| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Xylerius Thallin |
Posted - 12 Nov 2003 : 20:26:27
Could anybody help me with these questions?
When did Kiaransalee kill Orcus and has he been revived?
What effects does the Negative Energy plane have on undead while they are there?
Can a wizard who turned into a lich still gain levels a wizard?
Where can I find out about Velsharoon or Liches? (Other than F&A, P&P DD or Monster Manual)
|
| 5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Xylerius Thallin |
Posted - 13 Nov 2003 : 20:56:44
Thank for the help. |
| The Sage |
Posted - 13 Nov 2003 : 06:39:55
Xylerius Thallin said -
quote:
Could anybody help me with these questions?
Yes...does that help...
You also said -
quote:
When did Kiaransalee kill Orcus and has he been revived?
What I am about to post contains some answers about this question, but it also deals with the relationship between Orcus, Maanzecorian, and Kiaransalee. It was posted at another forum, but I don't have time to clean it up and find the 'juicy' bits -
First of all, it wasn't exactly Orcus who slew Maanzecorian, it was Tenebrous. Tenebrous was an undead shadow, of sorts, created from the spirit of the demon-god Orcus as a side-effect of the demilich Acererak's attempts to merge with the Negative Energy Plane. Whatever remained of Orcus' spirit and sentience slept within his corpse on the Astral Plane until the negative-energy surge awakened and transformed it.
Tenebrous, although powerful, was not a god (as Orcus had been). It was able to slay gods using the Last Word, part of the primal vocabulary that creates, sustains, and will ultimately destroy the multiverse. The Last Word can - and eventually will - unmake anything that was created. Tenebrous found it buried in the wastes of Mithardir, the plane of good that represents sorrow, desolation, and regret (also known as Pelion, the third passion of Arborea). It is too powerful for a non-god to wield, and is destroying Tenebrous even as it uses the Word to destroy others. Tenebrous' only hope was to complete its resurrection, returning to full godhood before the Word completed its work.
For this, Tenebrous needed to find the Wand of Orcus, which had been hidden away by minions of Kiaransalee long before - the drow that hid it subsequently had their memories erased by the Styx, so nobody knows where it is now. That didn't stop Tenebrous from attempting to learn its location through various means, including hunting down various gods of knowledge and divination, grilling them, and then slaying them to preserve its anonymity from those with the power to destroy it.
The adventure Dead Gods listed a number of gods who died - these were all (except one) fairly unimportant gods. I mean, how many campaigns had Maanzecorian as a major part? Some of the gods Tenebrous killed weren't even part of the 2nd edition game, because they had been dropped from 2nd edition Legends & Lore or because Monte Cook made them up just so they could be killed. Bwimb wasn't even really a god, just an unusually powerful ooze paraelemental or possibly a particularly self-important mephit. He was mentioned mostly as a joke. Part of this is that, as I said earlier, Tenebrous was trying to keep himself a secret from the real powers of the multiverse, so he mostly preyed only on obscure deities. Another part is that Monte didn't want to screw up everyone's campaign by declaring Odin officially dead, or whatever. An individual DM might rule an entirely different hit list. James O'Rance wrote a live-action RPG scenario based loosely on Dead Gods in which Tenebrous killed the entire Norse pantheon, in fact.
But Maanzecorian was pretty cool. Created by Carl Sargent for Monster Mythology, Maanzecorian was one of only two illithid deities. Ilsensine is a glowing green disembodied brain, essentially the divine equivalent of an elder brain. Ilsensine has tentacles that extend throughout the planes (sometimes in the form of cranium rats), but thinks very little of non-illithid life. Maanzecorian, on the other hand, was a divine illithid with purple-green skin, tusks, and a hovering silver crown. Maanzecorian was a philosopher and a scholar, interested in non-illithid knowledge as well as information the mind flayers collect. Still evil, still lawful, still arrogant, still convinced that all that is not illithid is thrall, but more open-minded and curious than its master.
But now Maanzecorian is dead, at least officially, and any number of interesting things might come from that. What happens to mortal illithids when they die? If they're not theists or criminal or insane, their brains are taken out of their skulls and merged with the community's Elder Brain. So a whole adventure could be based on proxies of Ilsensine come to the Astral Plane to extract Maanzecorian's fossilized brain from its drifting corpse and bring it back to Ilsensine's caverns to incorporate it into the substance of Ilsensine, as perhaps many illithid deities have in the past. Or maybe they have to do it before Maanzecorian dies all the way, and they go to Maanzecorian's realm in Gehenna where its cooling corpse - and its entire realm - is already starting to fade into the Silvery Void. Anti-illithid groups like githyanki, githzerai, and just about everyone else (except a few races like the neogi and psurlons) might seek to prevent this from happening, or to sabotage it in some other way, tainting Maanzecorian's brain with something that Ilsensine might find disagreeable.
And maybe if Ilsensine does absorb the brain of Maanzecorian it will be changed somehow, become more open-minded and dynamic or simply melancholy, remembering anew what it was like to have a body all those eons ago. Ilsensine might send out minions to find appropriate new bodies for the brain-god to posess.
|
| The Cardinal |
Posted - 13 Nov 2003 : 06:00:13
Indeed, I have heard that Orcus has returned... Actually if I rememeber correctly, somewhere I think I read that he slew the Illithid god or something like that... |
| Arivia |
Posted - 12 Nov 2003 : 22:42:32
Orcus has been revived, but beyond that, it's in dispute. The Book of Vile Darkness says that he has returned to Naratyr, while F&P provides that Kiaransalee is still in control of the layer. The 3e Manual of the Planes says that Kiaransalee has disappeared, and leaves the question up in the air. It's your choice which way you decide to go. As for manner of resurrection, Orcus was reincarnated as a power called Tenebrous. Tenebrous bore a power called the Last Word, which he used to revitalize his wand. Tenebrous then used the wand to power a spell of resurrection cast by Quah-Nomag, the Skull King.
According to the 3e Manual of the Planes, the Negative Energy Plane has the major negative-dominant trait, which afflicts inhabitants with a negative level every round. Undead can't gain negative levels, and are in fact healed by negative energy. I'd be inclined to give undead fast healing 5 when on the plane.
A creature that has any template applied to them can still gain levels in any classes they had before, or pick up new classes, as long as the template does not disallow those classes. So, yes, the wizard can gain more wizard levels after becoming a lich.
Monsters of Faerun contains information on some liches, including alhoon and baelnorns. If you go to Wizards' D20 main page, they have information on a guide to liches. |
| Dracandos the Spellsage |
Posted - 12 Nov 2003 : 21:55:35
I dont know when but yes, Orcus is back, resurrected to former Glory by Qua Nomag, his chief priest. He even has his abyssal layer (Thanatos) back from Kiaransalee.
As for the rest, idk those either, sorry, not much help here  |
|
|
