Flavor Friday: The White Hand

Hey! Welcome to Flavor Fridays, my new article where I post something chocked full of delicious flavor every Friday! Might there be a little design in these articles? Yeah, but it’s never going to be the focus.

For my first Friday, I’ll be doing something in honor of Halloween: and organization dedicated to the undeath of the world…

The White Hand

Throughout the world, there are many who dedicate themselves to the future. Some believe that it cannot be known, and that the only way to succeed is to move forward. Others believe the future is predictable, and that one should prepare themselves for the inevitable eventualities that will come to pass.

The White Hand does not believe in either of these methods. They need not predict the future, for they already know what is going to happen. Death. In the future, whether near or far, the White Hand sees the death of all things, and the rise of an undead empire. Rather than fear this eventuality, they embrace it, and strive toward what they have named “The Raising”. Everywhere their fingers reach throughout the world, they kill and raise people, animals and all manners of monsters in an attempt to discover and cause the catalyst that will bring the world to an end, and start the new reign of the undead.

 

The White Hand as a Philosophy: In many campaigns, it might be appropriate for the White Hand to be followers of the local god or goddess of undeath. However, in the event that your world does not have such a deity, or you would rather they remain a separate force, then I have provided the White Hand as a philosophy, so clerics can still dedicate themselves to it without being forced to worship a deity.

The White Hand

Belief in The Raising and the Risen World

Alignment: LE

Domains: Death, Evil, Magic, Madness, War

Favored Weapon: Scythe

The White Hand in Your Campaign: While the White Hand do fight for the rise of the undead empire, they do not expect worship or standing in the Risen World. They wish only for fate to take its course. This can make them an especially powerful force in the world, as they literally have no fear of death, believing that they will just come back once “The Raising” has taken place.

In Golarion, the White Hand might be followers of Urgothoa, goddess of undeath and disease. Alternately, they might be a branch of the Whispering Way, a group dedicated to the raising of the Whispering Tyrant. Perhaps, while the White Hand seeks to instigate “The Raising”, the Whispering Way believes that the Tyrant will be the leader in this new Risen World.

Regardless of how you use them, the White Hand is a great organization to use during any given campaign wherein you’d like undead to play a major role. They’re one of the most versatile monster groups in the game, and having an organization dedicated to their rise makes them all the more dangerous.

Composition: The White Hand is composed of humanoids and half-undead, for the most part. Races such as dhampir are more than welcome amongst their ranks. Outsiders—even those touted to be evil, such as tieflings—are unwelcome however, as the White Hand believes that they will fight only for their own cause and their own people, rather than for fate and The Raising. The highest members of the organization are composed of intelligent undead, such as skeletal champions, vampires and liches, while the lower ranks are usually humanoids who can better mesh with the world as it stands. Most every member of the organization is encouraged to be able to create and control undead, leaving the “dirty work” and the muscle to the undead themselves.

 The higher one climbs in the ranks of the White Hand, the more likely they are to find wizards and clerics with the ability to animate and control undead. Often, an area will be afflicted with undead and low-level clerics will be sent to desecrate the area and increase the strength of the undead so that they might spread.

At low levels, the White Hand should be represented by lower-level  clerics utilizing spells like Desecrate to empower the undead around them, and Hide from Undead to focus the creatures’ attention on the PCs. They cannot animate their own undead, so they mostly need to be used to increase the power of any undead with them already as well as de-buffing the PCs with spells like Doom and Cause Fear.

From 5^th level onward, clerics can cast Animate Dead, which allows them to amass much larger forces of undead. At this point in the game, it would not be uncommon for White Hand members to make regular trips to the graveyard, creating huge amounts of undead and having them kill townsfolk, at which point they can raise the townsfolk, and it goes on and on until entire towns and cities fall under their control.

As they increase in level, only stronger and stronger undead become available, and only greater adventures await.

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Well, I hope you all enjoyed my first Flavor Friday! I hope to continue the White Hand next week with another regular set of articles, and we’ll see what comes next Friday.

-Chris