Cults Of Rotten Q'aruk | Al'Zuan's Almanac #1

Some say, Q'aruk still is the holy city it once was. When the Old Kingdoms were thriving and conquering the world, Q'aruk was a prospering city of domes, shrines, temples, churches and spires. 

But the Old Kingdoms are long gone, and truth is: Q'aruk is rotten to the core, some even say, left by all gods, and nobody pays attention to the signs of  impending doom.

Visiting Q'aruk today is dangerous, for the city, unfettered by scruples, but dazed by opium pipes, gradually drifts into madness. However, Q'aruk is still rich in goods, treasures, and knowledge – and maybe even richer since its fall from grace ... 

Cults Of Rotten Q'aruk presents the once-sacred city of the Old Kingdoms, its inhabitants, and the harrowing mores that have taken hold there. Blasphemous rites, immoral beliefs, and people consumed by greed for limitless power define the everyday life in the City of Domes. But the decay does not end at the walls of the city: the Old Kingdoms have crumbled, city-states fight over gold, slaves and supremacy on the southern shores. At the same time, numerous gods have turned their backs on the people there and, in their wrath, have transformed the face of the lands forever. There may still be hope for the sincere souls, but it is fading every day. 

THE CHALLENGE

Cults Of Rotten Q'aruk is my attempt to finish a complete zine in 2023 in the veins of #dungeon23. Instead of doing a mega-dungeon on a daily base, I'll try to add parts for this zine every week. It may be cults, NPC, city quarters, regions of the southern shore, monsters,  factions of the waring city-states, the terrors of sunken Ogdru'Hajaq or the horrors of doomed Zu'ul, encounters ... we will see! I'll draw inspiration from art in the public domain art, under creative commons licences and from stock art I bought (and will buy) and use them in my graphic design work. 

THE CONCEPT

Al'Zuan's Almanac is an idea I had a while ago about a traveling scholar collecting his impressions of visits of peculiar places in a yet unnamed world. The name of rotten Q'aruk for the first of these issues quickly came to pass. Other issues may see the light of day, since places like the Ruins of Cursed Ebru or the Tombs of Undying Skymourn still haunt my mind. But that's another story that will be told another time. 

WILL THERE BE ANY RULES?

Well, yes. Although I'll try my best to make it a useful zine for as many people as possible, I'm planing to incorporate stats for Into The Odd. This may change in the course of the year, but I like the rules-light approach in general and the rules for enterprises and the use of arcana in particular. However, the setting will certainly be more classical and dark fantasy than the industrial world of Bastion, but flavor-heavy.

All images are ideas I put together for this zine. They are not final at all.