| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Seethyr |
Posted - 25 Mar 2021 : 00:52:54
Ok I’m randomly posting about this because I had a dream about it last night. Out of nowhere...wth?
Anyway, James Lowder’s Ring of Winter was possibly my first Realms book. I will always credit him and Douglas Niles for being my biggest inroads to the setting.
I remember a giant genie(?) named Skuld? Is that accurate, that’s what I popped up in my dream.
What was that creature? It was attached to an item I believe? Was Skuld and archomental? Why was he named after a city? |
| 12 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 19 Feb 2023 : 09:40:15
Looking back over the timeline I've gathered for mulhorand, the only thing that appears in the 1300 to 1400 years ago is the migration of beast cults from the ejen horo, the exile of bast (although that doesnt have a firm date), and two failed invasions of rashemen within 30 years of each other.
A unique punishment deserves a unique failure.
Mulhorand had just come out from under the ruler ship of the godkings, who retreated into their towers, so this would be the first human led military action by mulhorand.
If the same general failed twice that could be deemed a crime worthy of a unique punishment.
The invasions were started from the land that would be Thay so it makes sense for the losing general to be dragged to the nearest city (bezantur) and then magically punished.
It's just an idea but it kind of fits, especially if you consider that the general would have been descended from the god kings, possibly imbued with their blood, and may even have been related to the pharaoh of the time. |
| JamesLowder |
Posted - 18 Feb 2023 : 22:39:56
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison
His statue had 4 arms and the medallion depicted him with 4 arms.
Once manifested he could have 2 arms or 4, I'm guessing he could have as many arms as he wanted. They were all human arms and hands though.
Ok, then he was definitely "different" then, and not someone importing a standard monster in.
Skuld was not derived from game rules or an existing creature, as I recall. I created him for the story and he was whatever the story needed him to be. |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 27 Mar 2021 : 13:29:19
He seems unique to me, but as well as being an enslaved being he was then shut away in a prison far from mulhorand (the woods of cormyr would have seemed abandoned at that time except for a few wild elves).
It's possible he was transformed, enslaved and then rebelled or killed his masters. He certainly despised Artus for being weak and tried to disobey him or refuse to assist him.
As for his ultimate fate. He seemed able to power up by draining magic items. This caused him to grow in size and power. His size and power were diminished when he sustained damage.
At the end of the book artus turned the ring of winter on skuld and he diminished until he vanished (I think he also got stepped on or shattered), but I do not believe such a fate should be able to destroy him.
His medallion is not mentioned but i presume kaverin had it and kaverin was killed. It's easily possible it could have been picked up, sold to traders and ended up in maztica. If someone were foolish enough to cast magic directly at the medallion then why wouldn't skuld return (as a tiny four armed imp like creature), it could take him years to return to full power. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 27 Mar 2021 : 12:30:11
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison
His statue had 4 arms and the medallion depicted him with 4 arms.
Once manifested he could have 2 arms or 4, I'm guessing he could have as many arms as he wanted. They were all human arms and hands though.
Ok, then he was definitely "different" then, and not someone importing a standard monster in. |
| Seethyr |
Posted - 27 Mar 2021 : 12:30:10
Is there any indication of his whereabouts (or that of his medallion(?)) by the conclusion of the story? I might want to throw him into my campaign as a minion. My players are getting up there in level to handle Skuld sizes threats. It won’t be easy to get it to Maztica but I could give it a background with a reference point. |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 27 Mar 2021 : 09:46:05
His statue had 4 arms and the medallion depicted him with 4 arms.
Once manifested he could have 2 arms or 4, I'm guessing he could have as many arms as he wanted. They were all human arms and hands though. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 26 Mar 2021 : 23:45:12
did HE have 4 arms or only the statue? Asking because the only 4 armed genie I know of is a tasked genie, slayer.... which is created from any other tasked genie who finally goes insane from performing the same work over and over until they finally snap. Sound like him? Two of the arms would be like great cat paws. |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 26 Mar 2021 : 07:46:57
It's all my own stuff. If he is a genie then he is the only genie I've encountered in the old empires region outside of raurin.
His prison was a 2ft tall statue of a bald mulhorandi male with 4 arms.
He manifested out of a silver medallion with a forge mark from Bezantur dating back 1300-1400 years
I took the statue and his appearance as a mulan male to mean he was once human. The forgemark from Bezantur I took to mark the date of his imprisonment.
Around 1400 years ago the mulhorandi gods were still around and it's not impossible that they transformed someone into a genie like servant as punishment.
The magic used to manipulate skuld's enchantment (by the woman that kaverin has killed later) is mulhorandi in origin, so either the mulhorandi learned to bind genies and then forgot and never used it again, or it is a unique form of punishment known only to a few (the mulan gods)
Again all my own stuff. I didn't go with genies because the imaskari had genies and the mulan rejected much of imaskari culture. Also all the genies in imaskari were seemingly freed (they free roam in raurin), so the mulhorandi would have to learn how to bind them again, and since genies aren't mentioned in mulhorand that I could see I assumed they did not have that knowledge (or it is forbidden)
I was hoping to tie it to thothibistep I, who is a failed pharaoh in my eyes, but the dates are too far apart to make anything like that work |
| Seethyr |
Posted - 26 Mar 2021 : 03:50:05
It’s been so many years since I’ve read the book, but from what I remember he was pretty OP. Imo he must’ve been some type of genie lord if anything. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 26 Mar 2021 : 00:04:40
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison
Skuld was some kind of unique servitor creature from mulhorand, there are numerous references to mulhorandi magic and words regarding skuld.
I've puzzled over him for a while and I'm thinking that he Skuld was a former noble punished for a most heinous crime, his punishment involved eternal slavery (something a mulan noble would greatly despise) and his name was stricken from history and his own memory, instead he remembered only skuld as the place of his birth or punishment.
As for what his crime was, well that could only be the attempted or actual (and I would go with actual) assassination of a pharaoh or some other truly treasonous act.
I've been looking through the history and not found anything that matches up with his age so I might have to make something myself.
Just my thoughts
How much of that was homebrew (I'm thinking everything except that he WAS a "being" from Mulhorand... and perhaps not even that). I'm only asking because if he WAS a genie and from the Mulhorand area, maybe the gods themselves made him serve them as a tasked genie (like an architect genie)
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Architect_genie
Maybe the city was named after its architect, who was tasked to make it by the gods. Maybe it was known as the "city of eternity" because it was so well constructed by the tasked genie (its noted that they do make constructions that are inordinately well built... and maybe this genie was a particularly adept at being an architect genie by being blessed by a number of deities). |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 25 Mar 2021 : 07:03:16
Skuld was some kind of unique servitor creature from mulhorand, there are numerous references to mulhorandi magic and words regarding skuld.
I've puzzled over him for a while and I'm thinking that he Skuld was a former noble punished for a most heinous crime, his punishment involved eternal slavery (something a mulan noble would greatly despise) and his name was stricken from history and his own memory, instead he remembered only skuld as the place of his birth or punishment.
As for what his crime was, well that could only be the attempted or actual (and I would go with actual) assassination of a pharaoh or some other truly treasonous act.
I've been looking through the history and not found anything that matches up with his age so I might have to make something myself.
Just my thoughts |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 25 Mar 2021 : 03:11:22
The city could have been named after him.
It's more likely, though, that the naming is either a coincidence, or that both the genie-ish dude and the city were named after some prior Skuld. The name Skuld comes from Norse mythology (though I myself was more familiar with it from an anime that lifts that name and some others for its goddess characters). |
