| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 25 Dec 2012 : 17:00:17
Ok, so I had a thought while talking with my son this morning:
Santa can't live in the North Pole of our world...but does he simply emerge from a portal linking Faerun and Earth?
Where in Faerun would Santa live? Would his little "elves" simply be ingenious little gnomes? What ability scores and classes would Santa have?
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
For me, I picture him living within an ice-city with Gnomes all about making presents all year...he would have to be a wizard too; most likely an Enchanter of some sort.
Thoughts? |
| 21 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| rjfras |
Posted - 27 Dec 2012 : 03:56:32
i posted some info from Dragon 44 last night about Santa back then, but I've been having issues loading candlekeep the last 2 days or so and it ate the post as I don't see it today, so here goes again....
Some excerpts from "Nothing but the ho-ho-ho truth" from Dragon 44 (yes 44 all the way back in December 1980)
quote:
First, we have direct evidence of Claus’s race. In Clement Moore’s well-known treatise on Santa, he is identified as “a right jolly old elf.” In view of the well-documented age (from various sources) of Claus, I’m inclined to believe this to be at least partly
right. However, in view of his famed girth and jollity, I’m inclined to believe he has a bit of halfling blood in him, too. His affinity for brightly colored clothing would also suggest that he’s part halfling. We have then an elf/halfling. But what of his class?
quote:
Well, he’s obviously a religious man, as his principal appearances coincide with the winter solstice religious festival of one of the major planetary gods. His teachings tend to be secularized versions of the holy writings of that god. He’s also known in some places as “Saint Nicholas.” While he’s never been known to use the standard Clerical spells, I think we have strong evidence of Cleric as one of his classes.
We have even stronger evidence for Santa being a Magic-User of extremely high level. Besides the incredible strength of his magic, we know he’s high-level because he’s established a stronghold at the North Pole and attracted many elven (or perhaps elven/halfling) followers.
So. An elven/halfling Cleric/Magic-User. But what’s his alignment?
quote:
Obviously, it’s some form of Good. Many scholars opt for the immediate thought of Lawful Good, but I lean to Neutral Good. Consider: The regular repetition of the kindly acts he does each year precludes any sort of Chaotic, but a close description of those acts must lead to the conclusion that some of them are not Lawful. He lands on the roof of a house and enters it through the chimney. A clear case of illegal entry. He leaves multitudes of gifts that, if not carefully considered, could ruin the economy of the planet. These are obviously the deeds of someone of Neutral Good alignment, interested only in as much good as he can do, unconcerned about the
Lawfulness of it.
quote:
So far we have a very high-level Neutral Good elven/halfling Cleric/Magic-User. As yet we know nothing of his personal characteristics.
Perhaps a little speculation can shed some light on them. His Dexterity is obviously very high, else how could someone of his rotundity make it down all those narrow chimneys? I’d say 17 or 18.
His Charisma may be beyond measure. His followers are nothing short of fanatical. Indeed, which of you, if told Santa Claus needed you, wouldn’t instantly rally to his side?
To be as high-level a Magic-User as he evidently is. his Intelligence must be 18. And his Wisdom must be very high too, since he never seems to anger or to lash out at anyone. That would require a very wise person.
His Strength and Constitution are less clear. We really know nothing about his Strength. His Constitution is probably high to be able to absorb all that magic, but we have no direct evidence of this.
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| Alystra Illianniis |
Posted - 27 Dec 2012 : 01:34:39
Gee, MT- you're starting to scare me a little- and I once ran an adventure in my dwarven kingdom with a woman who ran an orphanage with a very shady side-business: turning orphaned kids into zombie-like slaves for black-market buyers- by selling "dolls" that would kill the sleeping parents of the children, thus making them orphans! |
| The Sage |
Posted - 27 Dec 2012 : 01:16:10
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
... the island of evil toys (a place in the Sea of dread in Raveloft) ...
I think there there already a Domain of Dread with a creepy little toy store that had animated-gifts crafted from the flesh of the dead and powered by the corrupted Mists. [That sounds like something I read in one of the 3e Gazetteers, or something.] |
| Markustay |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 15:10:58
Maybe if it was a warforged.
Picture tiny warforged... some of which could be evil. Sounds like a party. 
I really need to collect my thoughts on my own Santa/X-mas/Winter holiday season for the Realms. Every year I add another layer - this year it was the concept of 'Festivus' (made famous in a Seinfeld episode), but re-purposed by me to mean 'Winter Festival', which is five-week long celebration which incorporates the religious holidays of several different major religions (which is kinda what is happening RW). Its basically just a time when most temples are hosting holy-day celebrations, from the solemn and austere (Ilmater) to the near-debauched revelry (Sune). Its gets quite raucous in places like Waterdeep.
The second thing I added this year is the concept of the 'me-log' (a play on words of the Yule-log), which has been made popular by the faithful of Aumantor. You go out into the forest and find a piece of (already-felled) wood to represent all your 'past sins', and you take this home and burn it in your hearth, in effigy of you cleansing your sins from the past year from your soul. Usually families do this together, one log after another, and in very large, extended (noble) families sometimes this can last for a day or more. Very few religions in the Realms have not excepted the 'me-log'; even the evil ones have embraced it, but the 'sins' they burn-away are kind deeds. One of the more notable exceptions to this are the faithful of Istishia, who find the use of fire in any ceremony an abomination (some few groups have turned to an alternative though - finding something old and worn and scouring it clean with water).
This gets added to all the stuff I have about the wizard Zantar (sometimes called "The Claws"), the toy-making elves of the Moonwood, the awakened snow golem Crusty, 'The Bumble" (a clumsy but well-meaning Dire Yeti), the Winter Warlock (a title once held by a well-meaning sorceror who would delivered toys to Waterdeep in time for the Winter Carnival, but now usurped by the devious Zantar), Corrupted Tinker gnomes, the island of evil toys (a place in the Sea of dread in Raveloft), a mutant Moondeer (Moondeer being a deer-like variant of the Asperii) with a nose that glows when it detects evil, etc, etc....
And the insidious plot to place harmful magical devices (disguised as toys) within all the wealthy homes in Waterdeep. Maybe I'll finally write the whole thing up next Christmas.
I'll put it on my 'to-do' list.  |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 14:54:08
quote:
Originally posted by Dalor Darden
I remember those stats...but I never really agreed with them!
The druid part bothered me the most actually...
Hmm, yeah, I don't like the stats much myself. I do like him being a druid though... awakening reindeer, possibly shapechanging to go down chimneys, etc... However, in my viewpoint, he should be not JUST divine. I like him better as a mystic theurge, druid and wizard (no specialization). Also, maybe the form he takes on as Santa is one he only takes on at Christmas.... and during the rest of the year he looks completely different.... it could be a good alternate way to keep an eye on little boys and girls for his naughty and nice list. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 14:43:02
I wonder.... could deepspawn somehow be "repurposed" towards toy creation..... |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 05:47:53
quote:
Originally posted by Alystra Illianniis
Guys, TSR/WotC already did stats for Santa- twice, no less! One was featured in Dragon Magazine (back in late 2nd ed days, though I forget the issue #) and the other is archived on the WotC site. I don't have a link ATM, but they did an entire adventure module complete with his workshop, and charts for gifts for various levels and classes!
I wonder if anyone started a thread about that, years ago, and recently bumped it back up... |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 03:18:26
Why would he have to be in "control" of the fellas? They could just as willingly follow him as Thor's goats did!
Hmmmmm...makes you wonder what ol' Santa eats all year!
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| Alystra Illianniis |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 02:06:04
Why? How else would he control the reindeer? I thought it made perfect sense. Also, I finally found the issue of Dragon he was in- #267. However, that particular rendition was something of a joke, and included no real class, HP, level or most other standard stats. He was apparently a psionicist in that write-up, with several powers such as telepathy.
Big Bang Theory had one of those too? LOL, I did that last year in December as a side-trek adventure. I had the players delivering Santa's reindeer harness and magic bag back to him after it was stolen, only to discover when they arrived at his ice-palace that a frost mage had taken over and imprisoned Santa and his snow elves. They had a lot of fun dealing with all the cold-based creatures the wizard had summoned as minions. The frost linnorm was the most amusing. Once they had defeated the "Winter Wizard", they had to figure out how to get the wyrm out of the top of the tower! (It had been there since hatching....) |
| The Sage |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 02:04:50
quote:
Originally posted by Dalor Darden
Santa can't live in the North Pole of our world...but does he simply emerge from a portal linking Faerun and Earth?
Ed's already covered this, somewhat, back in December 2004 when posed with the question of "How does Elminster celebrate the Yuletide/Soltice?" --
quote:
The axial tilt, size, and rotational period of Toril are close to our Earth’s but not identical. Solstices do occur, and at such times “the Weave shines forth most brightly” in the Realms.
Which is the bardic way of saying that at such times there’s some restlessness in Mystra, due to her origins (Selune), and the Weave is therefore more active than at most other times (with surges of raw magical energy washing back and forth, sometimes ‘powering up’ cast spells to greater damage, duration, or area of effect than would normally be possible, and more often spitting off unintended wild magic side effects). Beyond such happenings, this time of year has little greater significance to Mystra and her Chosen. However, Elminster has visited our Earth often, and is familiar with Yule celebrations and the more modern commercial Christmas. (So, to a much more limited extent, are Laeral and The Simbul and Storm.)
El has little use for presents and much of the foolishness associated with the etiquette of modern organized faiths of any sort, but it pleases his nature to do at Yuletide what he’s always done as a Chosen: help folk and support their belief in magic or strength of Sense of Wonder.
In other words, he gives gifts of food, unlooked-for aid, and spell-cast warmth and shelter to those in need in the bitter winter cold, AND enjoys playing a mysterious Father Christmas figure, especially if he can do small acts of magic observed by one or two beings at a time rather than large audiences, so he can foster a belief in magic in those observers (awakening awe in adults - - and teenagers who’ve just scornfully stopped believing in Santa Claus - - of our world, in particular).
He enjoys showing up wherever I am, late on the night of Christmas Eve/wee hours of Christmas morning, and letting me see his wink and wave as he works some small magic to awe a youngster. And downs something handy from my wine cellar or liquour cabinet, too.
So saith Ed.
A night or two late for this Christmas, but the Master of the Realms keeps up with his Candlekeep answers as best he can at this frenetic (both for writing and family celebrations) time of year.
love to all,
THO
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| The Sage |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 02:02:10
For Christmas 2005, I ran a side-quest for my weekly FR campaign which featured the "new" Hogfather:- http://www.au.lspace.org/art/kidby/xmsdth.jpg
'Twas Myrkul in disguise! |
| Arcanus |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 01:54:06
This reminds me of a recent The Big Bang Theory episode. They had a xmas quest in a dungeon to save santa lol. |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 01:21:14
I remember those stats...but I never really agreed with them!
The druid part bothered me the most actually... |
| rjfras |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 00:26:07
here is the link to the Santa PDF on the wizards site: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/files/santa.pdf |
| rjfras |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 00:21:07
quote:
Originally posted by Alystra Illianniis
Guys, TSR/WotC already did stats for Santa- twice, no less! One was featured in Dragon Magazine (back in late 2nd ed days, though I forget the issue #) and the other is archived on the WotC site. I don't have a link ATM, but they did an entire adventure module complete with his workshop, and charts for gifts for various levels and classes!
Dragon 44 had an article called "Nothing but the ho-ho-ho truth" where they extrapolate the legend to come up with race, class, alignment, stats, etc...
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| vorpalanvil |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 00:17:40
A portal to Santa's realm I mean. With gnome artificers and eggnog with plenty of bourbon, and nutmeg like Malcom X got high on in prison. So sayeth Alvis!! |
| vorpalanvil |
Posted - 26 Dec 2012 : 00:15:42
Maybe that is what Nchaser found in the ice flows north of Icewind Dale. |
| Alystra Illianniis |
Posted - 25 Dec 2012 : 19:50:08
Guys, TSR/WotC already did stats for Santa- twice, no less! One was featured in Dragon Magazine (back in late 2nd ed days, though I forget the issue #) and the other is archived on the WotC site. I don't have a link ATM, but they did an entire adventure module complete with his workshop, and charts for gifts for various levels and classes! |
| Lord Bane |
Posted - 25 Dec 2012 : 18:21:20
I do not believe in a thing such as Santa, the historical figure it is based off has nothing to do with the supertition that that is representing it today.
But fine if you wish me to play along
He would be a mage, transmuter and illusionist and yes i give you the stereotypical white beard, living beyond the Spine of the World and employing arcitic dwarves who he freed from a white dragons lair (owner was away). |
| Dalor Darden |
Posted - 25 Dec 2012 : 17:24:45
quote:
Originally posted by Lord Bane
Shar would have such a "character" already killed for the sole purpose of spreading sorrow to all those who believe in said "character".
Ummm...no. Not what I was looking for. lol
However, you forget Shar is in the Forgotten Realms, and Santa isn't even known in the Forgotten Realms...he only lives there. On top of that, I'm sure other gods would prevent such a blatant action...otherwise everyone that made people happy would be dead. |
| Lord Bane |
Posted - 25 Dec 2012 : 17:13:00
Shar would have such a "character" already killed for the sole purpose of spreading sorrow to all those who believe in said "character". |
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