Latest revision as of 14:57, 15 August 2026

Nightcats

A Sword-and-Sorcery Setting of Jungles, Ruins, River Kingdoms, and Ancient Dread for Barbarians of Lemuria

Nightcats is a world of steaming dense jungles, fallen cities, half-swallowed roads, river and island kingdoms, painted idols, moonlit blades, and old stones that remember too much. It is a setting of ambush, treasure, betrayal, temple-robbing, and desperate courage in places where civilization is narrow and the wilderness is vast.

Welcome to Jhelum, a hot and dangerous land of great rivers, crowded cities, jungle frontiers, and ancient powers. Beyond its roads and courts stretches a green immensity filled with beasts, ruins, forgotten shrines, jungle tribes, and things older than memory.

And at the heart of Jhelum broods the Sea of Blood. Vast and red as a wound beneath the sun, it is both trade road and menace, a barbaric inland sea whose waters touch pirate ports, old kingdoms, ruined shores, and secrets better left drowned. The Sea of Blood is beautiful, infamous, and never wholly safe.

Nightcats are already in motion when play begins: scouts, thieves, priests, mercenaries, caravan guards, hunters, dancers, sailors, exiles, pirates, and tomb robbers. They are capable people thrown into danger, mystery, splendour, and dread.

Adventures and Play

Nightcats is built for bold, fast-moving sword-and-sorcery adventure with the rules-light Barbarians of Lemuria ruleset:

jungle expeditions
temple robberies
river journeys
pirate voyages on the Sea of Blood
court intrigues
feuds, vendettas, and betrayals
torchlit battles in forgotten places
cults, sorcerers, and older things beneath the earth

Tone and Inspirations

The tone of Nightcats draws on classic sword-and-sorcery, jungle adventure fiction, lost-world romance, and Indian-inspired antiquity. It is a world of splendour and menace, where gold glitters in ruined sanctuaries, kings rule behind carved walls, the jungle swallows empires, sorcerers cast spells in forgotten crypts, and the gods are never entirely absent.

Start Here

The Setting

Current State

The Nightcats section of the Codex is under active expansion as material is migrated, revised, and reorganized into its new form.

Nightcats Codex Home • Players Guide• Character Creation • Careers • Boons • Flaws • Jhelum • Peoples • Sea of Blood • Rivers • Mahāraṇya • Cities • Customs • Million Gods • Divine Invocations • Sorcery • Arms & Armor • Bestiary • Name Generators • The Nightcats Novels

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{NightcatsHeader}}
-<div class="nightcats-theme">
+<div class="codex-page codex-page--nightcats">
 = Nightcats =
-[[File:nightcats cover.jpg|400px]]
+[[File:nightcats cover.jpg|400px|right]]
+''A Sword-and-Sorcery Setting of Jungles, Ruins, River Kingdoms, and Ancient Dread for'' '''Barbarians of Lemuria'''
-''A Sword-and-Sorcery Setting of Jungles, Ruins, River Kingdoms, and Ancient Dread for '' Barbarians of Lemuria
-''Nightcats'' is a world of steaming jungles, fallen cities, half-swallowed roads, river kingdoms, painted idols, moonlit blades, and old stones that remember too much. It is a setting of ambush, treasure, betrayal, temple-robbing, and desperate courage in places where civilization is narrow and the wilderness is vast.
-This is '''Jhelum''', a hot and dangerous land of great rivers, crowded cities, jungle frontiers, and ancient powers. Beyond its roads and courts stretches a green immensity filled with beasts, ruins, forgotten shrines, and things older than memory.
-And at the heart of Jhelum broods the setting’s greatest and most terrible landmark: the '''[[Sea of Blood]]'''. Vast, inland, and red as a wound beneath the sun, it is both trade road and menace, a barbaric inland sea whose waters touch pirate ports, old kingdoms, ruined shores, and secrets better left drowned. The Sea of Blood is one of the great horizons of the setting—beautiful, infamous, and never wholly safe.
-''Nightcats'' are not farm boys awaiting destiny. They are already in motion when play begins: scouts, thieves, priests, mercenaries, caravan guards, hunters, dancers, sailors, exiles, pirates, and tomb robbers. They are capable people thrown into danger, avarice, splendour, and dread.
-== Start Here ==
+''Nightcats'' is a world of steaming dense jungles, fallen cities, half-swallowed roads, river and island kingdoms, painted idols, moonlit blades, and old stones that remember too much. It is a setting of ambush, treasure, betrayal, temple-robbing, and desperate courage in places where civilization is narrow and the wilderness is vast.
-* [[Nightcats Character Creation|Character Creation]]
+Welcome to '''[[Nightcats:Jhelum|Jhelum]]''', a hot and dangerous land of great rivers, crowded cities, jungle frontiers, and ancient powers. Beyond its roads and courts stretches a green immensity filled with beasts, ruins, forgotten shrines, jungle tribes, and things older than memory.
-* [[Nightcats Careers|Careers]]
-* [[Nightcats Boons|Boons]]
-* [[Nightcats Flaws|Flaws]]
-* [[Nightcats Name Generators|Name Generators]]
-* [[Nightcats Peoples|Peoples]]
-== The Setting ==
+And at the heart of Jhelum broods the '''[[Nightcats:Sea of Blood|Sea of Blood]]'''. Vast and red as a wound beneath the sun, it is both trade road and menace, a barbaric inland sea whose waters touch pirate ports, old kingdoms, ruined shores, and secrets better left drowned. The Sea of Blood is beautiful, infamous, and never wholly safe.
-* [[Jhelum]]
+Nightcats are already in motion when play begins: scouts, thieves, priests, mercenaries, caravan guards, hunters, dancers, sailors, exiles, pirates, and tomb robbers. They are capable people thrown into danger, mystery, splendour, and dread.
-* [[Sea of Blood]]
-* [[Customs of Jhelum]]
-* [[Nightcats Magic and Divinity|Magic and Divinity]]
-* [[Nightcats Tools|Nightcats Tools]]
 == Adventures and Play ==
-''Nightcats'' is built for bold, fast-moving sword-and-sorcery adventure:
+''Nightcats'' is built for bold, fast-moving sword-and-sorcery adventure with the rules-light ''Barbarians of Lemuria'' ruleset:
 * jungle expeditions
 * temple robberies
@@ Line 46: / Line 27: @@
 == Tone and Inspirations ==
-The tone of ''Nightcats'' draws on classic sword-and-sorcery, jungle adventure fiction, lost-world romance, and Indian-inspired antiquity. It is a world of splendour and menace, where gold glitters in ruined sanctuaries, kings rule behind carved walls, the jungle swallows empires, and the gods are never entirely absent.
+The tone of ''Nightcats'' draws on classic sword-and-sorcery, jungle adventure fiction, lost-world romance, and Indian-inspired antiquity. It is a world of splendour and menace, where gold glitters in ruined sanctuaries, kings rule behind carved walls, the jungle swallows empires, sorcerers cast spells in forgotten crypts, and the gods are never entirely absent.
+== Start Here ==
+* [[Nightcats:Players Guide|Players Guide]]
+* [[Nightcats:Character Creation|Character Creation]]
+* [[Nightcats:Careers|Careers]]
+* [[Nightcats:Boons|Boons]]
+* [[Nightcats:Flaws|Flaws]]
+* [[Nightcats:Name Generators|Name Generators]]
+* [[Nightcats:Peoples|Peoples]]
-== Browse Nightcats ==
+== The Setting ==
-* [[:Category:Nightcats Characters|Characters]]
+* [[Nightcats:Jhelum|Jhelum]]
-* [[:Category:Nightcats Locations|Locations]]
+* [[Nightcats:Sea of Blood|Sea of Blood]]
-* [[:Category:Nightcats Organizations|Organizations]]
+* [[Nightcats:Cities of Jhelum|Cities of Jhelum]]
-* [[:Category:Nightcats]]
+* [[Nightcats:Rivers of Jhelum|Rivers of Jhelum]]
-* [[:Category:Settings|Settings]]
+* [[Nightcats:Customs of Jhelum|Customs of Jhelum]]
+* [[Nightcats:Sorcery|Sorcery]]
+* [[Nightcats:Million Gods| Million Gods]]
 == Current State ==
 The ''Nightcats'' section of the Codex is under active expansion as material is migrated, revised, and reorganized into its new form.
+{{NightcatsNav}}
+</div>
 </div>
 [[Category:Nightcats]]
 [[Category:Settings]]