| Author |
 Topic  |
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12176 Posts |
 Posted - 11 Sep 2025 : 13:13:55
|
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I'd go for option A, myself. All we know about male Rilaunyr is that he was a paladin with a warship. We don't have levels or stats or know which deity he worshipped.
I don't see it being unlikely that a child would follow in his footsteps, and she could have spent a considerable amount of time as an adventurer before succeeding her father.
And actually, though NPCs generally don't level up quickly, we all know that in-game, a PC can easily go from just starting off to 13th level in just a handful of years, if that long.
I think A is the simplest solution. Sure, you can go for a magical sex change or something, but I think that's a needless complication.
Exactly, everyone has their preferred method, and a key to this is to look at the region, fit it to that... and don't overuse that method.
For instance, some of the more outlandish methods for the above that I didn't mention
Willing body swap. Rilaunyr lay dying and someone who respected, loved, or simply NEEDED him to protect others willingly gave up their body for him.
Reincarnation into a new body.
Unwilling body swap. Rilaunyr was facing some evil foe. They had built an IMPENETRABLE defense against him.... until he pulled the body swap trick that put him behind the defenses.
I could probably come up with a half dozen more. Some people will prefer the simplest method. Some the more outlandish. But either way, if it gets overused, it becomes dull. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
 |
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12176 Posts |
Posted - 11 Sep 2025 : 13:17:28
|
quote:
Originally posted by Azar
sleyvas, you need to understand that sometimes creators simply make mistakes (i.e., they plain forget or reference the wrong material); other times, creators make changes based on their then-present milieu (or, in certain instances, corporate pressure). Not all discrepancies can be attributed to careful, artistic and objective thought isolated from prevailing sensibilities. Here is another shocker: creators sometimes lie when asked "Why?".
You can tucker yourself out arranging documents, photographs and strings on the corkboard if you wish, but, at the end of the day, there is always the possibility an official outcome you have elected to examine is the result of an unpalatable, unsatisfying or unremarkable origin.
Wow... you assume that I don't understand that. Sorry, the sound you just heard was me controlling my laughter. The FUN for some of us is in playing with such. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12176 Posts |
Posted - 11 Sep 2025 : 13:26:07
|
quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison
From such mistakes come the opportunity for more and sometimes better lore.
You would be surprised how much realmslore has been created because a previous designer made a mistake and the likes of Eric or George use that for inspiration to create something even more wonderful and nuanced.
Yes it is sometimes a headache, but in the end it is usually worth it.
And Gary and I don't always agree, but in this statement, we do. Everyone has their own tastes. Perhaps some of the fun of running a campaign in the realms is building on some of these ideas. You may in a later campaign throw away the idea entirely. For instance, one realms campaign I ran and my players loved. I had the players START during the preceding years leading into the bloodstone wars and up through the time of troubles. They were always on the outskirts of what Gareth and his company were doing, rarely interacting with them, but hearing news of them. Then the schtick I went with was that during the time of troubles, when all "gods" were kicked out of the heavens..... so were any demon/devil lords that could grant divine spells. So, yes, ORCUS was an avatar beneath Damara (he inhabited a duergar body), and my players ended up having to slay him in his mortal avatar form. My twist on this was that this was whenh Gareth and company were invading Orcus' realm in the outer planes, and they found his wand unattended. My players were even aided by drow worshipping Kiaransalee.
Now, would I do this again or consider this canon now? Nope, but it was fun for the time. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4239 Posts |
Posted - 11 Sep 2025 : 20:44:01
|
| Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity... |
The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
|
|
|
Athreeren
Learned Scribe
179 Posts |
Posted - 11 Sep 2025 : 21:46:54
|
| To return to the topic, do priests of Ao get condemned as faithless? |
|
|
|
Azar
Master of Realmslore
1401 Posts |
Posted - 11 Sep 2025 : 21:49:09
|
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
quote:
Originally posted by Azar
sleyvas, you need to understand that sometimes creators simply make mistakes (i.e., they plain forget or reference the wrong material); other times, creators make changes based on their then-present milieu (or, in certain instances, corporate pressure). Not all discrepancies can be attributed to careful, artistic and objective thought isolated from prevailing sensibilities. Here is another shocker: creators sometimes lie when asked "Why?".
You can tucker yourself out arranging documents, photographs and strings on the corkboard if you wish, but, at the end of the day, there is always the possibility an official outcome you have elected to examine is the result of an unpalatable, unsatisfying or unremarkable origin.
Wow... you assume that I don't understand that. Sorry, the sound you just heard was me controlling my laughter. The FUN for some of us is in playing with such.
Then, by all means...continue with the tuckering; do not expect every result to be "canon". |
Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.
Earth names in the Realms are more common than you may think. |
|
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12176 Posts |
Posted - 12 Sep 2025 : 01:32:40
|
quote:
Originally posted by Azar
quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
quote:
Originally posted by Azar
sleyvas, you need to understand that sometimes creators simply make mistakes (i.e., they plain forget or reference the wrong material); other times, creators make changes based on their then-present milieu (or, in certain instances, corporate pressure). Not all discrepancies can be attributed to careful, artistic and objective thought isolated from prevailing sensibilities. Here is another shocker: creators sometimes lie when asked "Why?".
You can tucker yourself out arranging documents, photographs and strings on the corkboard if you wish, but, at the end of the day, there is always the possibility an official outcome you have elected to examine is the result of an unpalatable, unsatisfying or unremarkable origin.
Wow... you assume that I don't understand that. Sorry, the sound you just heard was me controlling my laughter. The FUN for some of us is in playing with such.
Then, by all means...continue with the tuckering; do not expect every result to be "canon".
We don't. As people that don't WORK for WotC, we know that at any time anything we write or develop can disappear at any time. Still, sometimes something we write gets adopted. Sometimes it gets adopted with a twist or a reference. Sometimes it gets adapted to something else (i.e. the idea is stolen and reused). This is why so often I note that I offer up my ideas freely for others to use, develop, etc...
In a similar vein, I look at other people's works here ... and I'll take Gary Dallison as an example .... he, like me, floats a lot of ideas. Not all of them are good (again, much like me), but sometimes he hits upon something that I find I REALLY REALLY like. Sometimes he reads my ideas and he gives me a twist that I hadn't foreseen. I can say that for a lot of people here the fun of being here is to help them develop their own ideas further, because sometimes you NEED a sounding board to give your stuff a twist (I adore putting twists on AJA's NPC's, and Seethyr's works on Anchorome, Maztica, and Lopango I feel have all been made the better by our passing ideas). |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6439 Posts |
|
|
Demzer
Senior Scribe
890 Posts |
Posted - 12 Sep 2025 : 08:34:08
|
quote:
Originally posted by Athreeren
To return to the topic, do priests of Ao get condemned as faithless?
Interesting question. From what I remember, nobody was giving them spells so they could hardly be called priests like the "real" ones. In the columns detailing the Cult of Ao I don't think it was specified if they actually rejected the notion of the existence of other gods of if they simply decided to venerate the Overgod above everyone else (which will not make them different from the priests of any other deity).
What is interesting is that the reigning God of the Dead would be hard pressed to judge as Faithless people that profess to have faith in its boss so the question remains of where do these folk end up after dying. I don't think it is something that has been explored ever. Ao seems mostly disinterested in the fate of mortals so I don't picture the Overgod having its own Plane with its one petitioners so what do they do? Reincarnation? Astral/Ethereal wandering? Some kind of undeath? Transformation in outsiders (some flavour of inevitables, perhaps)? |
|
|
|
Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6439 Posts |
|
|
sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
12176 Posts |
Posted - 12 Sep 2025 : 12:52:47
|
quote:
Originally posted by Demzer
quote:
Originally posted by Athreeren
To return to the topic, do priests of Ao get condemned as faithless?
Interesting question. From what I remember, nobody was giving them spells so they could hardly be called priests like the "real" ones. In the columns detailing the Cult of Ao I don't think it was specified if they actually rejected the notion of the existence of other gods of if they simply decided to venerate the Overgod above everyone else (which will not make them different from the priests of any other deity).
What is interesting is that the reigning God of the Dead would be hard pressed to judge as Faithless people that profess to have faith in its boss so the question remains of where do these folk end up after dying. I don't think it is something that has been explored ever. Ao seems mostly disinterested in the fate of mortals so I don't picture the Overgod having its own Plane with its one petitioners so what do they do? Reincarnation? Astral/Ethereal wandering? Some kind of undeath? Transformation in outsiders (some flavour of inevitables, perhaps)?
Yes, it is a good question. I wouldn't have it that they be treated as faithless by Kelemvor (or any other god of the dead), and partly I'd think that might be because they'd be afraid to offend their boss. However, we also must consider the fact that MOST people don't adhere to ONLY one god, because its a polytheistic culture.
So, how about this? They appear before Kelemvor, who judges them to be free spirits who shall be confined to his realm, but they may use some form of magical scrying pool, etc... to contact the servitors of other gods on a periodic basis and request that they be transported to another afterlife? However, like a prison, they have limited time/resources to do this, so they must make this "worth the effort" to the servitors of other gods and convince them that they can live in harmony with said realm. Meanwhile, perhaps they must live on the outskirts of his city, outside of his protections, and their souls are open prey for beings such as demons, devils, night hags, primordial spirit eaters like Kezef, Chupoclops,Dendar, etc... |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
|
|
GUESSING Reason for the wall of the faithless
