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Baltas
Senior Scribe
Poland
955 Posts |
 Posted - 23 Aug 2014 : 12:42:35
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So is the Dark Lady a powerfull human sorceress, who played a goddess and/or ascended into one, or is she the real mythological Tiamat? Or was the sorceress mortal with who(the mythological)Tiamat fused with, to create the manifestaion?
Also, it's minor fact, but aside from Apsu, and Tiamat, there was a third primordial being in Enuma Elish, called Mummu. While his name literaly translates as "the one who has awoken", in context it should be tranlsated as detransformation, the return to chaos, demanifacturing, or simply just ....Entropy. Almost certainly a pure coincidence, but an interesting thing... |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
Posted - 25 Aug 2014 : 19:39:22
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Well the answer can be whatever you wish it to be.
The Dark Lady is now the Tiamat of D&D mythology (the five headed monster) after Tiamat took the Dark Lady's worshippers and started answering their prayers and consumed the remaining divine essence of the Dark Lady. The Dark Lady now only exists as an avatar of the Dragon Queen herself (except for the Rings of Tiamat and Tiamat's children).
If you are talking about Real World mythology then I'm afraid I don't delve into that area, but you could have Tiamat the Dark Lady be the real world Tiamat (who then gets killed and eaten by the FR Tiamat).
It could be that the Dark Lady, after arriving on Toril stole some of Tiamat's (The Dragon Queens) power for herself (hence the three headed form) and Tiamat spent the next few millennia trying to get it back. I left as much of the history blank as I could so that people can still spin it however they want.
My personal preference is the more normal story. Tiamat the Dark Lady was a very powerful (bordering godhood) sorceress from another planet that travelled with the mulan avatars to Toril. Once on Toril she became fascinated with the most powerful creatures she encountered there (dragons).
After centuries of experiments she managed to infuse herself with the essence of dragons in the area (red, blue, green) and was able to take on draconic form as she desired. She birthed a number of dragons herself and even created a new dragon type (brown). The astute will notice this explains in my version why the dragons in the Old Empires region pay respects to (dragons don't really worship anyone anymore) Tiamat the Dark Lady and not Tiamat the Dragon Queen.
Her power and arrival with the other mulan gods meant the mulan of Imaskar believed she was a god and worshipped her as one (which of course meant she became a god). However the Imaskari Planar Barrier prevented the "gods" from leaving the Material Plane which meant they were as powerful as gods but could be killed.
When the barrier dropped, Tiamat the Dark Lady moved her essence to the outer planes like everyone else.
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Baltas
Senior Scribe
Poland
955 Posts |
Posted - 08 Sep 2014 : 14:11:13
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Also, now rereading issue 4, after reading 5, reminded me some stuff, I wanted to write before, but I forgot. The stuff you did with Chessenta/Akanul/Akanu/Unther, and deities reminded of stuff that I did in my campaign. Although I made that on Toril, Enlil never did arrive, only his Babylonian Twin Ellil, who was LN, to justify the fact that the gods of Unther were supposed to always be harsh, which did not match 100% the NG Enlil to well(I was inspired by ripvanwormer's take on the Babylonian and Sumerian Pantheons, in this thread: http://mimir.planewalker.com/forum/mesopotamian-pantheon).
I had that Ellil sacrificed his father Anu, right after defeating the Imaskari(Anu and Ptah were ancient Raurini deities, in my campaign). Ellil was in turn tricked into leaving the Realms by Gilgeam, creating a Ouranos-Cronus-Zeus like situation.
It's also inspired by Hittite and Hurrian mythology, were Anu was dethroned by his son Kumarbi(who was often, although not always, identified with Enlil), who in turn was dethroned by his own son Teshub.
Researchers theorize that it is this myth that inspired Hesiod#8217;s Theogony.
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Baltas
Senior Scribe
Poland
955 Posts |
Posted - 10 Sep 2014 : 15:33:42
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Actually, your version of Unther's Invasion is done very well. I would use Shupprak and Ningal more, but that's a matter of personal taste. And you did have a significant involvement of Nanna-Sin and his legion in here, so it balances a bit out. Although I thought that Nanna-Sin was actually an aspect of Selune for a longer time, possibly even since the Orc Gate Wars, as Nanna-Sin was described somewhere as a goddess. Although one could say that Selune only used the Untheri god#8217;s guise, to not have the fellow moon god forgotten, and gave the worshippers back when he awoke. There also was no involvement from Bahamut in his Marduk guise, but I guess it would be for the best, as the Tiamat/Bahamut conflict would be deterial for Unther, and would need a lot of place to properly describe.
I loved the Stuff you did with Gilgeam and Ereshkigal, is the aspect imprisoned in the spelljammer is Gilgeam's goodness?
Ereshkigal as a Lamia queen reminds me her presentation in Pathfinder as a Sphinx Demon Lord(spelled there Areshkagal), but I guess that's a coincidence.
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Baltas
Senior Scribe
Poland
955 Posts |
Posted - 17 Sep 2014 : 10:20:28
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| Hmm, I would rather preffer if keept the old isuess, and add the deluxe version. Interesting stuff about your own D20 rules, too. |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
Posted - 17 Sep 2014 : 10:48:58
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So thats one vote for deluxe version.
I like to keep busy and i have been gradually house ruling the native 3.5/pathfinder rules over the past 5 years until it got to the point that it was a separate system in its own right. Now i am just writing the rules up in an official nature and working through a few conundrums that had bothered me in the past.
Its hopefully quicker than normal D20 (the number of dice rolls required should be roughly halved), i have never had a combat go beyond 6 rounds so far, and thats including against cave trolls and a horde of 50 gibberlings without any area effect spells.
I'm currently writing out the combat rules and codifying the class options (the term class is much broader now since each class has almost a hundred abilities to choose from at each level. The biggest change is to bards which now have to memorise spells instead of them being innate like a sorcerer.
Its mostly about freedom to customise. You can have a bard or ranger or paladin with 20 levels of spellcasting ability (so they can cast 9th level spells) but he will not be able to do much else and he will never be as good at spellcasting as a wizard, cleric or druid, but he can do it if he wants (also there are only 3 spell lists - wizard, cleric, druid)
The fighter can specialise in any number of weapons and armour, give himself huge amounts of hit points and become nigh invulnerable to fortitude effects, but he cant master them all, he must choose.
The paladin has given me the most grief and i have merged it with a knight into a warrior of the code. They are any lawful alignment and must follow a strict code of behaviour (although that code can vary) and they have access to a variety of defensive abilities, armour specialisation, inspirational abilities, and divine abilities, if they want. That way a character can choose to be a regular knight in shining armour that inspires people, is a tank and a demon on horseback with a lance. Or you can create a paladin with his channel energy ability, healing auras, and smite abilities. Or even a blackguard that is an evil mirror of the paladin. The choice is yours.
Im working from a much shorter list of classes which i doubt i will ever increase: fighter, ranger, bard, druid, knight (of the code), wizard, sorcerer, cleric, barbarian, rogue.
Bards are wizard/rogue hybrids.
Knights are fighter/cleric hybrids.
Rangers are fighter/druid hybrids.
Of course thats just a simplistic representation, you can create characters with much greater variation than the base classes in pathfinder or 3.5 and hopefully there should be no need to multiclass now just to get hold of an ability you desire (it will probably already be available to your class as an option) and if not you can use a feat to get a basic version of the core abilities anyway.
Not sure how i will get the rules out there. Probably just make them available for free in pdf format like the Alternate Dimensions magazines.
Anyway, back to Alternate Dimensions. Brotherhood of the Griffon will be in Issue 6 available from 1360 onwards. |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Baltas
Senior Scribe
Poland
955 Posts |
Posted - 11 Nov 2014 : 17:30:42
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Don't worry, a bit a absense is a normal thing. I also didn't post to much, as I had first quite a bit work to do, and latter played the Drakensang videogames, and a free The Dark Eye/Das Schwarze Auge ruleset, that came with them.
I thinkyou might want to takee a look at the TDE/DSA rules with your project, as they give more freedom with customising. There is also a lot of lore, but sadly, 70% of it is in German.
Also, very interesting you will do your take on Zaltec. And Zaltec and Tezca, seem to be the god Tezcatlipoca/Smocking mirror split into two Powers(I don't mean necersarily literaly). Also, a colaboration between you, and Sethyr, would be awesome :). |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
Posted - 11 Nov 2014 : 20:01:22
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Nice to have what could be my only reader back and commenting.
I will have a look at the rules although im pretty much done with the theory now, I'm just implementing it in fine detail. I want to keep it very much 3.5 but remove the complexity and scaling problems. I'm also trying to work into the system a properly working summoning system, dispelling system, illusion system, and other things so that they are part of the rules and don't feel bolted on. Mostly this revolves around making skills more useful and part of the system so that characters can do many things without magic, its just that magic makes it easier.
I'll also check out the god you mentioned. I'm trying to Faerunise the Maztica stuff, make it less fantastical and more realistic. I've already got aearee and sarrukh in the prehistory, and tried to come up with an explanation for how an entirely separate race of humans arose on a continent that in theory only came into existence 30000 years ago. Most of the stuff is done with Seethyr, although sometimes I just had to do my own alternate take on things.
The idea is that you could take the organisations, the timeline, the god write-ups, plug them into Seethyr's campaign guide and with almost no work they are ready to go. Or if you don't fancy including the spellplague then they work in other timelines as well.
I'm also debating whether to include a writeup for the Masked Lady and Lolth. I originally wanted to include them as part of a drow themed issue but I don't know when I'd get the time to do it.
And im glad to have someone to discuss things with again so thanks for popping by. |
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Baltas
Senior Scribe
Poland
955 Posts |
Posted - 12 Nov 2014 : 15:49:42
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Don't worry, you certainly more constant readers, just not all of them have ideas, or courage to comment.
Also, pretty much all of the Maztican powers are based on Aztec ones, although sometimes split, mixed up, and merged. Kukul is basicaly Ometecuhtli/Tonacatecuhtli, with a name closer to Mayan version/name of the Feathered Serpent, Kukulcan. Maztica(the goddess) is based on Tonacacihuatl/Omecihuatl, with a bit of Coatlicue(I think). Qotal is Quetzalcoatl(The Feathered Serpent), although as I wrote above, his father, Kukul, also has elements of this deity. Quetzalcoatl/Kukulcan is also sometimes conected to the Inca god Viracocha.
About connecting Maztica more, Some of the Imaskari names, are Quechua in origin, people of whom the Inca's were a group of. Although that may tie Imaskari more with Lopango.
About Lolth and the Masked Lady, it would be great to get them in issue 7, but do as it suits you better.
[Edit]
Also, definitely check out The Dark Eye if you can. It's a great system, that offers a lot of customisation. I think it may inspire some of the finishing touches for your d20 system, if you read the rules. Or just check it out for fun. I got the basic rules(in digital version), along the two Drakensang games and expansion for only 20 zloty/PLN(about 4 pounds), it was a great deal . Although I checked, that this kind of release may be in Poland only. |
Edited by - Baltas on 12 Nov 2014 16:15:15 |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Alaundo
Head Moderator
United Kingdom
5695 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 28 Dec 2014 : 19:43:54
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Congratulations dazzlerdal!
I wish I was as prolific a writer as you are. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Jeremy Grenemyer
Great Reader
USA
2717 Posts |
Posted - 28 Dec 2014 : 20:34:47
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quote:
Originally posted by dazzlerdal
And at some point I will be picking your brain for ideas on Cormyr if you don't mind.
Happy to be of help. |
Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver). |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6361 Posts |
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Forgotten Realms: Alternate Dimensions
