Power Of Purity

“I’ll not stand oppression.” —Harkra Loivaerl Lonadar
Many years ago, while the Last War raged on, a revolution of sorts took place quietly behind the closed borders of Zilargo. For years, gnome spellcasters of all sorts believed that elementals were merely manifestations of the raw elements of which they were composed. Certainly they had languages and exhibited behaviors that indicated some amount of intelligence, but most thought the creatures were mindless drones capable only of receiving orders or serving in some other capability. Only after researchers had observed the creatures on their native planes directly did anyone suspect that elementals were as sentient as any human. None of Zilargo’s casters dared suggest that their exploitation of elementals cease, however, but one wizard made a daring suggestion.
This wizard, a gnome named Harkra Loivaerl Lonadar, felt that more could be accomplished with the art of elemental binding by negotiating with the elementals. Her theories, which began to gain strength only toward the end of the Last War, were not popular.
Most of the nation’s spellcasters and elemental experts felt that the system in place was fine. They saw no need to tamper with something that worked, and especially felt no compassion for the creatures they were binding to service in their airships and weapons. Harkra managed to convince a small coalition of merchants in positions of infl uence within Zilargo that her ideas had merit, however, and the Power of Purity was founded.

The Power of Purity in the World

“You attract more flame with tinder than ash.”— Power of Purity saying
The group exists today as part of the elemental binding industry in Zilargo. The initial skepticism of their ideas has since been overcome by their results. In 991 YK, an elite group within the faction, called the Inmost, was founded by Harkra Loivaerl Lonadar, who had grown tired of the increasing bureaucracy required for running a rapidly growing business, which is what the Power of Purity had become. Harkra gave up control of the larger organization’s interests to more fully dedicate herself to her ideas on binding research. The Inmost is primarily composed of elemental scions (see the elemental scion of Zilargo prestige class, page 68) and other eccentric individuals. Combined with the knowledge of the Power of Purity, which includes some of the foremost experts on elemental binding in all Khorvaire, the Inmost’s members have made the organization quite powerful. These individuals act as agents, guards, and even repositories of elemental knowledge. Many elemental savants (a prestige class found in the Complete Arcane supplement) also number among both the Power of Purity and the Inmost, and the group has gradually become responsible for filling a large number of Zilargo’s elemental vessel contracts.

Power of Purity Lore

Characters with Knowledge (history) can research the Power of Purity organization to learn more about it. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including the information from lower DCs.
DC 15: The Power of Purity has two basic goals: to more fully understand elementals and their power, and make that power their own.
DC 20: The Power of Purity believes that it will find more success in dealing with elementals through parley than through brute force. It frequently negotiates with the elementals it binds into vessels and other items before the binding process begins, gaining permission, or at least acceptance, from the creatures.
DC 25: Some say that some members of the Power of Purity bind elementals to more than items—they bind elementals, or parts of them, to their own flesh.

The Power of Purity in the Game

The Power of Purity’s goals make an interesting foil to the traditional role of good and evil in the game, and NPC “purists” can add color and interest to what could otherwise be uninteresting encounters.
Purists who take too much interest in PCs who call or bind elementals might even attempt to interfere with the party’s goals, perhaps going so far as to kidnap a “guilty” party member and keep him or her captive in a Power of Purity research facility.

Power of Purity Facility

(Map in Magic of Eberron pg 34)
The Swiftwind facility lies in the northwest corner of Zilargo, at the foot of the Howling Peaks, and has long been in the forefront of elemental binding research. Its massive airship hangars churn out an airship a year each, and the crews in each have friendly competitions to see which canfulfill its order before the others.
The massive commons area in the center of the facility (area 2) is an equally remarkable feature. Because the Power of Purity believes in willingly negotiating with elementals, many of these rare extraplanar creatures wander the commons at all times. The water elementals find the commons’ three large ponds quite interesting, the air elementals enjoy the trees, the earth elementals roam beneath the natural vegetation, and the fire elementals particularly enjoy the magically created rupture in the earth (area 2a) at the south end of the area. Here a miniature volcano has formed. It does not erupt because this is not a volcanically active region. The leadership of the installation decided to create a fissure in the earth for the comfort of its fire elemental visitors here by bringing a steady, but slow, stream of magma to the surface. The compound also features several grafting workshops (area 3), each complete with a summoning and binding chamber (area 3a). Area 4 is the dormitory, where members of the organization can find comfortable quarters, whether they are visiting or engaging in research themselves.
This installation was founded ten years ago as one of the first created by the Power of Purity. Other than adding a second and then a third airship hangar, it hasn’t grown much in that time. The compound suffers frequent raids from bandits out of the Howling Peaks, and PCs might be hired to root them out of the mountains once and for all.
The characters might also arrive here on behalf of a powerful merchant or noble to retrieve a newly purchased airship, or they might come on their own to purchase elemental grafts (see page 129).

Sample Power of Purity Member
Roywin Garrick, a wizard who has taken up the elemental savant prestige class (described in Complete Arcane), is fast becoming an accomplished wielder of cold-based magic.
ROYWIN GARRICK CR 8
Female gnome wizard 5/elemental savant (cold) 3
N Small humanoid
Init +2; Senses low-light vision; Listen +3, Spot +1
Languages Common, Gnome, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven
AC 18, touch 16, flat-footed 16; +4 AC against giants
hp 44 (8 HD)
Immune sleep
Resist cold 5; +2 against illusions
Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +8
Speed 20 ft. (4 squares)
Melee quarterstaff +2 (1d4–1) or
Ranged mwk light crossbow +6 (1d6)
Base Atk +3; Grp +2
Atk Options +1 on attacks against kobolds and goblinoids
Special Actions +2 bonus on caster level checks to overcome spell resistance when casting cold spells
Combat Gear scroll of teleport
Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 8th):
4th—ice storm (2) (DC 19), stoneskin
3rd—fireball (cold) (2) (DC 18), lightning bolt (cold) (2) (DC 18)
2nd—Melf ’s acid arrow (cold) (2) (DC 17), scorching ray (cold) (2), (DC 17)
1st—charm person (DC 15), mage armor†, magic missile, shield, sleep
0—arcane mark, message, ray of frost (3) (DC 15)
†Already cast
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st):
1/day—dancing lights, ghost sound (DC 10), prestidigitation, speak with animals (burrowing mammal only, duration 1 minute)
Abilities Str 8, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 19, Wis 13, Cha 8
SQ elemental specialty, familiar (none at present)
Feats Empower SpellB, Energy Substitution (cold), Scribe ScrollB, Spell Focus (evocation), Toughness
Skills Alchemy +7, Concentration +14, Knowledge (arcana) +15, Knowledge (the planes) +8, Listen +3, Search +9, Spellcraft +15, Spot +1
Possessions combat gear plus masterwork light crossbow, quarterstaff, headband of intellect +2, +1 mithral buckler, bracers of health +2, diamond dust worth 250 gp (material component for stoneskin)
Spellbook spells prepared plus 0—all others; 1st—chill touch, expeditious retreat, identify; 2nd—levitate, misdirection; 3rd—fly; 4th—wall of ice
Elemental Specialty (Ex) Whenever Roywin casts a spell with an energy descriptor, the spell becomes a cold spell if not already so.
Hook “When they pulled me from the wreckage, I made a promise to myself. So you see, I’ve embraced the cold. What a difference ice can make.”


People and Places of Importance

Harkra Loivaerl Lonadar - Gnome wizard, founder of Power Of Purity

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License