A warlock's faith

[Honest Tiefling]

No Gods are really cool with Far Realm contact... one of the very few points they mostly agree on.

Yeah, I kinda imagine this would be pretty much KOS, so the whole line of others seeing her as a follower of the Old Gods is probably not accurate unless she is significantly faster then torch and pitchfork wielding mobs. Has one of those ever been statted up, I wonder?

However, I could see Savras not aiding her (getting visions from the Old Ones is...A really bad idea overall), but trying to aid her to lead her away from that path, even if she is unaware of this. Instead of eliminating a potentially dangerous creature, he could have compassion and be trying to wean her away from her warlock powers, or to somehow break that pact that binds her. Or he's just using her powers until he gets what he wants and then plans for her to be purged.

[Naanomi]

Just because this conversation is interesting...

As I've gathered, standard DnD cosmogy has two types of stuff. Classical elements and ethical elements. Elementals are made purely of the former. Outsiders are made purely of the latter. Mortals are a blend of both.

Things from the Far Realm are absolutely other. They're simply not made of the same stuff. They don't follow the same rules. True Far Realm entities have trouble even existing on the material plane, it's simply too different.

Aberrations, rather are former material critters or descendents of former material critters that have been warped by the Far Realm. They're sort of material and sort of not, giving you this abomination that doesn't really belong anywhere.

Would a soul survive that process? Possibility. Or it might end up being translated into whatever unwholesome awareness passes for a motivating force there. Or it might just vanish altogether.

That’s not a bad way of looking at it, though some of the abberations are actually Far Realm creatures warped by Great Wheel Cosmology... it is in many ways just as harmful to them as their reality is to us. Piscaethces, for example, is supposed to be in maddening agony and constantly looking for a way back to the Far Realm; but has been so changed by her contact with our reality that she cannot really go back and survive there

Also, note that there are a few types of ‘energy’ (positive, negative, and temporal) that beings can be made up of... and that the ‘thought stuff’ of the Astral is often treated as an additional component that some creatures made of only ‘mental energy’ are formed from

[Millstone85]

Orcus is somewhat famous for having a firm grasp of his time as a human

Fitting for the demon lord of the undead.

As I've gathered, standard DnD cosmogy has two types of stuff. Classical elements and ethical elements.

I still tend to see the 5e Great Wheel through the lens of the 4e World Axis.

The Astral isn't just a transitive plane between the Outer ones, and the Elemental Chaos isn't just where the Inner Planes all bleed into each other. Rather, most planes are part of one or the other.

Yeah, I kinda imagine this would be pretty much KOS, so the whole line of others seeing her as a follower of the Old Gods is probably not accurate unless she is significantly faster then torch and pitchfork wielding mobs. Has one of those ever been statted up, I wonder?

First, "follower of the Old Gods" is something I would apply to a barbarian, druid, paladin of the Ancients, or ranger. A warlock of the Archfey could pass for, or even legitimately be, one as well.

As for the torches and pitchforks, you have to thank the PR efforts of the Order of Blue Flame. Where do spellscars come from after the Sundering? A newly discovered distant plane of wild magic. You have already heard bad things about it? Well, this particular region is new and we have got a friend on the other side. One whom Our Reborn Lady of Spells herself accepted the help of during that crisis in Suzail.

It makes sense in the context of the campaign. That or my DM let something fly that you wouldn't have.

Also, it is rapidly falling apart. Like I said, the Kelemvorites like the Order of Blue Flame even less than before. I have out-of-character knowledge that they are building an army to snuff out the Lighthouse, which is the place where scar pilgrimages are done now. And recent events with another Far Realm entity will certainly help the Kelemvorites find recruits for their crusade.

[Honest Tiefling]

Sorry, meant Old Ones instead of old gods. I think it's confusing for me because Cthulu and friends are often gods in their native literature.

Admittedly, I don't know much of the Blue Flame whatsits, but I think that's because they are 4th edition and very little of 5th edition seems to recognize what happened there. I don't think they got referenced at all by the SCAG, so they are a bit questionable on canon. I mean, they don't really address that Savras got better, through death has always been a revolving door for gods.

Perhaps you should explain a bit of what your DM has run for the plotline? I think that might help with suggestions for your character.

[Millstone85]

Admittedly, I don't know much of the Blue Flame whatsits, but I think that's because they are 4th edition and very little of 5th edition seems to recognize what happened there. I don't think they got referenced at all by the SCAG, so they are a bit questionable on canon. I mean, they don't really address that Savras got better, through death has always been a revolving door for gods.

SCAG also doesn't address how Azuth got better, even though it does mention that "during the Spellplague, Asmodeus consumed the divine spark of Azuth and thereby achieved godhood" (p118). According to the FR wiki, there is a novel called The Devil You Know where Azuth's soul was able to fight Asmodeus from the inside and then various characters made sacrifices so the two could exist as separate gods.

I don't know what the deal is with Savras, and I am not sure I care. D&D/FR can be worse than comic books when it comes to figuring out a canon.

At least with the OoBF, SCAG has the excuse that their headquarters are, or were, near a different coast.

Perhaps you should explain a bit of what your DM has run for the plotline? I think that might help with suggestions for your character.

I think that I already got my answer. FR is a setting where you get to say "I favor god X and hope they recognize me", but that's more difficult with a warlock and nearly impossible with a GOOlock. Unless, of course, your Great Old One is the God of Oozes, which is what I think of everytime I see GOO written as GoO.

I may still write a summary of the plot so far, for fun and wild suggestions.

[Dappershire]

I've actually thought about this quite a bit. And I ended with thinking that the best match might be Mask.

He's liable to accept your faith just for having the insane courage to try. Now granted, you're not a rogue. But alot of Goolocks have stealthy, manipulative features. Not to mention, Mask would probably appreciate someone who attacks enemies with dark, shadowy tentacles, and can see in absolute darkness.

And, to top it off, you might even earn yourself some major cred with him, for giving him the idea. "What? You mean you can just steal Ol' Tentacleface's power? While he's sleeping?" Because nothing turns the God of Thieves on like a major heist, that will earn him untold power, and is also likely to blow up in his face like all his other plots do.

So wear the mask of Mask. Maybe even decorate the bottom with tassels.

[Millstone85]

So I caught a cold and lost the motivation to write that summary. Feeling a bit better now.

Spoiler: My character's backstory, part I

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Escarboucle Ormphel was born at a post-Spellplague pre-Sundering date, in a druidic community within the western border of the Chondalwood. These people were doing what they could to limit the influence of the Plaguewrought Land on the forest.

Spoiler: Map of the region in 3e (top) and 4e (bottom)

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Unfortunately, a wild magic surge had just reached their location, killing some and turning the rest into plaguechanged creatures, Escarboucle's expectant mother being among the latter. And yet, Escarboucle herself wasn't born plaguechanged, but merely spellscarred.

With what was still left of her lucidity, the mother, Miranda was her name, prayed to the primal spirits, the fey and the First Circle, asking them to foster the child.

Something answered.

The presence, Uruboriade, wasn't unlike the entities that had been called upon, and it felt godmotherly. It evoked woods and beasts, with a thousand wards already in its care. But its voice was coming from the Plaguewrought Land, or from a portal that had opened somewhere within that unnatural place.

Miranda hesitated, but this was the only help that had been offered.

Spoiler: My character's backstory, part II

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Escarboucle grew up a feral child, among a spellscarred wolfpack that was guided by Uruboriade. The first language she spoke was a human form of Deep Speech.

Later, Uruboriade sent her on a quest to reach the eastern border of the Chondalwood. It was a difficult journey, that left Escarboucle with much enmity toward ghostwise halflings. In the end, she met with new allies of her patron.

She was brought to a kaorti cyst within the Underchasm, where she wasn't turned into a kaorti herself but was taught Undercommon, Common, arcane magic and more. In at least one occasion, she helped the kaorti assess the defenses of a human village, whose population was subsequently assimilated.

Eventually, Escarboucle was sent on a new quest by Uruboriade. She was to seek and join an adventuring party that her patron knew was about to face great challenges, so she could grow stronger. Escarboucle was 15 years old when she found these adventurers.

Spoiler: The campaign, part I

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The adventure started with the rescue of a man caged by orcs, somewhere along the road. He died of his wounds, but urged the party to meet someone in his place. It turned out that he was going to escort a girl called Mel, much younger than Escarboucle, to Suzail. The party took the mission, which came with a substantial prepayment, and hired an NPC ranger / wet nurse to deal with the baby stuff.

It soon became evident that quite a lot of people were after Mel. This included Banites, as well as a different group of kaorti that was linked to a devil who had been to the Far Realm and back, Yurtoth. When the party finally reached Suzail, it was revealed that Mel was about to become the new incarnation of Mystra and bring an end to the Spellplague.

That's when Escarboucle gave Melystra, as she nicknamed the reawakening (and fast growing) goddess, some magobabble about the benefits of having one stable portal to the Far Realm with a friend on the other side. It would make it more difficult to open other Far Realm portals, by monopolizing the planar permeability. An honest, but likely very deluded, theory. Melystra decided to bring Escarboucle's familiar with her to the Cynosure, where she and other gods would consider the offer.

When the familiar returned, it had apparently worked some major diplomancy, because they bought it.

And so, after a final fight where the party had to protect a ritual in Suzail, all traces of the Spellplague disappeared from Toril. But a giant hollow violet tree grew somewhere in what had been the Plaguewrought Land, preserving the portal leading to Uruboriade.

Escarboucle's pact magic, originally attached to her spellscar as a mean to control it, could have been washed away with it. This would have left her free of Uruboriade's influence, but unlikely to be any good at magic. Escarboucle refused this trade-off and held onto the connection.

Spoiler: The campaign, part II

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Escarboucle is now 24 years old. She has become an Accordant of the Order of Blue Flame, this organization now deriving its power from Uruboriade instead of the Plaguewrought Land.

She was contacted by the Kelemvorites regarding recent incidents through Faerûn that bore a resemblance with Spellplague-related spontaneous combustion. She agreed to help one of their clerics investigate the matter, and that's how she was reunited with Sha-Karn, the only other character still in play from the previous campaign.

So far, it looks like Yurtoth is back in force, but his agents are now reaching the Material through the Shadowfell. It is all still very obscure, though, pun intended.

"What? You mean you can just steal Ol' Tentacleface's power? While he's sleeping?"

Ah well, that has not been my character's experience.