Game Themes

Gothic: Luisant is a strongly themed game. This means the plot, NPCs, mechanics, and setting elements have been designed to present certain concepts and to support player exploration of certain questions and ideas. Knowing these themes will help you know what to expect in Luisant. We encourage players to consider these themes when designing characters.

Choices and Consequences
Your characters will have to make many decisions in the town of Luisant – and the most important choices will be hard to make. These decisions will define the character’s story and will have long-term consequences for the character and the town. There are few easy options, and characters will often need to choose between their values, deciding what is truly most important to them.

A Quiet Town
Luisant is far from civilization, engulfed in wilderness and tenuously connected to the rest of the Throne. The community is close-knit; most people know each other, and can trace their families back for generations, all within this small village. Long-held traditions, superstitions, and celebrations shape the town’s daily life.

Over time, there will be opportunities for more connections with the outside world. The residents will need to decide how they react to these situations – whether they welcome or reject outsiders, and what these possibilities might mean for the future of the town.

The Old Forest
The wilds around Luisant are ancient. There is great power there; it is both abundant in its bounty and filled with danger. There are many in Luisant who still follow the ways of Vecatra in secret, and they perform strange rites deep in the woods. Tales speak of horrible malefic beings and of beautiful fey.

Community and Conflict
The town faces grave threats – it is not easy for humans to survive so deep in the wilderness, and Luisant’s problems have only multiplied in recent years with the devastation of the plague. Raids from bandits, the lurking threat of malefic, and unknown future dangers will all threaten the community as a whole.

But the village faces internal conflict as well. This was once a bastion of Vecatran faith, and the church of Benalus has only a tenuous hold. Vecatrans view the church as a dangerous outside force that desecrates the holy wilderness, while Benalians see the Vecatrans as heathens and potentially worse. With the recent arrival of a Mage, and the local Noble family being stretched thin in the efforts of restoring the town from the plague, there are many potential conflicts. Characters will have to choose how they navigate this web of relationships, and influence the development of this small but complex community.

The Past and the Present
Luisant’s history is long, but unknown to most. There is much to be rediscovered for those with the curiosity and courage to pursue the past. They may learn of triumphs and tragedies, of the choices of those who came before. They will discover how those choices have shaped the present. With this knowledge, they can accept the wisdom of their predecessors – or correct their mistakes.