Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
Lex knew that his remaining life could be measured in seconds.
His vision was already dimming, and everything had gone strangely silent. He could vaguely hear Xiriel’s chorus of voices – with one less vocalization than before – saying something, but the words were unintelligible. At the edge of his vision, he could see the ring of fangs that surrounded the monster’s lower maw tearing into his abdomen, but he couldn’t feel the punctures or scratches. His right foreleg remained pinned to the ground by the belier’s tongue, unable to touch the thing’s body and discharge the unknown spell gathered at his hoof. Despite the creature’s impressive spell resistance, it quite clearly had no intention of letting Lex even attempt to use another spell on it.
It was that determination on the devil’s part that brought a smile to Lex’s face, despite knowing that he was about to die. The thought that he’d be able to confound the thing’s efforts once again brought a spiteful satisfaction to his fading consciousness. He held onto that, pushing everything else out of his mind as he focused on his loathing for Xiriel, and utilized his last remaining tactic.
Although Lex had been unable to formulate an effective plan to combat the belier, he had put the brief lull that Nosey had bought him earlier to fullest effect. In the few moments between when she had managed to distract the thing – giving him just enough space to turn back into shadow-form and drop down into the ground – and when it had begun to torture her in response, he had managed to cast a single spell. It had been little more than an act of desperation on his part; an attempt to lay down groundwork for a tactic that he hadn’t fully formulated, let alone expected to create any worthwhile results at the time…but which was his only hope now.
The single spell that Lex had used had been to conjure a spectral hoof.
He’d used that spell before, during his fight with Lirtkra and his companions, to touch a wall on the other side of the building they’d been fighting in and unleash another spell that had opened up a large hole, allowing a horde of ghouls to come pouring in. That was the point of the spectral hoof spell: it temporarily shaved off a piece of his own life force and used it to create a ghostly, disembodied limb that could deliver touch-range spells at a distance, allowing for greater tactical maneuverability during a fight. Before, it had been instrumental in surprising his enemies, even if flooding them with ghouls hadn’t worked. In this case, he had cast it as little more than an attempt to expand his rapidly-dwindling array of strategic options…and now, it was the sole remaining action he could take.
…I got you…
“I…g-got…you…” Lex couldn’t tell whether the thought came from the tulpa or was his own, could barely remember what was happening, but he somehow managed to force the words out. As he did, he mentally commanded the spectral hoof to rise up from the ground. Normally, it would automatically return to his side if it ever left his sight, so Lex had been devoting a small part of his focus to keeping it under the ground, not wanting the devil to notice it. Now, he let it float into view, and felt the magic transfer from his fore-hoof to the spectral one as it rushed toward the belier…and pressed against it.
An instant later, the spell discharged successfully, punching through Xiriel’s spell resistance as though it wasn’t even there.
But Lex was no longer capable of comprehending what was going on, his head falling back as he let out one last wheezing breath, everything turning black as his awareness finally faded away…and then came rushing back. Shocked, he almost choked as a sudden rush of air filled his lungs, gasping as he was suddenly able to breathe clearly again. Confused, he looked down at his chest, trying to figure out what was happening, but the next moment his confusion turned into complete and total shock at what he saw.
His wounds were moving.
The sight in front of him made no sense whatsoever. The hole that had been punched through his chest was rippling and shimmering as though he were viewing it underwater. Around it, his body was completely solid, and he couldn’t feel any sort of sensation coming from the injury itself…in fact, he belatedly realized, he couldn’t feel the injury at all anymore, his breath continuing to come easily. It was like someone was pointing an image of that injury from a film projector onto his chest, rather than an actual wound he’d sustained. But as surprising as that was, it was nothing compared to what happened next, as the hole in his chest removed itself from his body entirely – leaving his upper chest completely unblemished – and flew across the few feet separating him from Xiriel, attaching itself to the belier devil’s emaciated body.
Instantly, Xiriel let out a cry of pain, and Lex saw black ichor spurting from the new hole on the creature’s body. The wound no longer shimmered, looking like an ordinary injury that the creature had sustained, and it took Lex a moment to realize what had happened: that spell had transferred the damage he’d taken to Xiriel!
Nor did it stop there. A moment later Lex felt the throbbing pain in his left foreleg vanish as the broken bone was suddenly whole again, a corresponding scream ringing out of the monster that was engulfing him. Then the puncture marks on his abdomen were gone, and Lex felt the devil’s throat spasm around him as it took the damage that it had dealt to him moments ago. Then the same thing happened with the deep gouges it had left on his legs. Even the residual soreness where it had squeezed him by the neck was gone. A second later Lex couldn’t feel any pain whatsoever, and he scrambled backwards, pulling himself out of the creature’s maw as the full scope of what had just happened settled over him.
He knew this spell. He’d learned it back on Everglow, as part of his attempts to learn how healing magic worked. It was designed to heal the caster by forcibly transferring the damage they’d taken to someone else…whether or not the recipient was willing. Despite the potential battle tactics that it offered, Lex had ultimately decided that the spell offended his sensibilities; the parasitic nature of making someone else bear his hurts in order to refresh himself ran directly counter to his desire to endure hardship for the sake of others. He had subsequently not bothered to prepare it, and hadn’t given it a thought since. So why had that it activated now, when-
…when he’d repeated the words from his shadow.
Suddenly, he knew what had happened, and the realization was enough to rock him back on his hooves. He hadn’t prepared that spell, but his tulpa – that rebellious fragment of his own mind that the Night Mare had stricken him with, and which materialized in his shadow – had! It all made sense. His thaumaturgical spellcasting was based around gathering and structuring energy within his thoughts, but not all of his thoughts were under his conscious control; the Night Mare’s curse had caused a portion of them to achieve limited independence. Although the resulting tulpa had never once indicated that it was concerned with anything but reflecting his own fears and doubts back at him, there was no reason that it couldn’t hold a small number of spells on its own, at least in theory. But with no independent body, his shadow wouldn’t be able to encode the requisite thought-matrices to require gestures, and even the verbal components would require him to be the one to speak them out loud, since the tulpa couldn’t truly speak on its own. It had effectively fed him that spell!
No, it did more than that, he realized. It increased the efficacy of the other spells I cast too. Forcing his magic past impeding energies, such as the belier’s spell resistance, was a matter of focusing his concentration so as to keep the spell’s structure firm enough to pierce the intervening barrier, rather than shattering against it. Most of his magic had failed against Xiriel’s overwhelming magical prowess, but – notwithstanding when Nosey had given him the creature’s own magical gemstones, at least one of which had doubtlessly been increasing his powers – the only spells that had affected it had been the ones he’d cast immediately after his shadow had spoken to him. It was aligning its thoughts with mine. He felt sure of it. His shadow had, for whatever reason, been working with him instead of against him, letting him bring the full might of his unfragmented mind to bear…and that had been enough to overcome Xiriel’s resistance!
All of those thoughts ran through Lex’s mind in seconds, filling his head even as he put more distance between himself and the thrashing devil. He knew that it was just a theory, that there were still unanswered questions – chief among which was why his tulpa had suddenly become so helpful – but one thing was exceedingly clear. The Night Mare’s curse had saved him.
“DAMN YOU!” screamed Xiriel, its voices filled with rage and pain. It thrashed violently under the transferred wounds, its body whipping back and forth so hard that its remaining heads slammed back into the ground. “DAMN YOU, LEX LEGIS! YOU WILL WATCH EVERyone you care about…suffer and die…” Its threat lost its intensity halfway through, and Xiriel’s thrashing suddenly slowed. It continued to wriggle, but couldn’t seem to lift its equine heads up and over its toothed maw, making its struggling look like that of a worm writhing in the dirt. The sight was enough to make Lex’s heart leap with hope. Had that finally been enough to kill the thing?
A shudder ran through the belier, its body undulating before going still. “yOu tHInK tHIs MEaNs yOU’vE wON?” screeched its lower end. “yOu’VE aCcoMPliShEd nOtHInG eXCePt eArNInG yOUrSelF A fRoNT-rOw sEaT tO wHaT’S aBoUt tO hApPEn.”
The right head turned to look at him. “The ghouls will soon come pouring out of Vanhoover. Hundreds of them. Thousands. They will swarm all over your pathetic little camp and devour everyone there.”
The central head spoke next. “There’s no defensible position. No place to run. Your little ponies will die screaming, torn apart by their former friends and neighbors. And you get to watch it all.”
Lex snarled wordlessly, having no intention of letting the creature continue speaking. Xiriel had proven itself to be incredibly deceptive and phenomenally dangerous; it needed to be exterminated with all possible haste. Lex raised a hoof sharply, intended to chant a spell that would pummel it with concussive force, but the motion made the world sway dangerously, and he had to take a moment to steady himself. Belatedly, he realized that the wound-transference spell hadn’t restored the blood that he’d lost, nor the fatigue that he’d accumulated during the course of the battle.
Heedless of Lex’s distress, Xiriel kept speaking, its voices emerging in unison again. “I know that you’ll stand in front of them, trying to save them. My only regret is that I won’t get to watch…you…fail…” The belier’s words suddenly faltered, and the last of its movements halted, going completely still.
“You’re wrong,” replied Lex coldly, still trying to center himself. “I’ll find a way to destroy the ghouls, just like I did the sahuagin, and the kraken,” his eyes narrowed then, more certain that Xiriel was finally dying, “and you.”
The belier’s voices rose in a shuddering laugh. “Such pride. One day…it will…surely…lead…you to…Hell…”
The last word was barely out of its mouths when the creature suddenly burst into flames. Lex fell back, startled as fire suddenly raged over Xiriel’s body, engulfing it completely. For a moment he worried that this was more of the creature’s magic, but as the seconds passed and nothing happened, he slowly felt his tension start to ebb. Nevertheless, he kept a spell on his lips as he watched the belier immolate.
It was almost a minute later when the flames died down, snuffing out as instantaneously as they’d begun. In their wake, there was nothing but a black scorch mark on the ground, its shape roughly analogous to Xiriel’s body. For a moment, Lex stared at the spot, then glanced around, using his circlet to check for more magical auras, making sure to confirm that it was active and functional before he swept the area. It was only when he found nothing, other than the creature's remaining magic items, in every direction that he let out a breath, almost collapsing with relief.
The devil was dead.
Lex stands victorious as Xiriel perishes!
But are the creature's final words a prediction of doom? Or will a crisis be averted yet again?
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Lex now has a Tulpa Familiar, with associated capabilities?
In this scene, its the Boss first, then the Mob swarm, instead of the usual way with the Kraken?
We'll have to find out more about the Tulpa. Looks like he used Vampiric Touch, though if he did, that means Lex is going to be in trouble again soon.
Well, that should keep it down...for a hundred years or so. Unfortunately killing demons and devils is usually only permanent if done on their home plane. Hope Lex knows this, so he can be ready for Xiriel's possible return in the future...assuming he lives that long.
In any case, this chapter certainly makes some interesting...and concerning, revelations about Lex's shadow self. Unfortunately, it also doesn't answer the question of what happened to Severence. Though if Nosey's still alive, she might know, having had a traumatizing front row seat to everything Xiriel did wile possessing her...
So Lex has essentially been fighting all this time with a handicap? Wonder what other spells the tulpa might have in its arsenal that Lex might have refused to learn back in the Everglow. Using such spells against ponies and other innocent creatures may be abhorrent to him but with its application against Xiriel, Lex might find use for them against otherworldly beings with ill-intent towards Equestria.
Xiriel's final words prior to his demise(or did he return to the Outer Planes like Spiritus Arcane said?) would have left a bigger impact if Lex hadn't already given his soul to Night Mare in his bargain with her. Then again, has there ever been a case of gods abandoning their followers and subsequently relinquish their souls? Also, I vaguely recall Lex thinking of seeking a way to gain immortality or at least eternal youth to counter that situation.
Regardless, Lex may have survived his encounter with Xiriel but he's not out of the woods yet nor is Nosey. Hopefully Lex can muster enough strength and magic to get both of them back to camp before Xiriel's threats come true. Though I wonder how well Xiriel's machinations will hold now that he's gone. Especially what he did to Cloudbank and the others...
I am 98% sure at this point, that if lex DID end up in hell. That he would kill every last demon there.
8768229
For a LE deity I don't think that's a dumb idea, LE deities usually reward service (on their terms), with the expectation that that this reward makes the mortal an even more valuable tool, while also acting as a visible example incentivizing others. Fzoul stuck with Bane and was richly rewarded for it. I suspect if Walinda had succeeded she would have been made a high priestess (and if Bane cared so much about genitals, he might have just transformed her into a man).
Ah, I missed that, I thought they got lumped in with the Atheists. NVM.
Excluding worshippers of other gods, sure. In Golarion I don't think it's ever been stated that Hell gets magical power out of souls, it seems from stuff about Azmodeous it looks like Hell is run that way for purely ideological reasons, which in turn means the Infernal Hierarchy has more leeway to grant dispensations for the faithful to skip being Lemures.
While were at it, isn't odd that LE followers of Abadar get to chill in Axis, while a LN follower of Azzy gets worked over in Hell?
I disagree that is sounds cool in theory, I think it's a lame concept. Powerful outsiders should come from powerful mortals, or lesser mortals/outsiders that worked their way up.
Oh yeah, I hate that. For some reason paizo has had this consistent goal of getting rid of the idea that being say, being an aasimar means your great-grandparent was an angel, in favor of your mom getting knocked up on top of an altar. Same thing with sorcerer bloodlines.
Hehe, that red dragon with a bunch of half-dragon, half-sheep kids would be out of a hoard in no time!
Sorry, I used the wrong terminology. That's true in FR, I was referring to be a Divine Herald in Golarion. Most deities have not only a Divine Herald, but a few other divine servitors, about half of whom were mortal worshippers of the god. Heck Cayden Cailian made his dog one.
8767051
That's actually a very good guess!
Heh, also a very insightful statement! Indeed, it does seem to be that way. With Tlerekithres, it was a "fight your way through the minions to get to the boss"-style thing. Here, Xiriel is treating the ghouls as being akin to a natural disaster, in the old "you've won the battle, but lost the war" manner. Hopefully, it's either bluffing, wrong, or Lex will somehow find a way to pull a rabbit out of his proverbial hat (again).
8767102 Well, we already got a quite a few hints about it so far, but yeah, as of right now it's true abilities remain unknown.
But here's a hint, the spell that it gave to Lex – the one that simultaneously saved his life and slew his enemy – was an arcane spell variant of hostile empathic transfer. And no, I want to highlight that this was not psionic; it was an arcane spell version thereof.
8768577 Ah man, I don't know 3rd Party content! Interesting though. I look forward to learning more about this Tulpa. And also the true fate of the party.
8767418 You've brought up a perpetual sticky wicket with regards to demons and devils in D&D/d20-based systems. Simply put, the rules about when they are or are not permanently dead have varied throughout the editions, sometimes wildly. From what I recall offhand (and please, someone correct me if I make a mistake here):
Original D&D: Demons are introduced in Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry (picture has side-nudity of a woman chained to an altar). The rules say that, when killed, they respawn after one hundred years, with no other context given. (Devils aren't introduced yet.)
Basic D&D: Demons are initially presented as low-level Immortals in the Set 5: Immortals boxed set, with all the attendant rules about killing Immortals permanently. This is later changed in the Wrath of the Immortals boxed set, where "fiends" (what they're calling demons now, due to the Satanic Panic) are "Exalted" creatures (i.e. between mortal and Immortal), who are simply dead when killed, regardless of how or where. (Devils, again, simply don't exist.)
AD&D First Edition: Although the Monster Manual says that demon princes have amulets and (apparently all) devils have talismans, neither makes any provisions about them surviving being killed. The Manual of the Planes does give gods the ability to survive dying outside of their home planes – and gives certain planar lords the ability to act as gods in their home planes – but, insofar as I'm aware, doesn't seem to say that ordinary demons and devils need to be killed on their home planes in order to stay dead.
AD&D Second Edition: The Monstrous Manual says nothing about tanar'ri (i.e. demons) and baatezu (i.e. devils) needing to be killed on their home planes to stay dead. However, Planescape's Faces of Evil: The Fiends quietly adds this back in, saying that only demons and devils of a certain level of power reconstitute on their home planes if they die elsewhere (lesser demons and devils simply die), needing to be killed on their home planes in order to die permanently.
D&D Third Edition: This follows the pattern laid down in the previous edition, where the Monster Manual is silent on the issue of evil Outsiders surviving dying, while the Fiendish Codices reintroduce those concepts, typically requiring a certain power-level for demons and devils who die off-plane to reform back in their native realms.
Pathfinder: For the life of me, I can't seem to find anything saying that this rule holds true in Pathfinder. I checked the compiled Book of the Damned, and came up empty. I suppose it might be in Demons Revisited, but from what I can tell it doesn't seem to be. In that case, Pathfinder really does seem to adopt the standard that Outsiders die permanently no matter where they're killed.
Having said all of that...this chapter does indeed raise quite a few new questions about the rebellious fragment of Lex's mind, but so far they seem to be hopeful indicators. The Night Mare said it could be controlled, so maybe this is a step toward that? Similarly, Nosey should know what happened to Severance, since it's not likely that it was destroyed. Hopefully...
8767617 Lex's greatest weapon is his mind. That's not just because of his incredible intellect, but also because it's how he utilizes his strongest style of magic. But the tantabus curse that the Night Mare laid on him gave a portion of his mind a form of quasi-independence, meaning that it can act on its own, defying his conscious control of it. Given that, it makes sense that Lex would be stronger if that rogue portion of his mentality was working to help him rather than hinder him, the way it has been up until now.
Insofar as the afterlife destination of divine worshipers goes...you're asking the right question, here. The thing to remember is that the idea of "those who worship a god go to that god's realm after they die" is predicated on both the mortal and the god wanting that. In other words, the relationship is a mutual one, and if either member doesn't want it to happen, then it won't. Much like how you can invite someone to your house, but if they don't want to show up then they won't, or if they show up unannounced you don't have to let them in, it requires both parties – god and mortal – to allow for a mortal's soul to go to that god's afterlife.
Most mortals, for what it's worth, don't worship one god exclusively to begin with. They typically offer intermittent prayers to a deity who controls a particular area when performing a related task (e.g. "Oh great Blaze, goddess of war, please let me survive this battle!") in hope that deity will reward their momentary piety with momentary favor, but don't bother to practice any greater devotion. Those mortals go to whatever plane best reflects their ethos at the end of their lives, and so don't go to the realm of a particular god.
Some mortals do maintain faith in a particular deity, however. While only a portion of them have the desire to take that to the point of pious worship (and the ability to receive divinely-granted spells and abilities in exchange), those mortals have essentially invited themselves to that god's realm after they die, and there's usually no reason for their deity not to accept them, since they strengthen the god in question (and it would look terrible if word got out that they weren't rewarding their devout followers after death). But even so, the god doesn't have to take them in; if they find that the mortal's faith was insincere, or that they committed actions that the deity won't condone, then they can toss that soul out or otherwise punish them as they see fit. It's their divine realm, after all, and the souls who go there are now subject to that deity's rule alone. Other deities interfering would be akin to another nation interfering with how a sovereign government treats one of its own citizens.
Likewise, a god can't just snatch up a mortal soul who doesn't worship them. They have the ability to do so, certainly, but this poses serious political risks among the pantheon, especially if that god is the faithful of another deity. Taking a soul that should go to another god is essentially depriving that god of something that's theirs, and typically has serious consequences, since all of the other gods are aware that if the action goes unpunished, the one who's so deprived next time might very well be them. Given that souls are a source of power for deities, that's not something that they'll easily overlook, to the point where such kidnapping can risk a divine war. (Which isn't to say that such things don't happen; they do, but are typically performed by non-divine entities that also prey on souls, by third-party intermediaries that unscrupulous gods use so as to maintain plausible deniability, or – in rare circumstances – have mortals perform ritual sacrifices that send the mortal so sacrificed to the realm of a particular god regardless of who they worshiped in life.)
Even poaching souls that would otherwise go to a particular plane, because they didn't worship a deity exclusively, is forbidden. That would start a huge rush to snatch up those otherwise-"unclaimed" souls, and that would invite retaliation from the planar denizens that also put those souls to use for their nourishment, entertainment, or even replenishing their ranks (since mortal souls are also where new demons, angels, etc. come from). Although those denizens aren't typically as powerful as gods (though the greatest among them can be), they're far more numerous, and any god that starts doing that can expect a massive upswing in planar incursions targeting their worshipers in the mortal realm. Who'd want to join (or stay in) a church that's suddenly being firebombed by demons out of nowhere? Given that such souls aren't devout anyway, it's more difficult for gods to draw strength from them, so I suspect that most don't see the reward as being worth the effort and risk involved.
What's important to remember is that most of this is concerned with souls rather than lives. Where living mortals are concerned, the rules are slightly different, mostly in that gods don't go around simply slaying mortals devoted to enemy deities because that would invite a backlash that would eventually escalate into a war...but there's technically no prohibition against killing (or otherwise hounding, harassing, etc.) mortals that haven't devoted themselves to a particular god. Most don't bother simply because, well, how often have you decided to go out and stomp on some ants just for the fun of it? But if they decide they want to, no other deity has any particular standing to step in and object.
Lex learned this the hard way near the end of The Apple Falls Far From the Tree, when Kara tricked them into entering her realm and he realized that he couldn't do anything about it...fortunately, he had a relationship with a god of his own (one that was so tenuous that Kara overlooked it, fortunately for Lex), and that was what saved him. That drove home the fact that, since those gods were going to make it to Equestria (that was what Kara wanted, after all), he was going to need divine sponsorship in order to protect himself from something like that happening again. That, along with needing a power-up, was what led him to cut his deal with the Night Mare. Fortunately for him, he made it sweet enough that she was willing to agree to his terms.
Now he just has to fulfill them, because if he dies before further propagating the Night Mare's faith, I suspect that he'll find her quite angry at him when he goes to her realm...
8767732 He wouldn't go quietly, that's for certain.
8768419
I'm far less certain of that than you are, simply because that banelich (who had a fragment of Bane himself, as you'll recall) flat-out told Walinda to GTFO because she was a woman when it looked like Bane was about to be resurrected. I agree that it makes sense to expect service to be rewarded, but if you belong to a class that's already been declared undesirable, then that god's accepting you into their service would be seen as implicitly overturning what they'd said previously – decanonizing at least part of their orthodoxy, and essentially admitting that they were wrong – and a god like Bane would never do that. Fzoul didn't have that problem since he was a man, but while Walinda might have received some reward, I doubt she'd have suddenly rocketed to the top of the clergy. More likely, she would have remained a favored lapdog (i.e. slave) and nothing more.
Honestly, I was surprised that Pharasma lets atheists off as easily as she does. But then, she seems to be remarkably laid-back in most cases.
Yeah, but I chalk that up to Paizo's continued refusal to delve any deeper into how things work for/among the gods, which means that if you look too closely at things holes start to appear. It's possible that these have been dealt with in products that I'm not aware of, though. I really need to pick up a copy of The Redemption Engine novel one of these days.
Honestly, I just like the idea of having neutral followers of evil gods be better people than evil followers of neutral gods. That's how I like my ironies.
So you're down on the whole "demon lord bangs the succubus queen, who then gives birth to a new horror" trope? Because there was a monster like that near the end of the Savage Tide Adventure Path for 3.5.
Do they? They still have the half-fiendish and half-celestial templates; I thought they kept the idea that planetouched races were at least two generations removed from their planar ancestor, if not more. But the idea that sorcerer bloodlines can be acquired by environmental effects or some other non-hereditary factor has been overplayed. While some could be acquired that way (e.g. Arcane, Destined, etc.), the majority should (to my mind) be issues of miscegenation, since the d20 System already allows for a LOT of cross-breeding.
Ah, Morginstaler. He was quite the cad (pg. 11-14), wasn't he? Now I have a hilarious image in my head of him looking for love purely so that he can legally acquire his mate's hoard and use it to pay off his outstanding child-support dues.
Oh, well if that's what we're looking at, pretty much all deities have those. The profiles on the gods of Greyhawk that Sean K. Reynolds wrote in Dragon magazine towards the end of its run had several of those, as I recall. But even then, there's not that many; I still think a wish is the way to go.
8768621
The irony here is that the power in question didn't used to be third-party, back when the game was 3.5 instead of Pathfinder. As for the rest, well...stay tuned!
8769892
Right, but it doesn't seem like Bane was actually conscious in that book, that was just the opinion of the Banelitch, who in classic evil fashion doesn't want to share credit.
I don't recall Bane himself ever putting "No Girls Allowed" on a stone tablet, though I think in general LE gods like indulging the arbitrary prejudices of their senior clergy as a manifestation of the power they wield in a hierarchy. That said, his wiki says "Bane then went about reforming his church hierarchy, forcibly eliminating its tendencies towards in-fighting, which he previously had encouraged in order to separate the weak from the strong but which he now realized to be self-defeating" that sounds like the dude was willing to overthrow his own previous orthodoxy, and likely eliminated the stuff against women in the process. Heck, he was probably impressed by all that great work Scyulla Darkhope did. Maybe Walinda could have been Bane's champion first if she'd just leaned in?
It does seem to carry over from FR the idea that the gods care more about whether or not you acknowledge their existence than anything else.
I wouldn't recommend it, that book gets really bizarre in places. I dropped it after reading about halfway through.
Then you should play a Paladin with This Trait. Heck, it seems like something that one of the Nightmare's followers could use in your story.
All the flavor text I've seen in the last couple of years emphasizes the idea that almost no one really has a magical ancestor. There was a lengthy intro to a recent player companion mocking the idea of characters trying to connect their ancestry to dragons or angels, only to be disappointed.
Agree 100%.
Gold digger takes on a different meaning with dragons.
Probably depends on the type of character. If you're an arcane specialist, squeezing a wish out of an efreeti at like level 11 is more doable. If you're a cleric, or just a non-spellcaster, really getting in good with a specific god seems to work better, by like 9th-10th level that seems to be where a god values your service enough that, after you die you can get pulled in by summoners who know the really obscure expanded planar calling spells.
8754053
maybe, but a belier devil is an completly new knid of threat altogether compared to what equestria have seen.
I imagine that lex would at some point inform the princesses (at least twillight, who he have higher estime for than the rest) of what has been going on (he did wanted to do just that). After thet elemental rifts problem and twillight experience with everglow, they should get the hint and prepare for extraplanar threats.
For now the element of harmony would be a nasty surprise for wannabe evil outsider hell(ha!)bent on conquest
Plus we only have seen evil gods start spreading their influence, when will the good ones act ? Lashtada and luminance are in good position to do so
i did not have / take time to read the last few chapters till to day and boy am i glade.
this was a super good battle i love it.
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Well, I was under the opinion that, since it had received a portion of Bane's divine essence, it could be presumed that it was a fairly accurate reflection of Bane's will (and religion, since I thought that baneliches tended to be ultra-orthodox in their disposition). That said, that was my presumption, so I might have been off, there.
So I went back and read through some AD&D First and Second Edition sources, and you might be right. I can't seem to find anything about sex-based discrimination among Bane's faithful, and there's circumstantial evidence against such a prohibition as well (in that some clergy titles in Faiths & Avatars have male and female forms). That's kind of unfortunate, since it somewhat somewhat de-legitimizes the canonity of (the ending of) Finder's Bane – and, by extension, part of the setup for Tymora's Luck – though I suppose you could reconcile it by chalking this up to the banelich's being somewhat insane/untrustworthy and Walinda not actually knowing much about Bane's historical religion.
That said, it's worth noting that Bane's reorganization of his church following his resurrection isn't his overturning any religious orthodoxy per se. Rather, that's an organizational reform (it even says that he reformed the "church hierarchy" rather than its tenets); from what I can tell, none of his religious dogma has altered, and he's simply telling everyone to stop fighting amongst themselves and to start focusing their attention outward instead of jockeying for position. It's his encouraging a new way to reach his original goal.
And Scyllua Darkhope might not be the best example for what women can achieve in Bane's service, since "Fzoul Chembryl publicly blames Scyllua Darkhope for all the failures in the Cormanthor War and proclaims that the 'Bitch in the Trees' shall never again be resurrected," after she was killed at the end of Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land. (That quote is from the 1375 DR, Hammer 17 entry in The Grand History of the Realms.)
Well, I think it more accurately reflects the default D&D paradigm of "to a god if you worshiped one, to a matching plane if not," since Pharasma doesn't otherwise punish you for not worshiping a god; only active denialists get a markedly different fate (which might include being fed to Groetus).
Huh, that's too bad. I got five chapters into Dave Gross's Prince of Wolves and couldn't read any further; after that I just never gave Pathfinder novels a chance. It's a shame to hear that they're apparently not any better further in (though the fact that official D&D novels are apparently about to be resurrected in some capacity gives me hope).
Doggone it! They just had to go and resurrect that particular chestnut, didn't they?!
Really? I'm honestly surprised, and I can't imagine what led them to make that sort of decision. Of course, Pathfinder has made several decisions I don't personally agree with over the years, but I honestly can't see the point of this, since it seems to fly in the face of a lot of the underlying assumptions that the rules seem to operate under. Why have half-celestial and half-fiendish templates if you don't want to let that level of heritable traits continue to trickle down? Are we supposed to think that half-planar beings are all mules?
Of course, we know the end of result of unrestricted race-mixing in Pathfinder.
Hah! That really should be a tagline for something, even if I'm not sure what.
I'm inclined to agree, though I find it frustrating how Pathfinder downplays the underlying assumptions regarding divine workings to the point where such a determination is little more than pure guesswork. It's another part of the limitations of "ground-up" level design that place more of an emphasis on the mortal aspects of a religion than on the divine. By treating gods much in the same way as adventurers – as individuals who effectively have a couple of hangers-on rounding out their "party" – rather than as the centers of huge organizations, they effectively fence off the game from ever letting the PCs get to that level in the first place. Or at least, they hand the hard work of fleshing that out to the GM, offering no assistance.
8771753 You raise some very good points here. For all that Lex thinks ill of the princesses, he's aware that his disagreements with them are political in nature; while he thinks that they're very misguided, he knows that they do want what's best for Equestria and its people (hence why he tried to contact them before when he saw just how bad off Vanhoover was). As such, it's likely that he'll inform them what happened. They won't be taken completely by surprise, of course – all of Equestria suffered when the elemental bleeds started – but this will likely take them aback at just how bad it was.
As for the Elements of Harmony...well, at this point in time they've been returned to the Tree of Harmony and aren't available (and at least one of the Mane Six is on Everglow at the moment anyway), but that sidesteps the real issue: figuring out just what sort of powers the Elements have under the d20 rules. My best guess is over here. I wrote that almost four years ago, and I wonder if it would be worth looking at again to see it it could be tweaked now.
As for the good gods...that's a bit awkward. As written, the gods can't simply appear in Equestria and start taking action. They need to be brought there by a mortal presence, and even then need to have an established body of worshipers in order to really take action in the world. Hence Kara's scheming near the end of The Apple Falls Far From the Tree. Since this story is focused around Lex, who already has a goddess, that sort of disallows for the story to easily spotlight on good deities, though to be fair we have seen a glimpse of what Luminace is doing over in Book and Stars, which is in the same continuity as Lateral Movement.
Of course, there are other good powers of the planes besides deities...
8771967 Thanks! As a writer, comments like this are much appreciated!
So... the Night Mare planned this all along. She knew, and gave Lex the tools necessary to win, but he had to use those tools himself.
9217608 Oh, you have no idea...
(I like to spread things out over the long, long term. There are still plot threads that I've laid down which haven't reached fruition yet.)