Strange as it may seem, the Roman Republic (or any other period you prefer for your historical games in Rome) might have some interesting, and very weird potential when combined with the Ghostwalk Campaign Option by Wizards of the Coast. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this book, Ghostwalk features a sort of mini-campaign designed to be used aloneor aspart of an established world. It presents a little universe built up around a city called Manifest, where those who have passed on in to the afterlife are compelled to travel. Manifest is a city built atop the entrance to the afterworld, which is a very real, physical location in the game. Ghosts are defind somehat differently in Ghostwalk; they are free-willed, and linger in the realm of mortals because they have not resolved their issues with the living.

By coincidence, in Roman Mythology, it was believed that the entrances to the afterworld were also very real locations, called the Mundus, and the one in Rome was called the mundus Cereris (the exact location is no longer known). This was a pit, which was capped off by a stone called the Lapis Manalis until three days of ill omen (August 24^th, October 5^th, and November 8^th). On these days, the lid was lifted to expose the ostium orci, the Gate to Hades, and to release the manes, spirits of the Roman dead. The collective di manes (divine dead) were considered potent spirits that needed appeasing, and additional holidays throughout the year were celebrated to appease them, usually on odd numbered days of ill luck. During May 9^th, 11^th, and 13^th, the festival of Lemuria was held to appease the most malevolent and evil of these ghosts, called the lemures, or larvae. Mania was the goddess of the underworld, mother or caretaker to the lesser deities of the lares. She was also revered on May 11^th during this period, during which time charms called mania (plural maniae) were placed on the doors of houses (as a ward, perhaps) against this goddess, who had the characteristics of a "boogey-man" in Roman lore.

The notion of a physical entrance to the afterworld is now in place, not far from Rome, and we’ve already got two deities directly associated with the portal and related festivals (Ceres and Mania). Now, in Ghostwalk, Orcus is represented as a nemesis deity, taking the classic elements of this god as portrayed in classic D&D gaming: lord of undead, demonic, etc. Orcus, in fact, is derived from Roman myth, one of the gods of the underworld, and perhaps even an archetype of the grim reaper as portrayed in more recent myth and lore. The historic appearance of Orcus was as a hairy, bearded giant, and a temple to Orcus was found on the Palatine Hill of Rome. His individual character as an underworld deity was later obscured by the more expansive Dis Pater (Father of Riches), also known as Hades or Pluto, Lord of the Underworld.

If you’re amenable to messing around a bit with the Roman mythology, you could add some ideas and details to flesh out the ambiguities found between these deities due to the gaps in literature and understanding of the period. It is not difficult to imagine a Roman underworld with a plethora of rival deities in the underworld, each struggling for dominance and recognition by the living. Perhaps Mania seeks recognition through fear and trepidation. Perhaps there is a conflict in the underworld, a struggle for power between Dis Pater, who has been lord of the underworld for so long, and Orcus, who seeks to usurp the Father of Riches from his long-established throne. A lot of possibilities come to mind.

Furthermore, it is believed that the manes and lemures are spirits which can interact with the living, and often have the ways and means to move about on specific holidays. The lapis manalis is likely the only seal preventing these beings from moving through the normal world all the time. From references I have found, it is suggested that the mundus Cereris was a two-chambered pit beneath the cap. However, what if it was more than that? What is it was an actual gateway to a much larger subterranean realm, one in which a true underworld could be reached, and interacted with? You could introduce a high-weirdness supernatural component to this by presuming that these spirits work as the ghosts, eidolons, and eidoloncers as described in Ghostwalk. Now you have the basis for a very strange historical campaign. Even if you chose not to use the Ghostwalk material (which would allow players to run ghost characters, or become such through the usual process adventurers do!), you could still use more traditional resources to create a Roman underworld for adventure. A more conventional campaign, relying on the variety of incorporeal undead found in the Monster Manual and other sources, would prove to be a pretty challenging campaign.

As a suggestion for adopting material from Ghostwalk, I’d change the title of the eidolon and eidoloncer classes to Manes classes, instead (or Lemure if the ghost in question is malevolent). Unless you’re doing a high-fantasy interpretation of the age, chances are slim of many spell-casting eidoloncers appearing in the campaign, but you could always allow that option to a roman student of hermetic and Egyptian mysticism. You could probably adopt most of the Orcus context in Ghostwalk as is, but import the more traditional Roman view of this deity. Make Ceres, Dis Pater, Mania, and perhaps even other underworld deities a part of the immediate cosmology. Want to get especially creative and free-wheeling with Ghostwalk and Rome? Don’t mind if the setting is somewhat less authentic? Borrow from the city of Manifest, place it within the underworld beyond the mundus Cereris, or place a romanized variation of this city over the entance of the Lapis Manalis as an especially unique district of Rome itself. This could lead to a strange, high-magic alternate reality Rome, and it might take a bit of work to clean out the decidedly non-conforming elements (no demi-human races, for example….or maybe they are there, a completely new mystery? Hidden sylvan races which also manifest in the afterlife?) Lots of possibilities here, if you are willing to entertain them.

Another possibility arises: what if there are other mundus in the world? Perhaps the mundus Cereris of Rome is but one particular passageway to the underworld, and there is, in fact, an entire city out there, maybe in the gaulish territories, which an aspiring Caesar on his conquest of those lands stumbles across. In the Ancient Realms campaign, Caesar would find this a fascinating discovery for the advancement of his hermetic studies, and a powerful secret to keep.

The player characters could be legionnaires, scouts who stumble across the city of Manifest, a hidden enclave kept and managed by a mixture of gaulish cultists (one could borrow heavily form celtic beliefs here) and followers of the Roman mysteries. Indeed, perhaps the priesthood of Orcus and it’s influence in Rome stems from envy, a desire to seize and dominate this city of the dead, which is a greater mundus Cereris than that of Rome.

If you come up with some additional ideas you would like to share on this line, or want a more fleshed out takeon the concept, feel free to email me!

--Tori Bergquist

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