cluster of villas and mansions: homes for
the wealthy and powerful, such as rich merchants or
ambassadors.
Üsküdar, across the water to the east, is mostly sprawl-
ing cemeteries. These are grand public parks of rolling
hills or dense forests, filled with grave markers, tombs
and crypts. Most prominent are the tombs of Islamic
scholars. Rumors claim they are plagued by Ghuls.

143
 Locations and monuments The Old Palace
The “Eski Saray” was the original palace used by Sul-
Topkapi Palace tans after the conquest, now made obsolete by the
The seat of Ottoman government and the Sultan’s Topkapi palace. The palace is located in the center
home, the Topkapi palace is located on a hill overlook- of the city, surrounded by an inner and outer wall.
ing the Bosphorus. The palace is a fortress-town in its Within the inner wall is the palace complex, including
own right, enclosed in a fortified wall and surrounded luxury apartments populated by disgraced concubines,
by stables, gardens and other amenities. Tens of thou- and the mistresses or mothers of former Sultans. Gar-
sands of servants—enslaved or free—and courtiers dens fill the space between the inner and outer walls.
dwell within the bustling walls.
To the north lies the Guild of Janissaries. This building
The harem, where the sultan’s wives, female slaves comprises dozens of barracks, as well as kitchens and
and female relatives live, is an environment of refined a bath, arranged around a mosque and a large square.
learning: a gilded cage. Potential mistresses of the Sul- There is also a drill field and dog kennels. The whole
tan are given new names, and learn to dance, recite complex is enclosed in a wall, and accessed via a single
poetry, play instruments and master the erotic arts. A gate.
skilled or beloved harem girl may become the Sultan’s
favorite and mother to his heir. The harem is run by
eunuchs: men who have been castrated and enslaved. Notable groups
Hagia Sophia The oppressive or wealthy
A thousand-year-old Orthodox cathedral, repurposed Courtiers: pashas (dignitaries or generals) or beys
into a magnificent mosque. Aside from Islamic wor- (lieutenants or governors).
ship, the Hagia Sophia’s külliye is the city’s proto-uni- Qadi, the city’s judges and district administrators.
versity. Since the Ottoman conquest, Sultans have
eagerly supported education and research. This külliye Imams, neighborhood priests and administrators/
features lecture halls and teaching rooms, with scien- landlords.
tists, astronomers and alchemists bustling to and fro.
Janissaries, the Sultan’s crack troops and police force.
Legend has it that two angels guard the Hagia Sophia Mostly ex-Christian slaves, or their sons or grandsons:
and venerate Allah, and will walk its halls until the the role of Janissary can be inherited.
day of judgment.
Everyday people
Yedikule Fortress Servants, both free and enslaved.
The “fortress of seven towers”, built onto the old Byz-
Scholars, studying religion, logic, mathematics, astron-
antine walls around the ancient Golden Gate, the main
omy, alchemy, magic, law.
entrance to the city. Legend says that as the walls fell
to the Ottomans, an angel plucked the last Emperor Laborers: street porters, carpenters, butchers and
from amongst his army, transmuted him to marble and tailors.
hid him beneath the gate. Some day he will reawaken
and claim the city.
The fortress is formed of seven towers, connected by
a ring of mighty walls, and must be passed through to
gain access to the Golden Gate and the city beyond.
Day-to-day, the fortress serves as a prison and bar-
racks, and houses the state treasury and archives. The
fortress is still under construction.

144
History Demographics
Konstantiniyye is named for its founder, the Roman Most Konstantiniyyens are Muslim. Non-Muslims are
Emperor Constantine. To Europeans it is still Con- fairly integrated into Konstantiniyyen society. Chris-
stantinople. After Rome fell, the city kept the torch of tians, Jews, Arabs, Turks, Greeks and Armenians
Roman culture burning. This torch was extinguished live together peacefully, though they must pay a tax.
in 1453, when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II besieged Non-Muslims form ethnic neighborhoods. They are
and captured the city. somewhat discriminated against, but not oppressed.

By this point the city’s population—once numbering Those who go against social mores, such as gay men,
half a million—was a mere ten thousand. Mehmed women who resist gender roles, or radical sufis (Islamic
made Konstantiniyye his capital, invested in build- sages) are persecuted. They might be publicly shamed,
ing projects, and relocated his subjects to fill the city, brought into court, or exiled from their communities.
sometimes forcibly moving entire communities.
Slavery
Culture Slavery is legal and regulated. Slaves are typically peo-
ple captured during raids or warfare, non-Muslim sub-
The Ottoman capital is extremely diverse, made up jects of the Sultan pressed into slavery, or people who
of people from wildly different backgrounds. Each volunteer for slavery (or are volunteered by their fam-
district of the city has its own culture: people often ily), perhaps because their family cannot support them.
cluster together into native groupings, and might leave
that neighborhood only seldom. Little remains of the Slaves of the state live in large compounds. Many state
pre-Ottoman Byzantines: after conquering the city, the slaves are employed as shipwrights, or oarsmen for gal-
Sultan quickly began repopulating it with immigrants leys; during winter they are imprisoned in the Galata
from across his Empire, whether they consented or not. shipyard dungeon with only rags to sleep on.

There is an acknowledgement that the Ottomans are Private slaves work as house servants. If they are lucky
riding high, and that the Sultan is a powerful ruler ca- they negotiate a contract, agreeing to serve for five to
pable of leading the Empire to great victories. Whether ten years and then be freed. Some private slaves be-
that strength is used to defend or persecute the power- come fond of their households, and remain either as a
less is another matter. paid servant or by marrying into the family.
An enslaved person can be freed by someone pay-
Law ing their ransom; Islamic culture sees this as an act of
Islamic citizens are tried under Sharia law. Other re- great charity, but it is rare. State slaves can be freed by
ligious groups are tried in their own courts. Some the Sultan.
minority rights are protected. A wife can accuse a
drunken husband in court, entitling her to a divorce if
he gets drunk again. Slaves have the right to be pro-
vided for by their master, and can ask to be resold.

145
 Geopolitics Further reading
• For maps: the 1572 map by Braun and Hogenberg
Allies and enemies in Civitates Orbis Terrarum, based on Giovanni
The Ottoman Empire’s broad territory means Istan- Vavassore’s woodcut map from 1535.
bul is isolated from border skirmishes. The Ottomans • For panoramas: sketches of the city by Melchior
are in a trade rivalry with Venice: they seek to expand Lorichs, available at eng.travelogues.gr.
their Mediterranean territories, while Venice seeks • The History of Istanbul project (istanbultarihi.ist) is
to maintain good relations and make war unpalata- a thorough resource for the city’s history.
ble. The Ottomans frequently clash with the Safavid
Empire. The Holy Roman Empire is concerned about • For an academic overview of the city: “Viewing,
Ottoman northern expansion, having successfully de- walking, mapping Istanbul, ca. 1580”, by Çigdem
fended Vienna from the Ottoman army thirty years Kafescioglu.
ago • For a wider military perspective on the Ottoman
Empire: Islamic Gunpowder Empires, by
Opinion of Dioscoria Douglas E. Streusand.
• For firsthand accounts: A Description of the City of
The Sultan and his scholars respect Dioscoria’s attitude Constantinople, by Pierre Gilles; or the account of
towards knowledge. In their minds, however, there is the great fire of 1569 by Venetian ambassador Bar-
only one truth, and their reading of Islam has no room baro, in “The Great Fire in Istanbul – Two Views”
for Dioscorian heresy. or Great Fire in the Metropolis.

Common names of the region

Ada, Ahmed, Ali, Amine, Ays’e, Bahar, Bayram,
Behiye, Benefs’e, Cevahir, Devlet, Emine, Emir, Fatima,
Hadice, Hakim, Hamza, Hasan, Huban, Husein, Ilyas,
Irini, Isa, Kadem, Kara, Kismet, Lutfullah, Mansur,
Manula, Mehmed, Muharrem, Musa, Mustafa, Nar,
Nebi, Nefise, Neslihan, Omur, Ravza, Refik, Safiye,
Salih, Sara, Selime, Sunduk, Surur, Tenrebile, Ulviye,
Yagmur, Yani, Yunus, Yusuf, Zuhal

146
147
 Qazvin
Qazvin, the seat of the Safavid Empire and Shah Tahmasp I, recently relocated
from Tabriz after its conquest by the Ottoman Empire. Qazvin is a major center
of international trade due to its location at the crossroads connecting Tehran,
Tabriz, and the Caspian sea. Merchants from India, Russia, the Ottoman Em-
pire and beyond can be found resting in its caravansaries or hawking their wares
in the covered bazaar.
The streets of Qazvin are dusty and choking, the surrounding landscape arid,
providing a fitting backdrop to emphasize the lush greenery of the royal gardens
dotted around the city. Once a town of little import beyond its role as a desert
rest stop, the arrival of the Shah has seen the city bloom with new architecture
and political importance. Vast garden neighborhoods and palatial estates have
sprung up in the north of the historic settlement, a remarkable feat since the en-
tire desert region is watered by a single qanat and a handful of streams. When
the Shah commands “build me a garden,” the architects do not bemoan the lack
of water. They ask, “How lush?”

148
Ruling power: Shah Tahmasp I (r. 1524–1576)

Qazvin is the capital of the Safavid Empire. Shah Tahmasp has ruled for
over thirty years. Tahmasp’s rule is secure: his father cemented his dy-
nasty’s religious authority by claiming descent from an Islamic sage and
establishing Shi’ism as the state religion. In his own reign, Tahmasp has
further cemented his power by curbing the ambitions of the Qizilbash
tribes who formerly held prominent political positions, now relegated to
governorships of Safavid towns and settlements. Currently held in check,
these nomadic desert tribes and their chiefs will continue to be a thorn
in the side of the Empire.
Although opposition to the Shah is considered a sin, Tahmasp rules pru-
dently and justly. Since the Shah is the source of all political and reli-
gious power, his favor is priceless political currency. As his most trusted
advisor, the Grand Vizir holds most of that currency, but must defend it
from envious rivals. It is also the Grand Vizir’s task to keep the Qizilbash
governors in check, and the government functioning, supported by the
tireless work of the Shah’s grand council.
The looming threat of the invading Ottomans and the Shah’s flight from
the thrice-overthrown former capital threatens a premature end to the
Safavid dynasty. But through savvy alliances with European powers, and
by leveraging the value of Iranian silks on the global market, Tahmasp
has made Qazvin flourish. The city blossoms, both literally and figura-
tively, as a city of international commerce.

149
 Districts Mosques
Dozens of mosques are scattered across the city, each
Palatial gardens with its own külliye: a complex of buildings around a
After moving the capital from Tabriz to Qazvin, the central plaza, usually including a school, a clinic, kitch-
Shah ordered the construction of a garden pavilion ens or bakeries, baths, and other buildings housing
and palatial estate on the northern edge of the old charitable services for the community. Mosques are
town. This now serves as his residence, and the ad- segregated by gender, and have two entrances. Shoes
ministrative center for both the city and Empire. The must be removed before entering.
palace precinct is located in the center of the city. The
bazaar, the Jameh Mosque, and the older quarters of Coffeehouses
the city lie to the west and south.
A novel trend, coffeehouses have begun to emerge in
cities across the Safavid Empire as locations of leisure,
Homes and Domiciles conversation, debate, discussion, and entertainment. It
Qazvin homes typically have one or two stories, are was common for storytellers to be found here day and
constructed of packed mud and straw around a cen- night, embellishing their tales with theater and music.
tral courtyard, and are shared by a multi-generational A daily ritual has come about where people begin their
family. Most people sleep on the floor, but the wealthy day with coffee and end it with wine, both accompa-
may have a mat or rug. Distinct from the simpler and nied by tobacco and, one hopes, lively conversation.
poorer houses found towards the center of the city, it is Although wine is arguably forbidden by Islam, no Per-
common to find princely residences and larger estates sian much cares.
at the city’s edges and adjacent to the walls.
The City Walls
Gardens The walls of the city house five main gates: one to the
Found both inside and outside the city walls, Qaz- north, one to the southwest, and three in the east-
vin’s lush, sprawling gardens are perfect for leisure and ern wall of the city. They feature turrets providing a
commerce. Residents can rest by the waters or pur- sweeping view of the desert landscape and the city
chase fresh fruit and produce. During wartime, troops itself.
make their encampments on the fields here. The Shah
may also receive ambassadors or dignitaries here or,
under more regrettable circumstances, oversee the sen-
tencing or execution of prisoners.

Bazaars
The city’s many bazaars are the mercantile hotspot
of the Safavid capital. Featuring a covered hall with
shops, stalls and lodgings for weary merchants, the ba-
zaars also provide space for the city’s guilds to conduct
their business. Typical of buildings and institutions
central to daily and social life, these structures were
constructed and supported through charitable invest-
ments from wealthy citizens and nobles through the
Islamic ‘waqf’ system.
Qazvin hosts traders from India, Russia, Europe, and
the Ottoman Empire; it is truly a multicultural city.
The presence of these merchants demonstrates the Em-
pire’s dependence on global trade.

150
Locations and monuments Sa’d al-Saltaneh caravansary
Caravansaries are expansive inns that provide travel-
Chehel Sotun pavilion ers a place to rest to break up long journeys; they are
The grand palatial pavilion and residence of the Shah typically found along major trade roads far from cit-
is located in the sprawling Saadat Abad garden com- ies or settlements. This caravansary is located in the
plex. This city-within-a-city features two public south of the city within the walls, and acts as a com-
squares and a score of mansions, and is linked to Qaz- bination inn and hostel. This large building houses all
vin by a promenade running from the Jameh Mosque, the amenities a traveling trader could desire, includ-
in the old city, to the Ali Qapu gate, one of several ing rooms for rent, stalls to sell their goods, and open
entrances to the walled complex. The pavilion stands spaces to mingle with each other and exchange gossip
amid gardens, streams and pools in the complex’s cen- and rumors.
tral square, and is a masterwork of elegant Safavid ar-
chitecture, featuring delicate glazed tiles supported by Kharraqan towers
elegant wooden pillars. Here the Shah, surrounded by Found in the desert about a day’s ride from Qazvin,
all that is finest in his city, welcomes (and impresses) these two domed towers are a pair of centuries-old
foreign dignitaries. mausoleums. The external walls feature intricately
carved geometric designs and a small window, allow-
Jameh Mosque ing indirect light to enter the interior. The occupants
One of the oldest mosques in Iran, rumored to have of these monumental tombs have been lost to time.
been constructed on an ancient fire temple. The huge
arched, three-walled halls of the mosque and its mar-
ble Mihrab—a decorated arch pointing the way to
Mecca—are spectacular. Found in the southwestern
region of the city, the mosque and its surrounding
külliye are a vital part of daily life, as a place of social-
ization and festivities. This is the largest and most at-
tended Mosque in the city.

Tomb of Imamzadeh Hossein

A grave mosque reminiscent of a generous palace
complex with its own walled garden, rows of plants,
niches, grave stones and precious blue and cream
tiles. The facade of the main gate features six orna-
mental minarets. A large courtyard opens from the
main gate which leads to a pavilion-like, octagonal
fountain house. The tomb is covered by a blue-yellow
tiled dome, carried by slender columns. One can pray
within the tomb: as with a mosque, one must remove
one’s shoes before entering, and the space is segregated
by gender.

151
 Notable groups History
The Safavid Empire is still young, founded by Isma’il I
The oppressive or wealthy only 60 years ago. This God-like figurehead of the Em-
Qizilbash (tribal) chieftains, making backroom alli- pire was defeated in battle at Chaldiran in 1514, losing
ances and jockeying for political primacy when they’re his aura of invincibility and divine blessing as a result.
not busy governing their lands. While Tahmasp has secured his dynasty’s position, the
cracks in the foundation can be clearly felt.
Diplomats and ambassadors, here to make political
connections, maintain links with the Empire, or spy on After two decades of war with the Ottoman Empire, a
it. capital city thrice-overthrown, and an economic posi-
tion based on travel rather than producing any notable
Ulama (judges), hearing and settling disputes, advo- goods of its own, the Empire’s stability is tenuous at
cating for the common people, or engaging in under- best. Even peace with the Ottomans has done little to
handed dealings to keep the merchants sweet. secure their position.

Everyday people In the years since this peace, Tahmasp has seemingly
retreated from his public role, preferring to spend his
Merchants, many from foreign climes, passing through time in the lush palatial complexes and disregarding
Qazvin and eager to make a profit on their wares. imperial affairs. He has not entirely abandoned the
Caravansary owners, eager to host and provide ser- city, however, but still dispenses distant proclamations.
vices for merchants. For example, in an attempt to strengthen Shi’a practice
and religious devotion, music and poetry has been for-
Gardeners, maintaining the city’s elaborate gardens. bidden at court, and he lambasts poets as drunkards,
Haydari and Ne’mati street fighters, eager to triumph imploring his people to study the Quran instead.
over the other in their centuries-long street feud. As the Safavid capital, Qazvin hosts a large number of
Religious figures such as priests or public cursers. politicians and diplomats from across the world. These
dignitaries are typically invited to stay in the palaces
Desert travelers: who knows what mysterious figures and pavilions found in one of the city’s many gardens
drift out of the desert sands? or complexes.

152
Culture Religious officials and justice
The population of the Safavid Empire is highly diverse, The Ulama are religious officials who serve as judges
and the Persian, Azerbaijani, and Armenian languages and oversee the wellbeing of Qazvin’s people and
are all commonly spoken. Since the Empire is an agrar- neighborhoods. The Ulama are granted the power of
ian state with little presence in global trade, Shah independent legal reasoning, exercising the religious
Tahmasp I has sought to rectify this by encouraging and judicial authority of the Hidden Imam. The Shi’a
the production of silks and woven carpets as a state Ulama often mediates between the people and the
industry. government. They have also formed a corrupt alliance
with the city’s merchants, using their religious clout to
Religion establish waqfs that protect the merchants’ property
and assets.
Under Safavid rule, all religions other than Shi’a islam
are strongly persecuted. Conversion is mandatory and Street feuds
is enforced most strongly on the Sunni population.
To the devout, the Shah is as vital a figure as God. In The city is split between two feuding factions: the Hay-
sickness or hardship it is not God they turn to, but the dari and Ne’mati. The cause of this feud is unknown,
Shah. His people present him with gifts, kiss his palace but may have its roots in a Sunni-Shi’a dispute. This
doors, scramble for a piece of cloth from his garments, conflict has permeated the entire city, with districts
or gather leftover water in which he has washed his pitted against each other in bitter rivalries. Tensions
hands, for its healing properties. have only increased in the past sixty years, following
the establishment of Shi’ism as the state religion and
The state encourages compliance by employing groups the forced conversion of the Sunni population.
of public cursers to disavow its enemies, and through
the tactics of extortion, intimidation and harassment.
But religious tensions are nothing new: Sunni-Shi’a
conflict within Safavid towns has been common for
centuries. The Ne’mati and Haydari religious factions,
originating in Tabriz, have found their way to Qaz-
vin’s streets; the districts of the city have been divided
between them, laying the frontlines in a simmering re-
ligious street war.

Political
Until recently it was the Qizilbash—the desert chief-
tains—who ruled Qazvin, until Shah Tahmasp got
their political schemes under control. They formed
complicated tribal alliances and used them to apply
pressure to the government.
Since Tahmasp’s reforms they have been made gover-
nors within the Empire. These tribal chiefs are respon-
sible for providing soldiers to the Shah’s army and
collecting revenues to pay for war. The local Qizilbash
chiefs grow wealthy in both land and taxes. While they
seem satisfied with the status quo for now, any politi-
cal shakeup will soon have them jockeying for position
again.

153
 Geopolitics Further reading
• For a broad historical overview, see the entry on
Allies and enemies “Kazwin” in The Enclyclopaedia of Islam.
Qazvin is beset by enemies from within and without. Available at archive.org.
Externally, the looming force of the Ottoman Empire • For an overview of the Safavid Empire, see the
chips away at Safavid borders; internally, the Qizilbash Safavid entry in World History Vol 2: from 1400
chiefs constantly jockey for position, threatening to in- (available at openstax.org), or in The Cambridge
filtrate and destabilize the government. History of Iran (cambridge.org).
The Empire is not entirely without allies, and has en- • For a first-hand account, see A Narrative of Italian
tered into an agreement with the Habsburg Emperor Travels in Persia, in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Charles V. He too is concerned by the Ottomans, and Centuries, by Charles Grey.
has agreed to provide aid and split the Ottoman forces • For an analysis of coffeehouse culture, see “Cof-
should they attack. As a major power, Qazvin is also fee Houses, Urban Spaces, and the Formation of
filled with ambassadors and spies from Spain, the Ot- a Public Sphere in Safavid Isfahan”, by Farshid
toman Empire, and most other European powers. Emami.

Opinion of Dioscoria
Common names of the region:
Dioscorian agents frequent the city of Qazvin as they
make their way over land from the Arabian Sea to Abbas, Afsoun, Amin, Ardashir, Azad, Bahador,
the Mediterranean or further north, though this goes Behnam, Bija, Dara, Delshad, Ebrahim, Erfan, Esmat,
largely unnoticed by the Shah. The Safavid Empire is Farrokh, Firouz, Golbahar, Hadi, Hamid, Jafar, Jahan,
more focused on the threat posed by the Ottomans, Jamali, Jamileh, Kaveh, Khadija, Khanish, Khanzada,
and its own tenuous economic position. The Safavids Kourosh, Laleh, Mahisti, Mahmoud, Mahsa, Minoo,
are in need of allies, and are willing to cast a blind eye Mozhdeh, Nahid, Nihani, Padshah, Parvin, Pertevi,
on the island of mystics and sinners. Ra’na, Rahim, Saba, Sahar, Setareh, Shams, Sima,
Tahereh, Yaser, Yasamin, Zartosht, Ziba, Zohreh.

154
155
 IX. Magical creatures

The world of The Hidden Isle is filled with strange beasts and magical enti-
ties. Here is a non-exhaustive list.

Islamic and Turkish creatures European creatures

ALDACHI HAN: The horseman of death. A well- ELVES, or the Fair Folk: An ancient race of sophis-
built man dressed in long black robes, on a black horse. ticated and beautiful people. Often live in forests or
When someone dies, Aldachi Han collects them and wilderness. They have ancient settlements and immor-
takes them to the next world. When he enters a house, tal monarchs, have been driven into hiding by human
he brings his spirit accomplices with him who linger activity, and resent us for it. Can influence a person’s
for 40 days. Nothing may be removed from the house mind, and become very small via magic.
for this period or they become angry.
GORGON: An ancient creature who was once human,
AZMYCH: A misleading road spirit. Greets travelers with snakes for hair. Looking directly at them turns a
on the road in the guise of someone trustworthy, then person to stone.
leads them in circles, perhaps to their deaths. Can imi-
tate the voices of loved ones. SIREN OR RUSALKA: Creatures that take the
form of beautiful humans and live in the sea or lakes.
GHUL: A shapeshifting spirit that eats human flesh. Their singing is irresistible, and lures travelers to their
Typically haunts cemeteries and takes on alluring deaths. Some say these were once women who were be-
forms to lure visitors to their deaths. trayed and murdered by men, and seek revenge.
JINN: (plural: Jinni). People created by Allah from SUCCUBUS AND INCUBUS: Beautiful, irresistible
fire. Normally invisible. Most jinni are not especially spirits which feed on sexual desire and tempt people to
powerful, and live in large societies in desert ruins. copulate with them, often leaving the victim drained
Can possess people, but can be expelled by music. Oc- or dead.
casionally, an especially powerful jinn will have the
power to grant wishes. RAT KING: A dozen rats tied together by their tails.
These combined creatures form a mental focus point.
KAYISH BALDIR: A man without arms or legs who The rat king attains intelligence, and has the ability to
begs travelers to help him. When they pick him up, mentally command other rats. There are rumors that
straps burst from his neck and wrap around his victim, rat kings are created by rat catchers to increase their
who is now enslaved and must take him wherever he business, and that rat kings hate humans due to their
wishes. traumatic origins.
SHAHMERAN, THE SNAKE QUEEN: A great WHITE STAG: A messenger of the forest which ap-
snake, or a snake-human hybrid, who rules the ser- pears to warn when one is trespassing. Catching or
pent people who live in underground cities. Cautious killing the stag is impossible, but hunting it may lead
of outsiders, but curious towards humans, and some- you deeper into the forest, where you may lose your
times befriends them. Eating the queen’s flesh cures way forever or learn the secrets of the wood.
any illness, but betraying her would incur the wrath of
her people.
SHIQQ: A half-human creature, literally: they have
one eye, one arm and one leg. If they mate with a hu-
man, their offspring is a similar half-creature—but one
which cannot be reasoned with, is extremely aggres-
sive, and whose touch can kill.

156
Common creatures
ANGEL OR KHIDR: Guardians and protectors of IFREET OR DEMON: Malevolent jinni, more pow-
Creation, willing to teach and guide the righteous. erful than standard jinni. Ruled by the chief Shaytan,
They are supremely just, and demand the same in their Iblis (the Islamic Devil). They wield immense magical
followers. They wield immense power but seldom use power, but can only harm humans with consent or co-
it, since this might compromise humans’ free will. ercion. They delight in trickery and misleading bar-
gains, to lead humans to their own downfall.
BICHURA OR HOUSE SPIRIT: A benevolent
household spirit, which takes the form of a cat, dog, NATURE SPIRIT OR NYMPH: Guardians of for-
or a child in red. When unhappy, it will play tricks on ests, lakes, glades and rivers who can take human form.
the household until the issue is fixed. The only time Neither good nor bad, they protect the natural spheres
humans typically see it is when it warns them of an from which they derive their strength. Can grow larger
impending household death or disaster. than a person, or as small as a blade of grass.
DRAGON: Snakes which have lived for centuries, NIGHTMARE OR KARABASAN: A great spirit
and grown to immense size and wisdom, occasionally that shifts its form, sometimes into a great goat-like
sprouting wings. Some are obsessed with riddles and beast or a foaming black cloud. Presses down on sleep-
treasure, others watch humans from afar and aid them ers’ chests, giving them bad dreams and leaving them
if they deem them worthy. breathless as it drinks their fear.
ERBOERU OR WEREWOLF: People compelled to SPHINX: A huge creature with the head of a human
transform into wolves, or human-wolf hybrids, at the and the body of a lion. Delights in riddles and violence.
full moon. With practice they can control this ability.
Spread by being bitten. UBIR OR VAMPIRE: A creature of insatiable thirst.
Created when a person dies with the weight of horrific
GHOST: Spirits of the dead, these linger in our sins. They leave their coffins to quench their thirst by
world, bound by ties of unfinished business or magical sucking clouds from the sky, causing droughts, or by
interference. drinking the blood of the living. Their presence cor-
rupts: they travel on stormclouds, bringing plague, dis-
GOLEM: Man-made servants of clay, stone or metal.
cord and confusion to all in the vicinity.
Created by a Jewish or Kabbalistic sage. Animated by
placing a paper, with a sacred name written on it, in-
side the golem. They can sometimes pass for human,
but can’t speak.

157
 X. Appendices & References

If all of the players feel comfortable with the rules, it is very possible to
Alternate Play
Mode: Seer-less mode

play without a Seer. Instead, all players control a character and share
the role of the Seer, proposing consequences and plot points collabora-
tively. This relies heavily on the improvisational nature of the game, and
requires players to be willing to roleplay and tell a collaborative story
rather than min-maxing.
One tricky part of playing in Seer-less mode is avoiding accidentally gam-
ing the selection of challenge cards: when you are both Seer and player,
it can be difficult to not give yourself an accidental advantage. To avoid
this, ensure that the person drawing the Seer’s hand is not the Agent per-
forming the challenge. If this is unavoidable—for example, if everyone is
performing a group action—simply select Seer cards before you look at
your own Agent cards.

158
 The isle of Dioscoria prides itself on the web of espionage it has woven
Alternate Play Mode:
Solitaire mode

around the world. Agents from countless cultures can be sent to any
locale, to serve the Council’s purposes and nudge the world towards a
brighter future. So effective are Dioscorian training and cultural assimi-
lation that newcomers to the isle can begin projecting its interests abroad
in a matter of months.
Some missions, however, are not permitted to new recruits. These divi-
nations come not to the island’s regular oracles, but to the “gray seers”:
oracles employed solely by the Cabinet of Extremis to channel the dark-
est and most dangerous messages of fate. They receive these visions in the
Listening Grotto: a great vaulted and pillared hall buried at the heart of
a Dioscorian mountain, which is always filled with a shallow pool of oily
water reaching to the oracle’s knees. This liquid helps to focus and sustain
the oracles’ divinatory powers.

Solo characters
The Agent you play in solitaire mode is a cut above—or at least distinct
from—regular Agents. Your Agent will be trusted with missions which
are more dangerous than the norm, or which question Dioscoria’s values.
The Cabinet of Extremis has chosen them to carry out their will, perhaps
because they are more experienced, more capable, or more morally flexi-
ble than most newcomer Agents.

Character creation
When assigning skill points, grant yourself 2 extra skill points (for a total
of 9 skill points). During character creation, no skill may have 4 points,
and only one skill may have 3 points.
Note: After the origin scenario, you will receive an extra skill points. This means
that after the origin scenario, you will have a total of 10 skill points.

159
 Origin scenarios
In Solitaire Mode, the first scenario you play should take place just before
you come to Dioscoria, and explain how or why you join the hidden isle.
If you want to skip your origin scenario, that’s fine: just give yourself one
extra skill point, to represent the Dioscorian training you received after
you joined the isle.
Note: An origin scenario could even be played between a Seer and each member
of a regular, multiplayer campaign, to give each character a deeper backstory.
If you do this, don’t grant the character an extra skill point on completion of the
scenario.

Generating an origin scenario

Before the origin scenario, perform a scenario divination. This represents
the oracles of Dioscoria consulting the fates to find their newest recruit—
you! However, instead of a normal scenario divination spread, the mean-
ing of the cards will be slightly different.
First, choose your character’s goal type at the start of the scenario. For
the most part, these goals are more self-serving, and less idealistic, than
those of regular Dioscorian Agents. Most people of the sixteenth cen-
tury, before they realize Dioscoria exists, have few options but to pursue
self-interested, pragmatic goals to survive such turbulent times.

Goal Type Question Posed

To acquire money How?
To right a wrong. Which wrong? How?
To flee persecution. How are you being persecuted?
To seek knowledge. What knowledge? Why?
For ambition. How will this thing give you power or status?
Driven by my burden. What is it driving you to do?
To relieve or overcome my burden. How?

160
Once you have your goal type, draw five cards. They will tell you:
1. What is your character’s specific goal? (This should answer the ques-
tion posed by your goal type.)
2. Who is your adversary at the start of the scenario—whether you
know it or not?
3. The stakes: what will happen if this adversary succeeds?
4. How will Dioscoria meddle in this situation? Perhaps they have sent
an Agent or Hand to stop the adversary. Perhaps a local Dioscorian
expat just wants to help the helpless. Perhaps a trader who knows of
Dioscoria is determined to help you get there. Perhaps your charac-
ter is acting unethically, and must be confronted.
5. What is your character’s lead? What rumor or legend have you heard
that will set you on a path to achieve your goal?
As with normal scenario divination, draw all the cards first, and only
then decide what they mean: the last card might change everything.
Remember that you can draw clarification cards if a card’s meaning is
unclear.

Playing an origin scenario

During the scenario, your character will encounter Dioscoria somehow:
perhaps through an Agent, an expat, a merchant who trades with the isle,
or even just a rumor of this hidden civilization. When the scenario ends,
your character is somehow influenced by this encounter, and travels to
Dioscoria, there to be recruited as an Agent. Perhaps they are told of
this incredible place and join voluntarily; perhaps they join because their
home has been destroyed, or rejects them; or perhaps they join for self-
ish reasons, hoping to gain some material benefit or even steal from the
island.
Don’t be afraid to let allied characters such as Dioscorian Agents assist
you. For more information, see “Non-player characters” below.

After the origin scenario

When your character arrives in Dioscoria and undergoes training, gain
one free skill point and heal all harm.

161
 Rule changes for Solitaire Mode
To play The Hidden Isle in Solitaire Mode, play as nor-
mal but observe these rule changes.
Downtime Capture
During downtime, your character has 3 downtime If captured, draw a vision card to inspire what form
actions, rather than 2. This is to reflect your status as your prison takes.
an Agent of the Cabinet: your missions are rarer and
more difficult than standard, so you have more time to The first time you perform “Wrapping up” while cap-
take much-needed rest between them. You may, as nor- tured, perform each phase as normal. Do not perform
mal, give yourself an additional downtime action by downtime or scenario divination. Heal 4 harm as you
taking 2 spiritual harm. wait, imprisoned, and your wounds heal.

Scenario divination When the scenario begins, your mission is simply to es-
In addition to the regular scenario divination ques- cape. Draw fortune cards as normal. There is an oppor-
tions, you must also answer the question: “Why must tunity that allows you to escape: draw a vision card to
this mission remain a secret from the Dioscorian pub- inspire it. Note that you might gain something useful
lic?” That is, why is this a mission for the Cabinet, and from your time being captured: perhaps the adversary
not a regular Hand? You may draw a card to inspire reveals their plan, or you have the opportunity to free
the answer, but this is not mandated. an important prisoner or overhear vital information.

If you have no companions, take 3 fortune cards in- If you are recaptured, repeat this process but do not
stead of 2. If you have one or more companions, perform “Agent relationships” or “Distilling experi-
give yourself and each companion 2 fortune cards as ence” during the wrapping up phase. Instead, take 2 xp
normal. if your escape attempt was largely unsuccessful, or 3xp
if it was close to succeeding.
Visions are not recommended in Solitaire Mode, so do
not take vision cards for your Agent or the Seer. This Agent relationships
is because in Solitaire Mode you will have enough to When a scenario ends and you are the lone charac-
worry about without wondering whether or not to give ter, instead of talking about the mission with other
yourself a vision. Agents, have your character reflect on how the mission
went. Think of one moment that sticks in your Agent’s
Challenge draws mind. Inspired by this moment of reflection, you may
During challenge draws you must draw a hand both increase or decrease your burden or ideal track by 1
for your Agent, and for the Seer, as normal. As in reg- point.
ular play, you do not have to select the best card from
the Seer’s hand (but do not go too easy on yourself). Answering violence
Note, however, that to prevent accidental cheating, The Cabinet understands that sometimes violence
you must select the Seer’s card before you look at your is the only tool left. Thus, an Agent of the Cabinet
Agent’s hand. must only visit the Pool of Mourning if the killing was
avoidable.
Narrative thresholds
If you encounter a narrative threshold, instead of The world changes
drawing one card per Agent, simply draw three cards. Instead of drawing one card per player, simply draw
three cards.
Broken characters
When your character is broken (ie. when all harm slots
are filled), decide whether they are killed, captured or
knocked unconscious as normal. Being captured ends
the scenario.

162
Questioning Fate
The biggest difference between regular and solo play is the presence of
the Seer. During regular play, a player can turn to the Seer to answer
questions about the setting, such as “What do I see when I open the
door?”, “Is the warehouse guarded?” or “Who is the NPC manning this
shop?” During solo play, it falls to the player to both create the world and
play in it: a large mental load, and one where the temptation to make
things easier on yourself—even unconsciously—can muddy the waters.
To this end, The Hidden Isle has a Fate System, to answer questions which
would normally fall to the Seer. Fate should be used to only answer ques-
tions about the world state, not questions about your character’s inter-
action with the world, which is the purview of roleplaying and challenge
draws.
To play through the scenario, make sure you ask frequent questions
about the world and the people you meet in it. When you ask such ques-
tions, decide: is this question closed or open? That is, can it be answered
with “yes/no”, or is the answer more complicated than that?

Open Fate questions

If you already know the answer to an Open Fate Question, that is the
answer. But if you need inspiration, aren’t sure of your answer, or would
like clarification, simply draw a card from the Vision Deck and consult
the Vision Guide. If the answer is unclear or confusing, you may draw a
second card for clarification.

Numerical Fate Questions

Sometimes you simply need a numerical answer to a question, such as
“How many guards are there on the watchtower?” First, decide how high
the answer might be. Then, draw a pip card and consult the table below.
(For these calculations, an Ace counts as one, not eleven.)

Answer Range Modify pip card value like this:

1-5 Half the value, rounding fractions up.
1-10 Simply take the value.
2-20 Double the value.
10-100 Multiply the value by ten.

If you ask a numerical fate question and draw an Ace, this triggers a
random event (see below).

163
 Closed Fate Questions
To answer a closed Fate Question, follow these steps.
1. Decide on the exact wording of the question.
2. Decide how likely the answer is to be “yes”. It can be a tiny chance,
unlikely, 50/50, likely, or almost certain.
3. Draw pip cards to create two hands: one for “yes”, one for “no”.
I. If a yes is unlikely, draw two “no” cards and one “yes” card.
II. If the answer is 50/50, draw one card for each.
III. If a yes is likely, draw one “no” card and two “yes” cards.
4. Reveal cards. If a hand contains more than one card, discard all but
the highest card to leave each hand with one card each.
5. If the “yes” card has a value equal to or greater than the “no” card,
the answer is yes. Otherwise, the answer is no.
6. If the suits of the cards match, the answer is extreme.
7. Once Fate has been consulted, discard the pip cards.

Extreme answers
An extreme answer is a strong yes or no. If this was the answer your
Agent wanted, this means some kind of advantage. This might be re-
flected in +1 card for a future draw, or an unforeseen opportunity.
If your Agent did not want this answer, there is a complication: perhaps a
-1 card draw to a future action, a negative clock ticking up, or a negative
consequence such as a guard spotting you.
Example: You are sneaking through a palace at night and pass through a door. To
determine what’s on the other side, you draw a Vision card: The Emperor. You
decide this means you have reached the throne room. You ask Fate, “Is the room
guarded?” You decide this is likely, so you draw two Fate cards and one for your-
self. You have drawn the 7 of Wands. Fate has drawn the 2 of Pentacles and the 6
of Wands; you discard the lower card. Your 7 beats Fate’s 6, so the answer is yes:
the room is guarded. What’s more, the cards bear matching suits (they’re both
Wands), so the answer is extreme: the room is thronged with a dozen guards.

164
 Random Events
If you ask a numerical or closed Question of Fate and you draw an Ace, a
random event is triggered. This means you encounter something
unexpected.
To find out what you encounter, draw a pip card. The card’s number de-
termines the event’s timeframe:

2-4 Past You encounter evidence of something that occurred in the past.
5-8 Present You encounter an action happening right now.
9-A Future You encounter a plan or seed of something that could occur later.

You must also choose the event’s theme by noting the card’s suit and con-
sulting the table below. Choose whichever theme seems most appropriate
for the current scene.

Swords Violence or scholarship

Wands Magic or passion
Cups Care or stealth
Pentacles Bargains or labor

Once you have the event’s timeframe and nature, consult the random
event table below and choose the specifics of the encounter.

165
 Random event table:

Event Type Examples and Inspiration

Past violence A dead body. A ruined town. A graveyard. Evidence of colonialism.

Present violence Ambush. Fight. Harassment.

Future violence Threats. Posturing. Signs of an imminent attack. A trap. Invasion plans.

Past scholarship Notes or books. Library. Forgotten study.

Present scholarship Scholar studying. Experts talking. Doctor examining.

Future scholarship Plans for an expedition. Blueprints for a library. Research plan.

Past magic Used magical ingredients. The effects of a spell gone wrong. Rumors of a magical event.
Ancient shrine.
Present magic Magical barrier. Charm. Curse. Creature. Ritual in progress.

Future magic Spell instructions. Ritual preparations. A well-stocked laboratory.

Past passion Lovers’ tomb. Love letters. A washed up poet. An art gallery. A dying artist.

Present passion A performance. A passionate couple. An argument. An artist working.

Future passion An artist planning a new work. Rough notes for a letter or project. Lovers flirting. An
apprentice artist learning.

166
 Event Type Examples and Inspiration

Past care A healed scar. Letters from a past love. Reminiscing. A token of friendship.

Present care A patient. Friends consoling each other. The kindness of strangers.

Future care A caring promise. Looking forward to good times. A vow of friendship. An apprentice
healer.
Past stealth Something stolen. A hoard of loot. A victim of theft. Footprints. Signs of a burglary.

Present stealth A robbery in progress. Spies. Watchers from the shadows. A whisper.

Future stealth Planning a heist. Putting on a disguise. Thief signs. Casing a joint. Conspirators.

Past bargains A treasure vault. Contracts or treaties. The scar of an oath. A conman’s trophies.

Present bargains Merchants. Haggling. Guards betting. Diplomats negotiating. A con in progress. Sleight
of hand.
Future bargains Explorers seeking new markets. Merchants enquiring after opportunities. A peace pro-
posal. Planning a con.
Past labor A building or structure. A stockpile of finished goods. A sown field. A warehouse.

Present labor Farmers reaping. A workman working. A building under construction. Singing as they
work. Hunters or poachers.
Future labor Blueprints or scaffolding. Rough sketches. An unplowed field. Apprentices training. Raw
materials.

167
 Non-player characters
During the scenario, your Agent will meet many characters. Some will
help you; others may hinder you or become hostile.

Creating non-player characters

When you meet a non-player character, ask yourself who this person
might be. If you already have a good idea, listen to your inspiration and
create the character you imagine. However, if you need more inspiration,
follow these steps.
If you do not know the character’s profession, draw a vision card, and
consult the Vision Guide, to inspire their profession.
If you already know their profession, instead draw a vision card to inspire
their character.
Draw a pip card to inspire the method by which they perform their pro-
fession, or express their character. Look at the card’s suit, and choose a
word from the table below.

Suit Method
Swords Knowledge, precision, fighting, wisdom, persuasion
Wands Passion, brutality, magic, artistry, inspiration
Cups Sensitivity, subtlety, manipulation, kindness, instinct
Pentacles Pragmatism, experience, transactions, deftness, eagerness
If the pip card is an Ace, this triggers a random event (see above).

Controlling non-player characters

While playing, do not be afraid to take control of allied non-player char-
acters such as allied Dioscorian Agents. This could mean using them to
give your character a bonus during a challenge draw, or even making
a challenge draw on their behalf when they attempt to do something.
If you do this, there’s no need to draw up an entire character sheet for
them: just estimate how good they are at the skill in question by using
this formula:

Skill level Skill value

Beginner 0
Competent 1
Experienced 2
Expert 3
Just remember: you don’t actually control these non-player characters,
so you can’t count on the fact that they will always act the way you want
them to. But if it’s a natural outcome of the situation, there’s nothing
wrong with a character fighting by your side.

168
Companions Playing with a companion
Sometimes you will face a mission where one of your Playing with a companion can be a lot of work: role-
contacts has expertise that would be relevant and help- playing one person is already quite demanding. But it
ful. If this is the case, you may upgrade your contact can be rewarding and fun, especially if your two char-
into a companion. acters can bond, or argue, or interact in some interest-
ing way during the scenario. Just try to make sure that
A companion is a contact who can go on missions with both your characters are taking actions, and taking
you. Effectively, they are a second Agent for you to risks, because of their own internal motivations and
control. instincts, and not just because it would be convenient
for you as the player.
Creating a companion After playing a mission with a companion, decide
To create a companion, follow these steps. whether your bond improved or deteriorated. Raise or
lower your affection with this character by 1 point to
1. Pick which contact will become a companion. reflect this.
2. Determine their class.
Companions should take wrap-up actions such as
3. Draw up their character sheet as you would for a downtime, but only if they just finished a scenario. A
new player character. companion who did not participate in the latest sce-
I. If you already know any key information— nario should not be active during the wrap-up phase.
such as their childhood history, or their If you use this companion in a future scenario, simply
ideal—fill it in without drawing any cards. re-use the character sheet from last time. If you want a
II. When picking abilities and skills, do not break from your main character, you could even play a
choose any that explicitly contradict what solo scenario with this companion as the main charac-
you already know about the character. Tak- ter instead.
ing the character in a new or unexpected di-
rection is fine. When on a mission against an adversary whose pro-
III. Do not perform introductions or assign gress track is in the final phase, you may take up to
them to a Hand. three companions. This is to let you enjoy a scenario
surrounded by the allies and friends you have made in
your time on Dioscoria. Note that this is only an op-
tion, however, and not a requirement: controlling four
characters is extremely challenging!

Tips for solitaire play

Try jotting down what happens during play, as it
happens. This will help you separate speculation and
mind-wandering (“It would be so cool if this forest
were full of red glowing eyes…”) from events that have
actually taken place in the theater of your mind (“I
am now surrounded by a dozen glowing red eyes. This
might be a problem.”) To really get into your charac-
ter’s head, you could even write a journal entry after
each scenario.

169
 Index
Champion 48, 60
Channel 12, 29, 30, 33, 41, 49, 55, 58, 66
A character creation 37, 38, 159
Character study 55
abilities 12, 23, 38, 41, 74, 82, 89, 106, 169
Character Transformation 18
ability 23, 33, 41, 43, 45, 47, 51, 55, 57, 66, 67, 81, 121, 156, 157
Charisma charm 60
A blade or two 58
Chivalry 49
Adaptive Style 53
clarification card 71
adept 29, 33
class 23, 38, 41, 76, 106, 136, 143, 169
adversaries 10, 26, 66, 77, 78
clock 16, 20, 29, 39, 43, 45, 47, 51, 55, 57, 66, 67, 78, 81, 83, 164
Adversary Sheet 26, 84
Clocks 81, 86
affection 23, 39, 43, 64, 67, 68, 77, 93, 169
companion 162, 169
Agent relationships 5, 10, 76, 162
Companions 169
Alchemy powders 59
complicated success 14, 18, 19, 33, 66, 77
Aldachi Han 156
Complications 16, 83
Alternate Play Mode 6, 158, 159
Concealment powder 59
Angel 43, 157
Consecrate 49
Angelic ward 59
Contacts 39, 63, 64, 68
Angels 32, 95
Convince 12, 17, 18, 55
Archetype masks 61
core self 13, 37, 38, 64, 76
Art from pain 55
Cups harm 22
Assassin 47
cursing 30, 49
Azmych 156

B D
Demon 43, 157
banishing 30, 60
Demons 32, 95
Bargain 12, 53, 55
Desperate gambit 53
Bichura 157
Dioscoria 7, 8, 9, 28, 40, 58, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97,
Bile pump 61
98, 99, 100, 101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 110, 111,
Binding 30
112, 123, 128, 129, 137, 146, 154, 159, 160, 161, 169
Blessed water 60
Dioscorian culture 89, 91, 94, 95, 110
Blessing 30
Dioscorian History 89
Blood net 61
disaster 22
Blood oath 57
Disguise kit 60
Bodyguard 49
distance 43, 64, 67, 68, 115
Book of demons and angels 59
Distraction charm 60
Bravado charm 61
Documents 58
Brigomancy 30, 34
Doppelganger charm 60
broken 22, 74, 105, 162
Dousing arrow 60
burden 13, 18, 19, 22, 23, 38, 64, 65, 67, 76, 77, 160, 162
Downtime 10, 23, 63, 66, 67, 162
Burglar 51
downtime action 66, 67, 68, 77, 162
Butcher 47, 143
Dragon 157
Drain 57
C Duelist 49
Caltrops 60
Campaign 11, 81 E
Celestial bargain 43
Ease pain 57
challenge 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 32, 33,
Elves 156
34, 41, 45, 47, 49, 53, 55, 57, 58, 65, 66, 67, 70, 74, 77, 80,
Erboeru 157
81, 82, 83, 86, 87, 103, 158, 162, 163, 168
Evil eye 43
challenge card 15, 17, 18, 20, 24
Expandable shield 60
challenge draw 17, 23, 24, 29, 66, 67, 81, 82, 83, 87, 168
Experience points 23
challenge hand 18, 19, 20
challenger 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 82
Challenges 14, 82

170
F J
Face stealer 55 Jack in the box 55
failure 13, 14, 15, 17, 20, 43, 45, 55, 58, 66, 76, 77, 81, 86 Jinn 156
Failure 15, 16, 33 Jinni 25, 28, 32, 95, 156
Fate Question 163, 164
Fate Questions 163, 164
Fearsome 47
K
Finesse 12, 41, 51, 53 Karabasan 157
Flash powder 59 Kayish Baldir 156
Forces of the natural world 33 Khidr 157
Fortune 13, 20, 80, 121
L
G Leeches 61
Gag of truth 60 Levitation 51
Getaway 51 Life force 33
Ghost 157 Life’s blood 57
Ghul 156 Life thief 57
Glamor 45 Living Shadow 51
Golem 157 Load 25
Gorgon 156 Loot 51
group action 20, 158 Lust powder 60
Group actions 20
guild 41, 54, 89, 94, 98, 104, 105, 106, 107
Guild 41, 52, 54, 56, 94, 95, 98, 104, 105, 106, 126, 144 M
guilds 41, 78, 89, 94, 98, 99, 104, 106, 134, 150 Magical consequences 34
Magical resistance 41
H master 28, 29, 34
Master of affect 41, 55
Hand 11, 19, 26, 30, 39, 40, 51, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 82, 87, 114, Master of matter 43
161, 162, 169 Master of the mind 45
harm 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, Matchlock 47
51, 53, 55, 57, 58, 63, 64, 66, 67, 77, 82, 83, 86, 94, 107, Melancholy charm 61
157, 161, 162 Melt into the crowd 53
Harm 22, 41, 53, 74 Mentalism 30, 45
heal 34, 47, 57, 66, 67, 121, 161, 162 Method acting 55
Heal 47, 57, 66, 67, 162 Mind read 45
Heal harm 47, 66, 67 Mingle 12, 53, 55
Heart stopper 47 Minions 41
Heart-to-heart 67 Mirage 45
House spirit 157 Mirror world 45
Hunter 46, 60 mission type 70, 71, 72

I N
ideal 13, 14, 18, 22, 23, 38, 49, 64, 65, 67, 76, 77, 91, 162, 169 Narrative thresholds 75, 84, 162
Ideal 38, 64, 65, 66, 77 Nature spirit 157
Ifreet 157 Nightmare 157
Illusion 30 Non-player characters 161, 168
Illusionist 38, 44, 59 novice 29, 33, 34
Improvising 69, 71 NPC 57, 87, 163
Incubus 156 NPC groups 87
Interrogator 53 NPCs 25, 53, 87
inventory 25 Numbing salve 60
inventory item 25 Nymph 157
item 16, 25, 58, 66
items 14, 25, 50, 58, 66, 86, 134, 136
Items 25, 58, 86
171
 O S
Occultist 18, 38, 42, 59, 66 Scenario 10, 63, 69, 72, 74, 80, 162
Open Fate questions 163 Scenario divination 63, 72, 162
origin scenario 159, 160, 161 Scoundrel 52, 60
Other-sight lens 59 Seal of Dioscoria 58
Outcast 53 Shahmeran, the Snake Queen 156
Shatter 41, 49
P Shimmer cloak 59
Shiqq 156
Pentacles harm 22 Show fighter 53
Perform 12, 19, 22, 43, 45, 47, 55 Shroud 43
Performer 54, 61 Signal flare 58
Phalanx 49 Siphoner 38, 56, 61
Phlegm tablets 61 Siphon glove 61
physical harm 16, 22, 28, 33, 42, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 53, 57, 64, Siphon humors 57
66, 83, 101, 110 Siren 156
pip 13, 15, 47, 55, 64, 72, 73, 80, 163, 164, 165, 168 skill points 38, 57, 159
Pips deck 9, 14, 80 Skills 9, 12
Pool of Mourning 77, 162 Skirmish 12, 14, 18, 19, 38, 47, 55
Powdered shadow 60 Sleep charm 58
Predator 47 Sleight of Hand 51
Preparing 69, 70 Slip 12, 19, 25, 41, 47, 51, 53, 83
proficiency 29, 33, 34, 38, 43, 45, 66, 67 Slippery 51
proficiency clock 29, 43, 45, 66, 67 Snares 60
progress track 18, 26, 169 Solitaire mode 159
Protection charm 60 Solitaire Mode 160, 162
Prowler 50, 60 Solo characters 159
Psalter 60 Soothe 12, 57, 66, 77
source 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 43, 78, 122, 143, 149
Q Sources 32
Sphinx 157
Quick tongue 53 Spirit dowsing 45
Spirit flask 59

R Spirit lure 59
Spirit shackle 43
Rat king 156 Spirits of nature 32
Rebalance humors 57 Spirits of the dead 32, 157
Reflect on Burden or Ideal 66 spiritual harm 16, 17, 22, 33, 43, 45, 49, 51, 55, 57, 58, 64, 66,
Resilient 47 67, 77, 162
Resistance 41 Stirring speech 49
ritual 20, 32, 34, 43, 59, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 72, 75, 80, 129, 150 Study 12, 18, 19, 49, 51
Ritual materials 59 Succubus 156
Rusalka 156 Suit bonuses 18, 23
suit track 23
Summoning 29, 30
Survey 12, 38, 49, 51, 123
Swap 43
Swords harm 22

172
T
Tarot cards 9, 58, 92, 93
territory 26, 32, 70, 73, 78, 81, 84, 90, 146
The Old Ways 43
The show must go on 55
Thief ’s instinct 51
Thrives in the spotlight 55
total success 14, 15, 19, 34, 45, 55, 58, 66, 77
Tracking charm 60
Train 66, 67
traits 37, 65
Transmutation 29, 30, 33, 43
trauma 22, 43, 45, 47, 55, 57, 64, 67
Trauma 22, 64, 67
True-sight mask 59
Truth-bend mirror 59

U
Ubir 157
unbinding 30
Uncanny luck 53
Unleash 12, 47, 49, 55, 66
Unravel 45
Unstoppable 47

V
Vampire 157
vice 13, 18, 64, 65, 67
Vice 38, 64, 65
virtue 13, 18, 64, 65, 67, 81
Virtue 38
vision 16, 24, 38, 39, 58, 65, 67, 68, 70, 73, 75, 77, 78, 84, 85,
162, 168
vision card 16, 24, 38, 67, 70, 73, 78, 84, 162, 168
Vision Cards 69
Vision Deck 75, 87, 163
Vision Guide 24, 39, 68, 70, 71, 78, 163, 168
visions 14, 24, 70, 73, 78, 84, 159
Visions 24, 84, 162

W
Wands harm 22
Warning skull 60
Warrior of faith 49
Weather 43
Werewolf 157
Wheel-lock pistol 60
Whisper 45
White stag 156
Wisp 51

X
xp 23, 64, 76, 86, 162

173
 Copyright © 2023
by Viv Tanner, Eliot Baum, James Patton Games e.U. & Causa Creations Interactive Media GmbH

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© One Seven Design, and is used with permission.

Early Access Edition, 2023

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