Nosos write-up

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

The People: Only the strong survive in this world, for it is the law of nature and the druids' way of life. Clad only in what they can grow, hunt, make, or find, the druids don't look that different from their civilized counterparts with the exception of also wearing warpaint and growing their hair wild.

Just like the druids Malus grew up with, these ones also fanatically believe that civilization (even early medieval level or lower) is a disease that taints everything it touches. While the good aligned ones just want to be left alone and will protect nature in self-defense, the others are more fanatical and desperate.

The Law: The druids adhere to Laia Darkmoon who takes a messianic role as leader. Her words are law and must be followed.

The Faith: The Old One are a group of ancient nature gods that Laia claims she speaks to directly to them.

The Old Ones
Neutral
Favored Weapon: Quarter Staff
Symbol: A leafless tree with a round sun behind it.

[KingCorn]

Dread Possibility: The Old One
For the past months, Laia Darkmoon has spoken that she has been visited by an avatar of one of the Old Gods, a representation of natures wrath against the foulness of industry, and will attack with them to bring down the city. This "avatar" is in fact the Azenwrath, who has decided to back the druids in order to claim a piece of himself that came into Malus's possession, as well as for the cities similarity to the nature destorying goblins of Forlorn. Besides his stewing wrath and hulking might, Azenwrath has begun to corrupt the rituals of the druids to his own ends, turning all of Nosos into a mirror of his home.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

Dread Possibility: The Old One
For the past months, Laia Darkmoon has spoken that she has been visited by an avatar of one of the Old Gods, a representation of natures wrath against the foulness of industry, and will attack with them to bring down the city. This "avatar" is in fact the Azenwrath, who has decided to back the druids in order to claim a piece of himself that came into Malus's possession, as well as for the cities similarity to the nature destorying goblins of Forlorn. Besides his stewing wrath and hulking might, Azenwrath has begun to corrupt the rituals of the druids to his own ends, turning all of Nosos into a mirror of his home.

Oooooh nice. I like Azenwrath so that's a good one.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

Now for the final character for the Who's Doomed section, Sophia Sceleris... (NOTE: I decided to change her name from Hilary to Sophia.)

Background: Some people say that Sophia's choice to become a ranger was a move to shock her parents, others say the time she witnessed a poor man dying at 12 was what set it off, or just maybe the woods give her the chance to be herself. Born the oldest daughter of Siemon Sceleris' five children, Sophia was the apple of her father's eye since she was the one he was the most sure was his.

Because of this, Sophia was kept under the watchful eye of her father and to a lesser extent, her mother, who made sure she stayed within the grounds of the upper class. A proper young girl who was knowledgeable, yet naive to the world outside her little bubble. That was until her nanny became disgruntled with not getting the raise she desired so she decided to give Sophia a lesson in how the other half lived. Secretly taking Sophia on trips to the poorer areas of Nosos and the forests on the outskirts of town, it opened the girl's eyes and she began asking the very questions her nanny knew that would drive her parents up the wall.

Not sure what to do with his daughter, Siemon decided to humor Sophia's feelings by letting her enjoy the forests she had come to love. As long as she kept up her studies and participated in the finer things that her social station demanded, of course. Even then, it was still a shock when she became a member of Nosos' rangers.

When Malus became darklord and the war between the druids started, Sophia knew she had to get to the bottom of this situation. So when a wounded druid who was promising a peaceful surrender came to her fellow rangers' encampment, she knew she couldn't let this opportunity pass. The druid spun a tale of woe that all they wanted was to protect their land and that they weren't the "savages" that the city painted them as. Within months, the druid managed to charm her way into the rangers' hearts that they bought her lie that Laia and her fellow druids were going to attack a lumberjack settlement.

While this was partially true, it was only a distraction to spread the rangers thin enough for Laia to kidnap the Bethelbert family. By the time Sophia found out she had been had, the twins were already burnt to ash.

Current Status: The deaths of the Bethelbert Twins has haunted Sophia and her team not just for falling for Laia's plan, but how its been used as propaganda on both sides. Seeing the ugliness of both nature and industry, Sophia has given up on supporting one side and focuses on the people caught in the middle. As much as she'd like there to be at the very least a cease fire between the druids and the city, she knows there won't be one for a long while.

If asked about her "cousin", Malus, she'll admit he's a jerk, but "he's our jerk and he gets things done." With Malus on the other hand, its more complicated given how she reminds him a little of Amber which has kept him from doing away with her when she steps out of line (for now). Though this doesn't grant her any immunity from being used as a pawn in any of the darklord's schemes.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

One of the tricky parts is doing the stats. Granted, I'm very new to 5 ed. (3.5 was my jam) and I don't have the monster manual. While Sophia and Laia will be easier to do stats for (one is a ranger and the other is a druid), I'm curious about how to handle Malus and Siemon. (Especially for Siemon since he doesn't have any core character classes that would fit.)

[Mischief]

One of the tricky parts is doing the stats. Granted, I'm very new to 5 ed. (3.5 was my jam) and I don't have the monster manual. While Sophia and Laia will be easier to do stats for (one is a ranger and the other is a druid), I'm curious about how to handle Malus and Siemon. (Especially for Siemon since he doesn't have any core character classes that would fit.)

Honestly, most people here like the earlier editions (and pathfinder), so jam as you wish. I have a post about porting Darklords forward for 5e. The trick with 5e is don't build human monsters like characters; build them like monsters and back-justify the numbers however you can massage them. You don't even need to include magic items unless you think it would make nice loot. Following class traits is utterly optional, the benefit is mostly precanned testing for balance. Half the humans in the MM are missing essential class traits anyway - the base druid can't Wildshape and the rogue assassin doesn't have Cunning Action. (I kind of followed class levels for Azalin but I started from "I don't want Azalin to be suplexed in lava like Acererak was, or be useless if boxed up and Silenced. How do I fix these anti-climax problems?" And then I worked backwards from there after deciding on the lore angle to justify the magic-martial blend.) It's more important in my opinion to have a good Lore section to suggest how your monster interacts with environment and its tactics. That helps the DM better understand where to put on the extra parmesan if need be to run the monster as envisioned.
I have a Homebrew Monster CR calculator and hints on how to use it best. No one's complained about by statblocks yet (despite some questionable choices. And I would like some feedback. It would help.)

[Nosos]

Awesome, I love Nosos!!

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

Awesome, I love Nosos!!

I'm really glad you like it. I want to add the reason that Malus hasn't done anything to get rid of Siemon is that he's amused by his "uncle's" attempts at respect and being better than him. In other words, Siemon is his personal lolcow.

Rat Dancer
Description: It's a known fact that Siemon is a musician of moderate talent (his favorite being the flute and piano) and the Red Fangs know this so they gave him this magical item get him to join them. This silver flute has the power to summon and control rats.
System: By playing a fast song, you can summon 1d6 rats for one hour. A slow song will get any rat in the area to follow the player's commands within the best of their ability by telepathically reading the player's mind. As long as the player is performing, the rats will work. The DC for doing this is 12. A 1 will cause the rats to attack the player for one hour or until they are killed off.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

Gloves of Ruin
Description: The gift that the Circle of Ruin gave Siemon in hopes of getting him to help them. These thick leather gloves have linking, rusty metal circles around the edges. With this, mundane objects begin break away.
System: The wearer must activate the gloves with drop of blood (doesn't have to be the wearer's) on the circles. For one battle or an hour, any non-sentiment, non-magical object the wearer touches begins to rust/rot away. The longer the object is held, the faster it rots/rusts.

If used on a sentient construct like a mechanical golum or a Warforged, treat the touch as if the wearer used an Inflict Light Wounds spell that leaves rust marks on them.

[KingCorn]

Dread Possibility: The Paridon Conspiracy: Paridon is in crisis, and has responded with war, though not of the convential sense. Seeing demand for their factory goods fall over recent months, they found the core had been slowly flooded by cheap goods from a mysterious domain called "Nosos". Realizing that this mysterious city put the future of their own at stake, the good people of Paridon (with significant help from its own upperclass) began a conspiracy to bring the rival city down. Efforts have been made to boycott deals with nobles who deal with Nosos, the Captains of the Mist have been hired in ever greater numbers to improve their trade ability, and the urban poor are pushed ever more to compete with Nosos factories. Small groups have even been sent into Nosos to stir up any trouble they can, backing business rivals against each other and even making overtures to the druids of the city outskirts (though few of these delegates ever return). The War of the Cities has only just begun, and if it goes too far it may bring both cities down.

Malus is not blind to Paridon's threats. In truth, he deeply admires the city, though he belives Nosos has long outstripped it. He has intercepted several infiltrators and has made his own overtures to Paridon oligarchs, giving false offers of trade deals and partnership, helping them topple his business rivals for him. Should the conspiracy go to far, he has plenty of plagues to unleash which could bring Paridon to its knees.

Between this, the Dread Dopplegangers and their own darklord Sodos complicate matters. While they were the masterminds behind the Paridon Conspiracy, many have gone turn coat and infiltrated Nosos simply to escape the mad rules of Sodos.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

Dread Possibility: The Paridon Conspiracy: Paridon is in crisis, and has responded with war, though not of the convential sense. Seeing demand for their factory goods fall over recent months, they found the core had been slowly flooded by cheap goods from a mysterious domain called "Nosos". Realizing that this mysterious city put the future of their own at stake, the good people of Paridon (with significant help from its own upperclass) began a conspiracy to bring the rival city down. Efforts have been made to boycott deals with nobles who deal with Nosos, the Captains of the Mist have been hired in ever greater numbers to improve their trade ability, and the urban poor are pushed ever more to compete with Nosos factories. Small groups have even been sent into Nosos to stir up any trouble they can, backing business rivals against each other and even making overtures to the druids of the city outskirts (though few of these delegates ever return). The War of the Cities has only just begun, and if it goes too far it may bring both cities down.

Malus is not blind to Paridon's threats. In truth, he deeply admires the city, though he belives Nosos has long outstripped it. He has intercepted several infiltrators and has made his own overtures to Paridon oligarchs, giving false offers of trade deals and partnership, helping them topple his business rivals for him. Should the conspiracy go to far, he has plenty of plagues to unleash which could bring Paridon to its knees.

Between this, the Dread Dopplegangers and their own darklord Sodos complicate matters. While they were the masterminds behind the Paridon Conspiracy, many have gone turn coat and infiltrated Nosos simply to escape the mad rules of Sodos.

In a way, Malus is becoming Ravenloft's answer to Gordon Gekko.

[The Lesser Evil]

Since Nosos is inspired by the worst aspects of industrial-corporate capitalism, the exploitation/manipulation of the workers might also be an important thing to include. One of the consequences of the "survival of the fittest concept" concept is that the people at the top earned their way there and therefore, by virtue of being wealthy, have proven themselves to be better than everybody else. Yet because of the hypothetical meritocracy, people on the lower rungs of Nosan society would likely cling to the hope that one day they, through hard work and determination, might earn their fortune.

With no real government to restrict the corporation, the corporation effectively becomes the government and maybe even the way of life. In essence, the industrial side of Nosos might become a giant company town, with all the potential abuses that could come therein. Most of the stuff comes from the company stores. You're paid in scrip, and you buy things in scrip, which is not accepted in areas outside of the company. To rebel against the system means to effectively lose everything you own. More insidiously, the omnipresence of the corporation would likely foster a cultural identity where the center of the worker's life is tied to the corporation. "I'm a company man, after all." Malus himself could be viewed as a grand paternal figure

[Mistmaster]

I expanded Nosos to create New Zherisia, which is a sort of United States in the second half of XIX century. Nosos is the capital city, and Malcolm "Malus" Sceleris is the Richest man and the President, and I see him as a Lex Luthoresque figure of sort with Injun Joe vibes.

[KingCorn]

Since Nosos is inspired by the worst aspects of industrial-corporate capitalism, the exploitation/manipulation of the workers might also be an important thing to include. One of the consequences of the "survival of the fittest concept" concept is that the people at the top earned their way there and therefore, by virtue of being wealthy, have proven themselves to be better than everybody else. Yet because of the hypothetical meritocracy, people on the lower rungs of Nosan society would likely cling to the hope that one day they, through hard work and determination, might earn their fortune.

With no real government to restrict the corporation, the corporation effectively becomes the government and maybe even the way of life. In essence, the industrial side of Nosos might become a giant company town, with all the potential abuses that could come therein. Most of the stuff comes from the company stores. You're paid in scrip, and you buy things in scrip, which is not accepted in areas outside of the company. To rebel against the system means to effectively lose everything you own. More insidiously, the omnipresence of the corporation would likely foster a cultural identity where the center of the worker's life is tied to the corporation. "I'm a company man, after all." Malus himself could be viewed as a grand paternal figure

Quite true, vitally true. In a way, I see Malus as a bit and the rich of Nosos as american robber barons, but in the industrial district of Victorian London. The city is a mixture of dictatorial and completely lawless, where company towns form mini fiefdoms, while in the small space between its a no mans land of trash, violence, and pollution.
Overall, the themes should be:
-Pollution/Cost of Progress: The city of Nosos is an industrial wasteland, with its once rare beauty ruined in the pursuit of progress. The land is poisoned, with every little bit of life and natural wealth wrung out of it for the sake of profit, power, and "growth"
-Robber Barons/Self Made Men: In Nosos, there are no kings nor nobles, no limitations by way of blood. Every man has the chance to rise to the top, but in a dog-eat-dog place like Nosos, those that do tend to be heartless. Those at the top tend to kick the ladder out from under them, relishing the power they have earned.
-Brutal Nature vs Cruel Industry: What little wild there is in Nosos is twisted and brutal, and even with the druids the philosophy of "the strong survive" is as strong as it is in the city.

[Mistmaster]

I think that, in my version, the Druids/Shamans will tend more towards the good side.