OOTS #954 - The Discussion Thread

[Zulwarn]

I have a quick question/statement for people mentioning Thor breaking the agreement if he didn't allow Durkula control the weather. Wouldn't Hel have already broken the agreement by taking over one of Thor's clerics to begin with? Durkon died honorably in battle so he wouldn't gone to Thor's afterlife if he wasn't brought back as a Vampire Thrall, as a full Vampire after Malack died(again) Durkon would be an intelligent free willed undead able to make his own choices but Hel placed her High Priest inside his body taking him over and circumventing his free will and in a way denying one of Thor's clerics from casting spells.

[Nilehus]

-sigh- Word of Giant is that is just how vampirism works in the OotS world. Unfair to Durkon? Yes. But when a vampire is made, whatever God/Goddess of Death the new vampire would fall under puts a vampire spirit in their body. Over a few months or so, the vampire spirit absorbs all the original creature's memories and such.

It's a crime against the laws of nature, but that's what vampires are. And she didn't break any of the rules, she just hit the jackpot by happening to get a high level Cleric of Thor.

[Keltest]

-sigh- Word of Giant is that is just how vampirism works in the OotS world. Unfair to Durkon? Yes. But when a vampire is made, whatever God/Goddess of Death the new vampire would fall under puts a vampire spirit in their body. Over a few months or so, the vampire spirit absorbs all the original creature's memories and such.

It's a crime against the laws of nature, but that's what vampires are. And she didn't break any of the rules, she just hit the jackpot by happening to get a high level Cleric of Thor.

Elaborating on this, Hel did not force the vampire to become her cleric. He could have been nontheist, or begged Thor to keep him on as a cleric, or heck, maybe even go worship the 12 gods or something. He has as much free will as any other being in the stickverse, and Hel presumably only kept him as a cleric because she is very persuasive.

[Kish]

I have a quick question/statement for people mentioning Thor breaking the agreement if he didn't allow Durkula control the weather. Wouldn't Hel have already broken the agreement by taking over one of Thor's clerics to begin with? Durkon died honorably in battle so he wouldn't gone to Thor's afterlife if he wasn't brought back as a Vampire Thrall, as a full Vampire after Malack died(again) Durkon would be an intelligent free willed undead able to make his own choices but Hel placed her High Priest inside his body taking him over and circumventing his free will and in a way denying one of Thor's clerics from casting spells.

Inaccurate summary of what happened.

Rich has spelled out that in the OotS world, this is what vampires are: An imprisoned original soul and a new soul that took over when they became vampires. (This is actually by-the-book D&D too, though a number of people ignore that rule...but Belkar just spelled out why Rich is not ignoring it, anyway.)

As a full vampire and an intelligent free-willed undead with his viewpoint based on Durkon's original viewpoint, the entity whose name has not been stated chose--to become a fanatical worshiper of the god who created him, just as Durkon was with Thor. Unluckily for Durkon, the Order, the dwarves, and the world at large, his creator and thus the object of his entirely voluntary devotion was Hel.

[rodneyAnonymous]

This is way late, a high-page-number response to a low-page-number post in a thread about a past strip.

Burned vampires cannot be resurrected (proof needed).

This is not correct. The description for resurrection specifically says "The condition of the remains is not a factor. So long as some small portion of the creature’s body still exists, it can be resurrected, but the portion receiving the spell must have been part of the creature’s body at the time of death. (The remains of a creature hit by a disintegrate spell count as a small portion of its body.)"

A dusted vampire can be resurrected as the person they were before getting turned. Malack could have been resurrected if someone had collected some of the ashes, and Nale's "not coming back" because his remains were scattered by the wind, not because they were disintegrated.

[Jaxzan Proditor]

I have a quick question/statement for people mentioning Thor breaking the agreement if he didn't allow Durkula control the weather. Wouldn't Hel have already broken the agreement by taking over one of Thor's clerics to begin with? Durkon died honorably in battle so he wouldn't gone to Thor's afterlife if he wasn't brought back as a Vampire Thrall, as a full Vampire after Malack died(again) Durkon would be an intelligent free willed undead able to make his own choices but Hel placed her High Priest inside his body taking him over and circumventing his free will and in a way denying one of Thor's clerics from casting spells.

No. Durkon would never have become a Vampire by himself, because this is how vampires work in OOTS. He wouldn't have been able to cast spells, because either he would have died normally, or he would have become a Vampire.

I'm putting the vampire quotes in my sig, because I think they need to be advertised more.

[rodneyAnonymous]

I have a quick question... (same as above)

In the OOTS universe, all vampires are actually evil spirits in control of someone else's corpse. One of Hel's duties is creating evil spirits. Unlike Malack, Durkon is a dwarf, so the evil spirit that is driving his body was "birthed" in Hel's hall, not Nergal's. That spirit happens to be loyal to Hel, which she is taking advantage of ("...my serendipitous servant..."), after all it is driving a powerful cleric. No broken agreements.

Which afterlife Durkon's spirit should go to is not relevant to this question. So far it has not gone to any of them.