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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
enderlord99
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It could be the same thing, since "falling" in the relevant sense doesn't actually indicate direction.
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Doesn't sound likely. If the great Evil imprisoned in Belierin is a Fallen, that implies that it is a fallen celestial or at least not a fiend. Also I have never heard the term "fallen" used for moving to good; it was always "risen" or "ascended". (Logically we also shouldn't call moving to Law or Chaos "falling". What do think of "righted" slaads and "lefted" modrones?) :smalltongue:
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
Modrons seem to go by "Rogue". Righted Slaad might actually fit, as that does imply something being put right.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
Eldan
Modrons seem to go by "Rogue". Righted Slaad might actually fit, as that does imply something being put right.
See, if Modrons go Rogue, Slaads really out to go Sheriff.
Ooh, ooh. 'Legalized Slaad.'
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
Eldan
Modrons seem to go by "Rogue". Righted Slaad might actually fit, as that does imply something being put right.
Rogue Modrons aren't necessarily chaotic or even something else as lawful neutral, they just aren't part of the hierarchy anymore. What I want is something applicable for every non-chaotic exemplar that moves in direction of Chaos, so for example a "lefted" bateezu and a "righted" eladrin.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
Hm. Well, I've seen Fall for that one too, like the archons who fall to Chaotic Good and become Azuras.
Unbound? Liberated? Randomized?
And I could still see Rogue Devil and Rogue Archon.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
Eldan
Hm. Well, I've seen Fall for that one too, like the archons who fall to Chaotic Good and become Azuras.
Unbound? Liberated? Randomized?
And I could still see Rogue Devil and Rogue Archon.
I've seen it too; I just want to establish a better alternative. I mean, do you call both a LE tana'ri and a CE batezu 'fallen'? That would imply that it's uphill in both directions.:smalltongue:
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
Very broad question here: what are the major differences between Limbo and the Far Realm?
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
Limbo is an endless possibility of what could be, or what has been, or what will be. The far realm is what cannot be, what shall not be, and what never was.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
Limbo is constant change, but it is change according to the natural laws of the Great Wheel. It has the usual elements (fire, earth, water, air), it has the usual planar connections (Ysgard, Pandemonium, Astral, all that stuff), it has the usual space, time, and ordering. The Far Realm is not that. It might be lots of things--it's hard to tell, because whatever it is, we can't comprehend it--but definitely none of that.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
For Dretch with class levels, there are two quasi-references, both from Return of the Eight.
Tenser's last clone is transformed into a dretch. It has Tenser's hit points and mind, but no wizard abilities.
Tuerny the Merciless appears as a nalfeshnee with 17th level wizard casting abilities. His background describes him as having been taken to the Abyss and turned into a dretch that retained its spellcasting ability and memories, which he used to ascend the ranks in the Blood War and become a nalfeshnee over time.
So "people with class levels turned into dretches" rather than "dretches gaining class levels".
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
Tzardok
To be honest, there isn't much D&D-related I wouldn't believe you to be capable of. If anybody could do it, it would be you.
The question was more "why the blazes would you want that?"
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For the sake of completeness: psionics and warlock/dragonfire adept invocations work normally in Ravenloft?
Nothing works normally in Ravenloft. Ravenloft wants to beat you up for even asking that.
• Psionics misbehaves the least out of the unusual forms of magic brought to Ravenloft; that's not at all to say that it is safe. (Also, for the record, never ever use danger sense while in Ravenloft.) The power of the mind is capable of leaking out and spawning undesired phenomena, as well as responding to strong emotions in hostile and dangerous ways. The usual cautions about fiddling with things far beyond one's ken apply, but psions must also have a care not to tread on the traditional powers of the Vistani, for their seers are adept at matters of the mind in their own way, and some things in Ravenloft just "belong" to the Vistani and none other. Psionic ability is most common among the giomorgo and giamorga; oddly, this particular talent is not more endemic to full-blooded Vistani. Manifesting is associated with frightening paraphenomena which have little if any tangible impact but are otherworldly and put others on edge. The Vistani word for psionic ability is manash; practitioners are manade and manile.
• Fatakkar are nearly as feared as dukkar among the Vistani, and with good reason - warlocks have opened themselves to the influence and service of terrible entities, whether deliberately or not, with inescapable results in the long term. The powers of zanjir arise from trucking with forces that destabilize the Land itself, and the results have consequences. Darklords can very rapidly locate a practicing warlock in their domains and feel their presence like an itch or pressure. Many other entities of darkness can perceive warlocks at long range. Warlocks gain extra invocations while in Ravenloft, but using invocations very often provokes Ravenloft to exacerbate the intended use to negative or fearsome effect; to amplify or subdue manifestations of power; and to subtly encourage misuse and abuse of a warlock's powers. More powerful warlocks create wrinkles in reality and can engage in rituals to bind the Land's power into them, gaining mighty new abilities but risking surrender to the Demiplane of Dread itself. Vistani caravans will almost always move to avoid an approaching warlock.
• Actual dragons are well beyond rare in the Demiplane of Dread, and practitioners of carcol equally so. In realms where the dragon is a symbol of the temporal power, personal wickedness, or devastating strength of fearsome individuals rather than a depiction of a specific and familiar monster, people seeking to channel the powers of this storybook creature have little to be inspired by and few options to contact the essence of dragonkind. The carcolo is an adept whose powers are little more than showman's tricks, but by 5th level an adept is considered a sarknee and has a poor destiny ahead - for the essence of dragonkind is a thin and wasted thing in the Land, and like stretching meal with sawdust, the Dark Powers have seen fit to supplement the meager traces of draconic magic in Ravenloft with whatever is similar and available. A sarknee becomes more and more physically monstrous as she is overtaken by the hungers of dragonkind, likely leading to spiritual monstrosity as well with the dark deeds required to satiate the dragon within. Dragon shamans tap into less of this power directly and their descent is markedly slower, though no less certain.
• The magic of wu xing is known in some parts of Ravenloft, but is poorly understood by the Vistani (sometimes considered wizardry, sometimes videshi). The native elements of Ravenloft are not those of the Inner Planes, and the wu jen may find their rites and practices contaminated accordingly, adding new and more necromantic spells to their gamut. Talismans used by wu jen in the Demiplane of Dread may include scrolls and slips marked with blood; grave earth and bone; wood from trees at the edges of the Mists; ashes and charcoals from funeral pyres; and mercury or metal tokens smelted from pillaged burial sites. The spirits of Ravenloft may impose demands for taboos on a wu jen of the sort that would cause many to become squeamish; such talismans are a semi-reliable substitute for darker acts sought by the native spirits.
• The Vistani are pretty confident that sha'ir are just wizards with odd familiars. They're correct... in a way. A sha'ir's gen will not thrive in Ravenloft, and the Demiplane of Dread will provide a replacement of rather less than charismatic character, neutral evil and inclined to cruelty. The bava is more akin to an elemental grue than a gen, but untalkative and capable of turning invisible at will. It cannot fetch magic from beyond the borders of Ravenloft, and the magics it does collect will be of darker nature more often than not. The bava lurks invisibly near its ostensible master much of the time, rarely coming visible except to imitate a lifeless statue or fetish. It will take actions undirected that it feels are warranted to contribute to its side of the sha'ir pact, such as plotting pranks or violence against those who it feels have slighted the sha'ir; stealing things that might hinder the sha'ir's will to act; and finding ways to goad people into a course of action that it finds pleasing. Vistani do not allow bavi around them if they can help it and will use their powers to drive off the creatures.
• The atmabash is respected by the Vistani for her skill in carefully handling the spirits of the Land, which may include negotiation, admonishment, or magical rebuke. A spirit shaman can be a powerful ally in the Demiplane of Dread, but must always be wary of drawing too much attention from the spirits, who will grow curious, restless, and hostile given sufficient time. Not unlike the Vistani themselves, a spirit shaman may need to roam continuously in order to avoid serious consequences. Spirit shaman magic tends to be reliable when used to deal with spirits, but directed at mortals for reasons benign or malign will allow the spirits of the Land to exploit such a conduit, forcing the shaman to tread lightly lest the magic get out of hand and a spirit take advantage of the opportunity to do harm.
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And how would invocations interact with Athasian defiling?
Given that a warlock's power originates from an otherworldly source, invocations would not natively interact with defiling in any particular way. That being said, it's extremely likely that warlocks struggle to draw as much power as they would like given the contamination of the Gray and would either have to accept some degree of Gray-tainting to their power if they want to keep pumping it out at full blast (with repercussions not just for the nature of their powers but eventually for themselves) or else take some feat that lets them crack into the local life-force for added juice, resulting in something like defiling.
Gonna make me keep doing this or can you solve these on your own now?
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Originally Posted by
Quietus
I know I've read something about a lost library (Xaxox?) somewhere in the Far Realms, where elven mages had tried to learn the realm's secrets and were twisted - I think that was where the Kaorti came from, if I'm not mistaken.
The kaorti were originally Imaskari, not elves, a group of human wizards from Toril who learned the lore of the elves' Vast Gate (though evidently not how much of a huge mistake it was) and tried a similar experiment.
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Are there any known details about this library, or how one would get there?
Xaxox is a shockingly well-preserved structure that does not seem to have been related to either the original forays of the elves or the Imaskari, but rather of some third crossing. The master of the expedition, an elven wizard named Daruth Winterwood, is still alive in some state there, and deeply and perfidiously insane. He possesses some capacity to open temporary and small rifts between the Far Realm and the Prime, though these appear to open to random places rather than to some consistent point in the manner of the Vast Gate. If one had magical means to predict the emergence of one of Winterwood's portals and the tools necessary to stabilize it from this side (possibly drawing on lore from the elder elves), one could create a portal that would allow entry to Xaxox. This would be a poor choice; Winterwood and the others who have "survived" are not in a recoverable state, and Winterwood's specific flavor of spiderbrain madness drives him to leak Far Realm energies into the Material Plane.
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Are there any other known locations or features of the Far Realms that might be interesting to present?
"Locations" and "features" aren't a very Far Realm thing. The most consistently described of such is the Amoebic Sea, but that's so ubiquitous that it's like telling someone traveling to Earth that the parts with a sky are a thing to go visit. Theoretically, some vestige of the Quinspire (the arcane structure the Imaskari used to travel to the Far Realm) may still remain somewhere in the plane; if it does, it would almost certainly be a hub for the kaorti as they exist in their native realm.
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Particular allies or enemies to be made, if one can somehow withstand the influence of the Far Realms themselves?
I'm concerned that the thrust of your questions suggests a misunderstanding of what the Far Realm is. Traveling to the Far Realm isn't like traveling to Hell, or Weird Hell, or Weird Lovecraftian Hell. Traveling to the Far Realm is like fully immersing yourself in soup, except the soup is made of acid and insanity. You can't walk on soup, you can't talk in soup, you can't see in soup, you can swim in it but your destination is either "different section of soup" or "other thing floating in soup," and also the soup is still cooking at full boil so you will die and the other things floating in it are also already dead or insane. It's not a "place." It's quite specifically an "unplace."
There are no allies to be made in the Far Realm. There aren't even really enemies to be made. The native entities of the plane will likely harm you simply because you exist and are proximate to them. They most definitely do not want to communicate with you, even if they were cognizant of a method for doing so. What makes the kaorti at all interesting as enemies is that their history leaves them a vestigial awareness of the Great Wheel cosmology as a place that exists, with their behavior here related to being here. I would recommend checking out Lords of Madness to see what kinds of allies might be available on the Material Plane to help repulse the kaorti, but in terms of the Far Realm... no.
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Originally Posted by
FearlessGnome
Who are some deities who offer a particularly gruesome afterlife for their worshipers? I would have asked which is the 'worst' afterlife available to large groups of people, but the number 1 spot would of course be subjective.
Two horrible ones would be Nerull, who freezes the vast majority of his worshipers into the walls of his palace, and Urdlen, whose worshipers are mired in an endless black cavern of loose soil and every so often their god tunnels through and devours the unlucky.
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Originally Posted by
Tzardok
Oh, regarding that a question just came to me: Do you think that happened after or during the War of Law and Chaos?
It would have to have been before or during, as the baatezu fell before the end of it.
[SPOILER=Follow up question]And it invites the question: what happened to the First Risen Fiend?[/QUOTE]
Dead. The celestials wanted to study and hopefully reverse theirs. The fiends have no such patience for failures.
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Originally Posted by
Thurbane
Very broad question here: what are the major differences between Limbo and the Far Realm?
Limbo is a sea of elemental possibilities which can be shaped by the mind - if you're conscious and have an imagination, Limbo is what you want it to be. Some of it, anyway. It is a plane attuned to Chaos, home to creatures of true chaos and those who want to live an existence free from any external definition. Limbo isn't particularly maddening, you just need to be ready for it.
The Far Realm is not a place, it's not aligned, and it's only "elemental" in the sense that it's so replete with layers and layers of strange maddening phenomena piled on each other like thin sheets of paper that the easiest way to rapidly summarize the experience is to give it any elemental or energy trait it needs at any given time - often more than one, or even all of them simultaneously. Actual elemental qualities do not belong to it. The Far Realm is outside of time, outside of space, outside of reality, and definitely outside of sanity. It is home to entities that should not be, and defined in any encounter by the reality-based perceptions of the observer contaminating it. The Far Realm erodes the sanity.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
FearlessGnome
Who are some deities who offer a particularly gruesome afterlife for their worshipers? I would have asked which is the 'worst' afterlife available to large groups of people, but the number 1 spot would of course be subjective.
Not exactly gruesome, but there's always Shiva. The afterlife his worshippers get is "they don't."
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
Now I want to link ravenloft and the far realm somehow and shake it to see what happens.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
Efrate
Now I want to link ravenloft and the far realm somehow and shake it to see what happens.
The Dark Powers are considerably more active in monitoring magical chicanery in Ravenloft than gods of a particular world are, and considering what Vecna did, there is no way they would allow the necessary materials or methods to even exist within the Demiplane.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
afroakuma
The Dark Powers are considerably more active in monitoring magical chicanery in Ravenloft than gods of a particular world are, and considering what Vecna did, there is no way they would allow the necessary materials or methods to even exist within the Demiplane.
So the mists are a firewall, which needed a patch after the Vecna hack, and includes protection against far-realm coded malware...
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
afroakuma
The question was more "why the blazes would you want that?"
It was just a joke based on a perceived double meaning of your phrasing. I am known to do those, you know. :smallwink:
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• The Vistani are pretty confident that sha'ir are just wizards with odd familiars. They're correct... in a way. A sha'ir's gen will not thrive in Ravenloft, and the Demiplane of Dread will provide a replacement of rather less than charismatic character, neutral evil and inclined to cruelty. The bava is more akin to an elemental grue than a gen, but untalkative and capable of turning invisible at will. It cannot fetch magic from beyond the borders of Ravenloft, and the magics it does collect will be of darker nature more often than not. The bava lurks invisibly near its ostensible master much of the time, rarely coming visible except to imitate a lifeless statue or fetish. It will take actions undirected that it feels are warranted to contribute to its side of the sha'ir pact, such as plotting pranks or violence against those who it feels have slighted the sha'ir; stealing things that might hinder the sha'ir's will to act; and finding ways to goad people into a course of action that it finds pleasing. Vistani do not allow bavi around them if they can help it and will use their powers to drive off the creatures.
Thank you for reminding me of those. I completely forget the sha'ir were a thing.
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Gonna make me keep doing this or can you solve these on your own now?
No, I'm perfectly happy. You've again proven your title as deity of completeness and comprehensiveness. :smallsmile:
Can you recommend a primer on the language of the Vistani?
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
enderlord99
Not exactly gruesome, but there's always Shiva. The afterlife his worshippers get is "they don't."
Really? Now I wonder why not more Dustmen worship Shiva.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
Oh, and Eldan? I hereby declare that in the future I will use the terms "codified" and "unbound" for exemplars moving their alignment in direction of Law / Chaos.
Edit: After rereading the third thread I have come to the head-canon that Otiax is the vestigial form of the Vast Gate. Is there anything that contradicts that?
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
Eldan
Really?
Probably. His divine realm is a black hole on the negative-energy plane that nobody has ever returned from.
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Now I wonder why not more Dustmen worship Shiva.
Dunno. Maybe many do?
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
Tzardok
Can you recommend a primer on the language of the Vistani?
The patterna is not the sort of language one can reasonably be primed on; it's an elaborate, living, mutating creole that absorbs and spits out other nearby languages as needs allow. Specific words unique to the patterna convey ideas that are not easily translated; most of the rest of the vocabulary is borrowed from Common and other tongues. A smattering of the canonical terms is below, to give a sense.
Spoiler: Vistani terms
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Doroq
Part of the Vistani evening rituals, a recitation of myths and stories around the campfire.
Dukkar
An abominable concept to the Vistani, a male Seer, prophesized to be the doom of the Vistani people.
Dya-yahg
The call to break camp.
Endari-vitir
Goodbye/farewell.
Fulltide
The three days of the full moon.
Giogoto
An outsider considered a friend of the band.
Giorgio
A non-Vistana.
Karash
Banishment from the tribe.
Kir-yahg
The call to set up camp.
Koorah
A cry of agreement, lit. "utterly true."
Lunadi
Said to agree to undertake a task or conclude a deal.
Mortu
No longer Vistani, whether by one's own volition or by losing the privileges of a Vistana to static burn.
Prastonata
Part of the traditional Vistani evening ritual, a dance around the campfire.
Raunie
The female leader of a caravan.
Schalach-ti
Abhorred banishment, banishment with severe prejudice, irrevocable.
Tasque
Any of the three known "nations" of Vistani; the Kaldresh, Boem, and Manusa.
Vardo
The traditional round-topped wagon of the Vistani.
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Originally Posted by
Tzardok
After rereading the third thread I have come to the head-canon that Otiax is the vestigial form of the Vast Gate. Is there anything that contradicts that?
I mean there's not anything that says "Oh by the way Otiax is definitely not that," buuuut the Vast Gate does still exist, so that would kind of suggest otherwise. It also bears no resemblance to anything that Otiax's manifestation suggests.
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Originally Posted by
enderlord99
Probably. His divine realm is a black hole on the negative-energy plane that nobody has ever returned from.Dunno. Maybe many do?
No reason his worshipers can't still join him within the Vortex; outsiders simply cannot enter.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
afroakuma
I mean there's not anything that says "Oh by the way Otiax is definitely not that," buuuut the Vast Gate does still exist, so that would kind of suggest otherwise. It also bears no resemblance to anything that Otiax's manifestation suggests.
Huh, I thought it was closed on this side and only continues to persist on the other side because of the Far Realm's... non-existent relationship with time.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
I mean, a door doesn't stop existing if you close it up and brick it over. It's still there, underneath
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
A hole in the wall on the other hand does.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
Where was the far realm during the law chaos war, or even earlier? with the draeden wars. Was it always "outside" or did it form at some point and time from primal chaos or something else.
Also what is the origin of the obyriths? I know the term protodemons but that seems like a misnomer considering they do not seem to be native of the primal chaos which spawned the abyss.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
Efrate
Where was the far realm during the law chaos war, or even earlier? with the draeden wars. Was it always "outside" or did it form at some point and time from primal chaos or something else.
The Far Realm is outside of time and space; it never existed, but has been "around", so to speak, forever. Back in the beginning, when the Draeden went to sleep and the planes started forming, a Far Realms entity named Piscaethces the Blood Queen crashed into our reality and created the aboleths through that. She's still around, having settled in Baator. It is possible that other things crossed over at that time (I once read a fanon timeline that claimed Tharizdun appeared then, while Afro's tale on the origin of mortal races has Urdlen cross over). Afterwards the Far Realms didn't have any effect on reality at all until those idiot elves opened the Vast Gate and created a connection.
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Also what is the origin of the obyriths? I know the term protodemons but that seems like a misnomer considering they do not seem to be native of the primal chaos which spawned the abyss.
No, that isn't a misnomer. The obyriths are the original embodiments of Chaotic Evil, the first demons, the earliest children of the Abyss back when it was shaking and trembling with the afterpains of its own birth.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
afroakuma
No reason his worshipers can't still join him within the Vortex; outsiders simply cannot enter.
It's not that they can't enter; it's that they probably stop existing once they do. There are several reasons I have this technically-a-headcanon, some (but not all) of which are classified as a Forbidden Topic on this forum.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
enderlord99
It's not that they can't enter; it's that they probably stop existing once they do. There are several reasons I have this technically-a-headcanon, some (but not all) of which are classified as a Forbidden Topic on this forum.
That sounds like it goes into religious studies; can you send it to me via PM?
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
Tzardok
That sounds like it goes into religious studies
A bit, yes.
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can you send it to me via PM?
No, because the Forum Rules still apply there. I can, however, send it to you via email.
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
enderlord99
A bit, yes.No, because the Forum Rules still apply there. I can, however, send it to you via email.
They do? Afro had no problems when sending me the results of his research on Chernobog. :smallconfused:
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Re: afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VII
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Originally Posted by
Tzardok
They do? Afro had no problems when sending me the results of his research on Chernobog. :smallconfused:
Officially they do, but it's only enforced if someone reports part of it. IIRC, at least.