afroakuma's Planar And Other Oddities Questions Thread VI

[Naanomi]

As it is extremely unlikely any of those named bothered to petition Ao for access to Toril, I doubt any of them were forced to ground during the Time of Troubles.

Interesting, so only those playing by Ao's rules got the cosmic boot? Why would anyone play by those rules if the option to just manage worshipers on Faerun existed regardless? And why did Tiamat or the Elemental Lords do so (they seem least likely of the known participants)?

[afroakuma]

Interesting, so only those playing by Ao's rules got the cosmic boot? Why would anyone play by those rules if the option to just manage worshipers on Faerun existed regardless?

1) Who expected the Overgod to cast down the deities?

2) You don't really get to manage them. You have to hand them off to a local power to administrate. and there are no gains for doing that. Before you ask, that process is automatic in Realmspace - if you aren't there, Ao will allocate them appropriately.

And why did Tiamat or the Elemental Lords do so (they seem least likely of the known participants)?

It was a worthwhile planet for Tiamat to have a presence on; she had a lot of human worshipers and some powerful evil dragons. The Elemental Lords appear to have been deliberately excluded from the godsfall by Ao, which is rather understandable given their complete lack of involvement with the Faerunian pantheon's operations and general cosmological role.

[Jurai]

Are there any other overpowers/overgods/overdeities than Ao? If two diametrically opposed Elemental Planes were to come into contact with each other, what would happen, aside from war?

[afroakuma]

Are there any other overpowers/overgods/overdeities than Ao?

Yes.

If two diametrically opposed Elemental Planes were to come into contact with each other, what would happen, aside from war?

Pockets do that all the time, it's no big deal.

[enderlord99]

You still have not explained to me what is it that you want regarding alternate Primes.

Nothing specific yet; I just wanted to be prepared.

I thought I had already typed that, but apparently not.

[Jurai]

So, in Ponythread, there's been talk of a D&D campaign set in Equestria and I bumped into this.

...a world where the divine domains have been crowdsourced.

I was wondering if you could A: grace the thread with infinite fury and knowledge, or B: elucidate the whole and total potential of such.

[afroakuma]

So, in Ponythread

wut

there's been talk of a D&D campaign set in Equestria

wut

...a world where the divine domains have been crowdsourced.

wut

I was wondering if you could A: grace the thread with infinite fury

That's never difficult.

B: elucidate the whole and total potential of such.

I do not comprehend your request.

[Jurai]

What would that mean for dying, for outsiders, for elementals, for non-Primes in this setting, how different it would be from a bog-standard Prime.

[Extra Anchovies]

What is meant by "divine domains have been crowdsourced"? I think that's the core of the confusion here. At least, it's why I'm confused.

[Jurai]

In Equestria, all the ponies work together to take care of things (aside from the ascent of sun and moon), and there is no one authority for say, the changing of seasons or causing rain and drought.

[enderlord99]

(the first two "wut"s)

I agree; that request weirded me out.

[afroakuma]

In Equestria, all the ponies work together to take care of things (aside from the ascent of sun and moon), and there is no one authority for say, the changing of seasons or causing rain and drought.

I already feel like I know too much about this.

What would that mean for dying

Do you still worship an individual? Go to their domain. Do you not? Go to the appropriate plane. Something about ponies? Go dive in an acid lake.

for outsiders

Interpret from above.

for elementals

Do the ponies have some lack of need for elemental planes that I don't know about?

for non-Primes in this setting,

I don't really follow why it should be any different for them.

[enderlord99]

I already feel like I know too much about this.

I somehow managed to stomach two whole episodes; don't ask me how, because I don't know. If it were a food rather than a cartoon, 'twould surely taste like diabeetus and vomit, even though diabeetus doesn't have a taste. I can totally see how it would appeal to anyone{!}

Seriously: if a show replaces the word "everyone" with a made-up word, that show sucks. MLP:FIM is even worse than Little Miss Spider; at least that one had the decency to make a pun about it (I don't care how much you hate puns, it slightly dilutes the disgust of the "every____(y)")

[Extra Anchovies]

Since I happen to have some knowledge of the setting, and because I try not to pointlessly bash things that I don't enjoy, I'll take a crack at this one.

Well, you've only got two divine entities (well, semi-divine; they're DvR 1 at best), and they only control the movements of the sun and moon. They also reside on the same plane as everyone else does, so they don't have their own planes of residence. There's no particular reason for there to be planes other than the Prime in a FiM setting, and adding outer planes would be unnecessarily complicated.

You could include the inner planes easily enough, or elementals could just come from Equestria; maybe if you have a big enough fire, it spews out a fire elemental, and so on. There's no way to explain other extraplanar creatures, so anything with that subtype would have to either not exist or be resubtyped as (native), possibly explained as a creation of Discord (who would make sense as a DvR 0 1 [thanks DMoD] entity). If you want to bring the concept of souls into the setting (to better explain how resurrection works), you wouldn't need to create a plane for the afterlife; souls could linger in Equestria, or could be reincarnated into new denizens of the world.

[Fable Wright]

possibly explained as a creation of Discord (who would make sense as a DvR 0 entity).

Just going to point out that he, well, probably is a bit stronger than DR 0. The fact that he created/resides in another plane of existence and can tear holes into completely alien cosmologies is a strong indication that he's a bit more than a hero-deity, and the fact that he has a portfolio sense is rather damning proof that he's at least DR 1.

And now I shall leave this conversation.

[Naanomi]

If a God didn't have a Divine Realm (because it was destroyed and hasn't been re-established, or he's a jackass who doesn't want one, or some random exception because there are infinite Gods so there probably is someone); where do their followers end up in death? Still to their God (wherever they are at the moment)? To the plane they belong to as if they didn't have a patron at all? Something else?

Also, for a person that doesn't have a patron and dies; is there any way they could end up on the Inner Planes, or is that only the result when you do have a Patron and it lives there?

[Tzardok]

One example in 3.5 of a deity without a realm is Fharlaghn, who is wandering the planes. In his case, his native plane is set as the Material Plane, and his worshippers manifest themselves on the Material Plane after dying. To be exact, they take the shape of invisible, intangible Spirits that guard (or at least, watch) crossroads. That is what Complete Divine says.

[WalkingTheShade]

Hi, I am currently looking into good places to send enemies that tend to not stay dead (e.g. Devils, Demons) for the purposes of keeping them "out of play" for extended periods of time. For a while, I figured Carceri was a decent place, since it has the Demodands as literal Jailers; but now I've come across something very interesting that I was hoping to get your 2 coppers on.

I needed that too. I homebrewed a planar aberration, cut from the Astral and the Ethereal, known as either the Shadow of Agathys or the Black Star.
It functions as a finite demiplane containing a dungeon obeying non-euclidian rules, infused with negative energy. Its entry point moves, in a seemingly random pattern, between the lower planes where it appears as black sphere, with an oily surface, far up in the sky, held to the ground by titanic chains.
It used to be ruled by middle-ranking yugoloths who used it as a planar prison on orders from whoever might pay enough to have a rival incarcerated for some time. Some time before the events of my game, a smarter than average Solamith with sorcerer class levels led an uprising inside to take control of the thing.
---
In game, the party was thrown in, separated each one in their cell. Each started "naked", had to find their equipment and their allies, while surviving minotaur guards, demon jailers, undead and other prisoners. Lots of fun, and the players took the lesson to heart: isolated, PCs are a lot weaker than together.

[Naanomi]

I know they grant Templars powers but... How close to a 'God' is a fully realized Sorcerer-King-Turned-Dragon (or Avagnion) if they got off of Athas somehow... Would they be setting up a Divine Realm? Getting shredded if they set foot in Sigil?

[Dalmosh]

What was Gehenna like before the Yugoloths moved there?

Were Barghests and Vaporighus once much bigger players there?

[afroakuma]

I know they grant Templars powers but... How close to a 'God' is a fully realized Sorcerer-King-Turned-Dragon (or Avagnion) if they got off of Athas somehow...

Not at all. The Lady would still probably murder them; beings that powerful are not typically welcome in the city simply because of the amount of disruption and damage they would be capable of.

What was Gehenna like before the Yugoloths moved there?

Unpleasant and volcano-y. Fewer crawling cities.

Were Barghests and Vaporighus once much bigger players there?

Pfft, no.

[Fable Wright]

Not at all. The Lady would still probably murder them; beings that powerful are not typically welcome in the city simply because of the amount of disruption and damage they would be capable of.

Not even close to DR 0?

[Mr Adventurer]

Are beings with DvR 0 allowed into Sigil? If they are, and they did go, would anything happen as a result of their DvR that wouldn't happen to other beings who might be otherwise as or more powerful? If so, what would that be, or what sort of thing would that be?

[enderlord99]

Are beings with DvR 0 allowed into Sigil?

Only under extreme circumstances.

[WalkingTheShade]

Are there any canon organisations of Assassins (the SRD prestige class) over the planes? Bonus point if they're based in Sigil (but it's not necessary).
One player wants that class, proposals would be needed if he doesn't come up with interesting fluff for an organisation by himself.

[afroakuma]

Not even close to DR 0?

No. The Dragon of Tyr is about as dangerous as a lesser demon lord, but out on the planes he's nowhere close to actual divinity.

Are beings with DvR 0 allowed into Sigil?

I feel this has been answered before. Beings of divine rank 0 are not gods, but they're powerful enough that they would be extremely unwelcome.

Are there any canon organisations of Assassins (the SRD prestige class) over the planes?

Oh, I would expect there are a few. Can't think of any offhand, though.

[Mr Adventurer]

I feel this has been answered before. Beings of divine rank 0 are not gods, but they're powerful enough that they would be extremely unwelcome.

I imagine so. Thank you.

[Urpriest]

Are there any canon organisations of Assassins (the SRD prestige class) over the planes? Bonus point if they're based in Sigil (but it's not necessary).
One player wants that class, proposals would be needed if he doesn't come up with interesting fluff for an organisation by himself.

There's one headquartered in Union, detailed in the Epic Level Handbook.

[WalkingTheShade]

Oh, I would expect there are a few. Can't think of any offhand, though.

Thanks. What about churches of various powers of murder?
It seems Bhaal's would be the most likely to provide assassins for hire.
Cyric and Rallaster look more like powers of bat**** crazy murdering, with the kind of followers no one (except other psychos) would feel comfortable hiring.
Pyremius looks a bit... lame? I don't get much mileage out of him more than being the god of putting things on fire and poisoning your rivals.
I guess Kali would be interesting, but I don't know much about her creed and followers in Planescape.
Have I missed anyone?

There's one headquartered in Union, detailed in the Epic Level Handbook.

Thank you! I haven't used Union in the game yet, and the power level is far below epic. It'd take too much work to get Union into the campaign now. Moreover, I don't like the flavor of Union that much, as it screams to my ears that it wants to be just like Sigil while failing utterly. Or maybe my problem is not so much with Union's fluff as a general distaste for Epic rules.

[ShurikVch]

Do membership in Harmonium make Perform (Harmonium) a class skill?
(Harmonium is either this or that)