… suddenly obsessing about colours (wait and see!), yennico was the one to ask „What is … a Cerulean Cossack?“. blut_und_glas threw his lot in with him, and together they brainstormed about a dozen options, ranging from the generic to the system-specific and covering pretty much everything from high fantasy to historical gaming and from rules to background to adventure hooks and back again.
A Cerulean Cossack is:
Using the Magic of Incarnum supplement, a Cerulean Cossack could bea prestige class for a mounted meldshaping character.
Cerulean Cossack
A Cerulean Cossack touches his soul to that of his mount.
Requirements:
Meldshaping: 4th level meldshaper
Feats: Mounted Combat
Skills: Ride 6 ranksHit Die: d10
Class Skills
Concentration, Craft, Handle Animal, Knowledge (nature), Listen, Profession, Ride, Spot, Survival, Swim.Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int Modifier.
Class
LevelBase
Attack
BonusFort/Ref/Will
SaveSpecial
BonusMeldshaping
Bonus1st +0 +2 / +0 / +0 Summon mount +1 level of existing meldshaping class 2nd +1 +3 / +0 / +0 Mountmeld – 3rd +2 +3 / +1 / +1 – +1 level of existing meldshaping class 4th +3 +4 / +1 / +1 Mount chakra – 5th +3 +4 / +1 / +1 Mount chakra bind +1 level of existing meldshaping class Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Cerulean Cossack.Summon Mount
This is equivalent to the Paladin class feature of the same name. A Cerulean Cossack uses his total meldshaper level in place of his Paladin level to determine the effects of this class feature and the abilities of the summoned mount.Mountmeld
Starting at 2nd level, a Cerulean Cossack may choose to have the effects of a soulmeld apply to his summoned mount, instead of himself. This decision has to be made at the time of shaping and cannot be changed as long as the soulmeld stays shaped. The soulmeld occupies a chakra as usual, but cannot be bound to that chakra.Mount Chakra
At 4th level, a Cerulean Cossack gains access to a unique chakra: the mount chakra. This chakra is associated with his summoned mount instead of a body part. Any soulmeld can occupy the mount chakra and the mount – but not the Cerulean Cossack – gains its normal benefits.Mount Chakra Bind
Upon reaching 5th level, a Cerulean Cossack can bind soulmelds to the mount chakra. The mount gains the same benefits as if the soulmeld were bound to the chakra it usually occupies on the Cerulean Cossack himself.
The Cerulean Cossack is a painting of an unknown Russian painter who immigrated to Germany. The painting was painted between 1898 and 1910 and it shows only a blue rider in his traditional Cossack garb. The Cerulean Cossack became an apparition which searches its horse.
The famous artists Franz Marc painted many blue horses. He had stolen one of these horses out of the Cerulean Cossack painting and bound to his painting.
The Cerulean Cossack can only rest in peace if he is united with his horse. The Union can only be achieved by performing a long magical ritual which destroys the Franz Marc’s Painting.
Perhaps the horse of the Cerulean Cossack is one of the horses in the painting "Turm der Pferde". This painting is missing.
Similar to the D&D concept above, the Cerulean Cossack could also be a sort of spirit rider for The Red Star:
Cossack Heritage
Prerequisites: Ride 2 ranks, Allegiance (Cossacks)
Benefit: You gain a +2 competence bonus on Ride checks and Ride is always considered a class skill for you.
Special: If you ever gain an Allegiance to the Law of the One True God, you immediately and permanently lose your Cossack Heritage feat. You do not gain a new feat to replace it.Cerulean Cossack
Prerequisites: Cossack Heritage, Ritual 3 ranks
Benefit: Once per day, as a full-round action, you may magically call your mount from the spirit realm in which it resides. Your mount immediately appears adjacent to you and remains until dismissed; it may be dismissed at any time as a free action. The mount is the same creature each time it is summoned, though you may release a particular mount from service.
Each time the mount is called, it appears in full health, regardless of any damage it may have taken previously. The mount also appears wearing or carrying any gear it had when it was last dismissed.
Should your mount die, it immediately disappears, leaving behind any equipment it was carrying.
The Cerulean Cossack is a blue stone monument of a rider on a rearing horse. The statue symbolizes liberty. A legend says that as long the Cerulean Cossack stands nobody can defeat or enslave the people of the area.
Perhaps they are a sort of D-Bee in Rifts Russia, which have taken up the life of the Cossacks – similar to how some D-Bees in the New West have taken up the life of cowboys/saddle tramps.
A Russian stone cutter made chessboard with figures as gift for the Czar. Instead of making the figures black and white he chooses red and blue gemstones. Cerulean Cossack is the name for the blue knight.
The Cerulean Cossacks might be an Imperial Guard regiment or a Space Marine chapter in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
The Cerulean Cossack is not the code name for a mail messenger on horseback, it is the code name for a very mobile spy.
The Cerulean Cossacks are a band of Cossack frothers painting themselves blue (they are Contract Killers and this is part of their act).
During the Cold War Cerulean Cossack is the code name of a Stasi spy in West Germany.
The Cerulean Cossack is the name of a space ship. Probably something akin to a light cruiser – a fast long-ranged raiding unit.
Cerulean Cossacks is the code name for brutal Hungarian soldiers, who worked in WWII for the Germans and performed crimes in Russian uniforms.