Karmic Houses

Since the onset of The Flows, the world has been out of balance. Members of the Holy Kingdom of Zantaashi believe that there is a karmic flow to the world and it is the duty of every sentient creature to attempt to fix the karmic imbalance that created The flows.

The Yuan-ti use the standard monetary mark system (gold, silver, and copper) found in the rest of the world, but to their culture it is a secondary measure of wealth. The so-called Masters of Karma operate the five houses of karma in society. By marking their scales or skin with a small tattoo ritual, these masters keep track of debts of the population.

Background

For much of history, people lived in relative karmic balance with the world. One person may be slightly out of balance one way or another, but it all evened out for the most part. As long as this karmic balance continued, the world was a garden, bountiful and great.

At some point there arose a great kingdom that’s capital was called Sigil. While the people of Sigil did great works, they also were a selfish people. They placed individuals on pedestals and each looked out for himself. Eventually the greed and the selfishness of Sigil grew to be too much and The Flows arose in response to the great karmic debt created. Rigor punishes those whose karmic debt was too great during life. Vim and vigor transfer karma from one person to another, and Flux punishes those who refuse to be a member of the community.

After the onset of The Flows and before the people came to understand karma, many tried to continue on as normal, doing as best they could with the new changes. Every once in awhile, Bronzemen showed up to slaughter a town whose people had unknowingly accrued a large karmic debt. Fearful of these Bronzemen, people began to band together in larger groups, to better defend themselves against these atrocities. As they began to help each other more and more, the people realized that those cities those cities who worked together were never attacked by the bronze men. Thus, the Karmic Houses were born.

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Karmic Houses

At the Karmic Houses, individuals can either donate in order to accrue karma, or can partake of the offerings by exchanging in their existing karma. The masters of the Houses track an individual’s karmic balance with magical tattoos, applied in a holy ritual. These masters keep close record of the total balance of the population and will take action if they feel one has accrued too much of a debt. These 'houses' are named for the five Vigils: Death, Life, Chance, Change, and Time.

Most popular by far is the House of Chance, where legalized gambling of all sorts takes place. If one makes good on his wagers, he comes away with cash- but also a karmic debt. Conversely, if one pays into the house with their losses, a karmic gain is granted... with an overhead fee, of course.

The House of Life provides healing and midwifery for the price of karma, and volunteering time or supplies buys positive karma here.

The House of Time provides slaves and servants who have bought their karmic debt down with the promise of subservience. These laborers are often fiercely loyal to their debt, even refusing freedom when liberated by conquering armies.

The House of Change is a system of schools throughout the land. Receive education through a karmic debt, or spend time teaching others to gain karma.

Finally, the House of Death serves to exact the final price for karma. Bounties are placed on those who have too great a debt of karma, and positive karma can be obtained by collecting these.

Clerks and Clerics

The bureaucracy of the Houses of Karma employs many Clerics, not as representatives of a god (at least officially, some Clerics do rever the nominal patron of the House), but as enforcers and exemplars of the Houses's laws.

Those Clerics may select from the following domains:

Chance: Order, Tempest, War

Change: Arcana, Knowledge, Light, Order

Death: Death, Grave, Order

Life: Life, Order

Time: Nature, Order

Bronzemen

As recently as four hundred years ago and as far back as the early origins of the Houses, there are written accounts, perhaps apocryphal, about men made of bronze who brutally murdered those whose karmic debt became too great.

The earliest accounts speak of the Houses of Karma being created to prevent one's debt from becoming too great and causing an encounter with these automatons. Since the careful recording keeping of the masters became public and the tattoos of Houses became common, there have been no record of these creatures.

Whether something similar existed to inspire the stories or they were just (as other sources claim) the early enforcers of the House of Death, the mythical Bronzemen remain a common children's tale in the Holy Kingdom of Zantaashi.