The Gates of Heaven: Giving Celestia the Dicefreaks Treatment

[The Tygre]

I can always cut that and just have him remain a wanderer. And I always assumed Yves was pronounced 'Yeh-Vehs'. But, like every Celestial name, it's open to alteration.

[Eldan]

True, but I still don't like it. Chronias should be a place from which few can enter, and from which only one can return. It's like Nirvana in Buddhism a bit I guess.

Anyway, let me post one of my own.



Ramiel, Archon of Thunder, He Who Raises the Faithful

Ramiel is a minor power among angels, with a narrow and specific portfolio: he is responsible for making sure that the souls of the resurrected safely get back to the prime material plane. For this task, he oversees orders of both Lantern Archons (called The Guiding Lights) and Trumpet Archons (called Echoing Thunder).
Ramiel, who has the wings of an eagle, the head of a lion and the tail of a golden snake, is famous for his thundering voice and his rousing speeches: he preaches hope and tenacity, and that those who stay strong in the face of adversity will find salvation.


Edit: and "Yves" is pronounced pretty much the same as "Eve" is in English.

[Iamyourking]

That's probably not the best example, considering Buddism has many Bodhisavattas beyond Siddharta. Zaphkiel remains special because he's the only one who actually lives there, but I don't see anything inherently wrong with having trusted messengers and lieutenants that can come and go on vital business; especially if they are sworn to silence on it.

As for Remiel, I love it. I like the idea of Powers being very different from the other archons and it really lets us run wild with crazy designs. Although, something just occured to me. Your description of Remiel sounds an awful lot like Pazuzu. What if part of Pazuzu's temptations involve disguising himself as Remiel to trick people into thinking he's a force for good?

[Eldan]

Ah, well. I just used some animals that are associated either with Thunder (Lions, loud voice), Storm (Eagle, wings) or life (Snake, Oroboros).

I'd really prefer if Zaphkiel was the only one able to leave Chronias and had his lieutenants elsewhere, probably on the eight heaven. But I guess it's unavoidable if everyone else disagrees with me.

It does, however, kill a few Planescape plot points.

[Iamyourking]

I'll compromise with you. Melchizedek represents Chronias and the will of Zaphkiel, but has never actually been to Chronias himself and Zaphkiel uses mindless golems as his messengers. As they have no souls, they can freely enter and leave but are totally incapable of doing anything other than repeating Zaphkiel's words.

[The Tygre]

Alright, I've modified Yves. It's now that he claims to originate from Chronias, but has no way back. Also, adding entries to the index.

[TravelLog]

Is there any chance of an update soon? I'd love to see this finished and start working on one for the Abyss.

[Iamyourking]

Working on it, but I'm busy with Zoofights. I'm almost done with the Throne and after that I'll do some more common archons. However, I have no intention of providing substantial contribution to anything related to the Abyss or any chaotic plane.

[TravelLog]

Originally Posted by Iamyourking

Working on it, but I'm busy with Zoofights. I'm almost done with the Throne and after that I'll do some more common archons. However, I have no intention of providing substantial contribution to anything related to the Abyss or any chaotic plane.

Zoofights?

[Iamyourking]

Seeing as how nobody commented in my thread, the Throne is essentially done and with it the High Castes. Next will be either Arael or some variants, depending on circumstances.

[Zeta Kai]

Originally Posted by Iamyourking

Seeing as how nobody commented in my thread, the Throne is essentially done and with it the High Castes. Next will be either Arael or some variants, depending on circumstances.

Well, I'm glad that someone is still working on this. It is a worthy project, & a lot of good work has already been done. I can't wait to see it completed. Good luck, & may the Gates of Celestia never close on you.

[Eldan]

I would comment, but to be honest, I rarely play above level 10, and a lot of that is just numbers to me.

[Iamyourking]

You know how I mentioned circumstances? Well they didn't go well. Next will probably be some simple variants once I'm less livid.

[The Tygre]

Yikes. Well, what variants were you thinking of? I've been kind of at a loss at where to turn next. So far I've been cobbling together a completely unnecessary celestial griffon a la the Divine Comedy. It's been a... less than enthusiastic design.

Well, Sons of the Fallen looks awesome at least.

[Iamyourking]

I was thinking Swords or Wardens; anything that means I don't have to look at Cleric spell tables. By my count; we have seven Lanterns, six Hounds, one Warden, and one Owl (And maybe a Sword if you want to count the Spiral Archon), so the upper levels could use some work. As for the circumstances, it was just a backstabbing lobster being a bastard; nothing like the circumstances of January 28 that delayed the Dominion by two months.

I do appreciate the love for Sons of the Fallen though, I was getting annoyed that 30 or so people had looked at it and nobody had commented.

[The Tygre]

In that case, we should probably finish rounding out those orders. We still haven't filled their rosters yet. I was thinking; does the Warden order really need six types while the Blade order only has two? Maybe both have four? I mean the Blades, that's easy:
- Sword
- Axe
- Spear
- Dagger (short blades in general)

Or at least that's my proposal. Don't know what to do about Wardens, though.

[Iamyourking]

That works for Blades, but I think that at the higher levels there should probably be less variety. I mean, we've got seven Lantern variants and six Hound variants; we can probably get by with five or so Wardens. Dice already postulated the Guardian, Watcher, and Shield, and I added the Phalanx, so with the normal Warden that makes five.

As for Blades, probably something around these lines:
Swords: Balance and leadership, the sword is considered the king of weapons
Axes: Power and shock troops, filling a similar role to Malebranchen
Spears: Defense and the keystones of the defensive lines; perhaps works with the Axes in the same manner as a Viking shield wall
Daggers: Not really espionage, but commandos and close quarters fighters. The daggers would storm buildings and other fortified areas and be the first ones to the field.

[Pokonic]

Originally Posted by The Tygre

Yikes. Well, what variants were you thinking of? I've been kind of at a loss at where to turn next. So far I've been cobbling together a completely unnecessary celestial griffon a la the Divine Comedy. It's been a... less than enthusiastic design.

Well, Sons of the Fallen looks awesome at least.

Then, you could move on to a Ruby Eagle. Because I would have no idea how to do it, and I want to see someone else struggle with it.

[The Tygre]

Originally Posted by Iamyourking

That works for Blades, but I think that at the higher levels there should probably be less variety. I mean, we've got seven Lantern variants and six Hound variants; we can probably get by with five or so Wardens. Dice already postulated the Guardian, Watcher, and Shield, and I added the Phalanx, so with the normal Warden that makes five.

As for Blades, probably something around these lines:
Swords: Balance and leadership, the sword is considered the king of weapons
Axes: Power and shock troops, filling a similar role to Malebranchen
Spears: Defense and the keystones of the defensive lines; perhaps works with the Axes in the same manner as a Viking shield wall
Daggers: Not really espionage, but commandos and close quarters fighters. The daggers would storm buildings and other fortified areas and be the first ones to the field.

Sounds good to me.

Originally Posted by Pokonic

Then, you could move on to a Ruby Eagle. Because I would have no idea how to do it, and I want to see someone else struggle with it.

Alright, I'll bite; what's a Ruby Eagle?

[Pokonic]

Alright, I'll bite; what's a Ruby Eagle?

Giant bird made out off thousands of interlocked rubies, each with a soul of a saint in it. Oh, they all speak at the same time, into your mind.

Man, Paradiso is trippy.

[Zeta Kai]

Originally Posted by Pokonic

Giant bird made out off thousands of interlocked rubies, each with a soul of a saint in it. Oh, they all speak at the same time, into your mind.

That's... a LOT of saints. Like, an improbable number of them. Unless those rubies are each very big (like the size of a human head), that adds up to thousands-if-not-millions of rubies. Who canonized all of them? The same church?

[Eldan]

Eh, with infinite prime worlds and so on... I could see it.

That said: Man, Dante wrote some weird stuff.

[Pokonic]

Originally Posted by Zeta Kai

That's... a LOT of saints. Like, an improbable number of them. Unless those rubies are each very big (like the size of a human head), that adds up to thousands-if-not-millions of rubies. Who canonized all of them? The same church?

Well, he included greeks and such into his "saint" list, so it would be more like a general holy/good/respected person list to make it into that big ol' gem turkey. To be fair, more then a few groups thought every person in hevean qualifies as a saint, and the text is rather vauge on the usage on some terms, so... "shrug"

He was the sort of guy to shove anyone he thought had some importance into the better part of the afterlife, and make them holy god-fearing people even when there was no way they could.

Eh, with infinite prime worlds and so on... I could see it.

To be fair, he did make anyone in the past that would be admired, such as greeks and romans, go to heaven, because he could.

That said: Man, Dante wrote some weird stuff.

I kind of stoped questioning it when he started planet-hopping the metaphorical skies and talked to dead people that where still alive at the time of writing.

I do appreciate the love for Sons of the Fallen though, I was getting annoyed that 30 or so people had looked at it and nobody had commented.

To be fair, I still have no idea which video game you got the idea for those guys is.