Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 14 Nov 2001 to 15 Nov 2001 (#2001-314) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 16/11/2001, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 13 messages totalling 624 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Anyone have any interesting... (4) 2. Black shadow elves (was Green orcish blood?) (3) 3. Firelord Saga - part I (3) 4. Toad heads (was Green orcish blood?) 5. Newsletter lists 6. The Minotaur dilemma (was: Sentient Races of ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 09:21:36 -0500 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Anyone have any interesting... Joe Kelly wrote: > Hey Kit, actually I have been using your stuff for who will attend my conference but when I tried looking at the Princes there was nothing. > Just their families, relatives and associates. Unless it is mentioned somewhere else. > I have visited the Houses of Lords and the Noble Houses but nothing on the Princes. So now what? As GPD, we've never done individual write-ups for the Princes--this is because all of them are detailed in the Gaz or in G:KoM (while the other characters only get a few lines at most). Therefore, the best place to look for the Princes' plots is actually the section "Stories and Tales", and its equivalent on the Paparazzi website. Also, the History section has some insight to offer on the Princes, though it deals mostly with the past ones. Finally, Ohad Shaham's homepage (there's a link in the GPD links page) is mostly about Prince Morphail, and Jennifer Favia Guerra's page has write-ups for Jherek and Carnelia (see the links to the mini-gazs in the GPD links page). -- Giampaolo Agosta agathokles@libero.it agosta@elet.polimi.it http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 10:41:24 +0200 From: Ville V Lahde Subject: Re: Black shadow elves (was Green orcish blood?) > > The cover of GAZ5 would seem to state that shadowelves > > are dark-skinned like the drow, but we know that to be > > false. > > Actually, Gaz 5 showed a dark-skinned female elf without clearly > revealing her ethnic origin. Mystara actually offers all sorts of > interesting possibilities to explain her ancestry. > Also, during the time that Gaz5 was written the shadowelves hadn't been detailed yet. There's actually only one remark about their appearance in one of the short adventures, the one where shadowelf infiltrators try to get into Alfheim city. There it is said that the shadowelves manage to infiltrate the orc community due to their often malformed appearance. All this, and many other things written about shadowelves in Gaz5, were changed in the Shadowelf gazetteer. I think the "drowish" elven woman on the cover is mainly an example of artistic license, not meant to picture shadowelves or any other dark elves. But yes, of course on can write up such a race, perhaps one living in the tropic. If one wishes to omit the fact that the long lifespans of the elves wouldn't allow pigment changes in just a few generations. I mean, if one counts that the average elvish generation is 400 years, there have been little over 15 elven generations altogether in Mystara since Evergrun. At most this figure should be 20. So I guess the pigmentation change should have some explanation. Did the shadowelf Gazetteer offer any explanation to their albino complexion? I mean, are they born that way? Ville ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 11:40:11 +0200 From: Ville V Lahde Subject: Firelord Saga - part I Here's the first section to the Firelord Saga I promised earlier on. (MML Archives, November 2001, week2, "A Preview") More will come later, but I can't promise when. Ville ---------- 1) Metaphysical Background: the Ascension of the Nexus Formation of the Cult of Rathanos in Mystara Rathanos is a major Patron of Fire, who is often symbolised by the Fiery Ankh. He was one of the deities that were worshipped in the lost Empire of Nithia. As is told later on, a powerful cult arose around 1500 - 1400 BC in the Thanegioth Archipelago, centering on the mysterious figure "Firelord". Little knowledge of this period remains, mainly in textual fragments of Rathanos followers and various fire elementalist sects. This section describes briefly the canon of Rathanos worship, little of its history, and more specifically those elements of Rathanos worship that are linked to the rise and fall of the Nithian Firelord - and the new Firelord that is the main character of this campaign scheme. In the early years of the Nithian empire, worship of Rathanos was widespread. In addition to the sect created by the Firelord, there were the mysterious Magician Fire Worshippers, who forged various alliances with beings in the Elemetal Plane of Fire. (Read the excellent article by Sharon Dornhoff on the climate of Nithia, and the rise of Ffire Worship. The article is in the Vaults: http://dnd.starflung.com/ylarclim.html) It is highly likely that the latter were also linked to the cult of Rathanos. The arrival of the Alphatians around 1000 BC brought new potential allies to the cult. Even though the main portion of the newcomers were Followers of the Air, some remnants of the Followers of the Fire sect slipped into Mystara, and eventually contacted the Rathanos worshippers in Nithia. Note: It was during this time that knowledge of the Firelord and the Nexus [see below] entered the texts of the Followers of Fire. This would eventually bring them closer to the cult of Rathanos. Thus it is understandable that the new Firelord will have close ties with the underground Followers of Fire in Alphatia. Since the fall of the Nithian empire, "the servents of the Fiery Ankh" dwindled, but the cult lingered on in the traditions of the Thothian people, the scattered Magician Fire Worshippers, the few Nithian tribes of the newly formed Alasiyan basin, and in the ranks of the Followers of Fire. Later on the arrival of the Flaems in the area now called Glantri (then naamed Braerj) brought potential new recruits. Of course, the wizard supremacy would later on drive the Rathanos followers of Glantri underground. During the following centuries, the cult of Rathanos around the area of former Nithia was linked to many nationalistic or even anti-colonialistic concerns. Initially the Thothian Rathanos followers harboured bitter hatred towards the Alphatian Empire, because of its colonial activities that caused a lot of suffering to their people - Later on, when Thyatis emerged, the (literal) flames of this hatred were fanned by many Alphatian-Thyatian struggles that ravaged the homelands of the Thothians. The Nithian Rathanos followers would adopt this anti-colonial attitude during the years of colonial wars in the Alasiyan basin. And of course, the Alphatian Followers of Fire had longer roots of hatred towards the Alphatian Empire. The scattered remarks in their scriptures about the long-gone, distant Empire of the Firelord (or the Fiery Pharaoh, see Section 2) would eventually spark ideas about re-establishing a powerbase for worship of Rathanos. This is the general religious basis for this campaign scheme. The Legend of the Nexus (or: When the Stars are right) This campaign scheme deals with to key periods of the the Rathanos worship from the Nithian times to the "present" era (around 1000 AC) - the eras of the two Firelords. The key element here is a sub-cult within the Rathanos canon. According to "the Fiery Scriptures" and "the Dogmas of Ouroboros" (the alchemistic symbol for fire), the main texts of Rathanos worship, one of the main subordinates of Rathanos is his trusted messenger and aide, who is often called "the Starfire Sphere". This deity/demigod is said to live among the stars with his strange breed of fiery vampiers. (Note: This demigod was modelled after the entity Cthuga from the corpus following the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Cthuga, a being of Fire, lives in the constellation of Fomalhaut. I think he was created by August Derleth.) The Starfire Sphere is Rathanos's "right arm" in Mystara, when the fiery deity wishes to influence the development of this world. But the religious canon of Rathanos also holds a greater promise for the powers of Fire, in which the Starfire Sphere plays a central role. Every 2500 years or so, "the stars are right", and the Starfire Sphere has a rare chance of channeling vast powers to a single follower of Rathanos in this world. This would make the follower into "the Nexus", a being who has powers over the element of Fire equalling those of the highest elemental rulers. Such an individual could create a lasting Empire of Fire, where Rathaos would be the most important deity. The next time of Ascension will be around 1000 AC. In the scriptures of Rathanos worship this event is called "the Ascension of Nexus". According to legends (unconfirmed of course, since a succefssul Ascension hasn't taken place in Mystara yet), during the Ascension the Starfire Sphere descends from the heavens, bringing with him the constellation that is his home, and forges a new star into the constellation to symbolise the new Nexus. It is thought the every star in the constellation resembles Nexuses that have Ascended in other worlds. (Note: IMC I added flavour to this by getting the PCs see a glimpse of the "descended" constellation of Fomalhaut before they managed to ruin the ritual, of which more below. In the center of the stars they saw images of beings from other worlds: a human male in a strange (victorian-style) suit, a Klingon-like warrior, a Firedrake etc…) Notes on the Cult of the Starfire Sphere: Essentially, the Cult of the Starfire Sphere is an apocalyptic or "milleniarian" (2 ½ milleniarian, to be excact ;)) cult. During the long years between the times that "the stars are right", the cult is virtually nonexistent, if one doesn't count the occasional mad prophet, or a crazed Fire Mage/Cleric of Rathanos who tries desperately to extend his/her life in order to be alive during the next Ascension. During the final century before the time of Ascension the cult is revitalised, as powerful individuals within the cult of Rathanos start gathering followers, and try to find a good area for the Ascension Ritual. One major requirement for the Ritual is that the area where it is performed has some powerful links to the Plane of Fire - vulcanic areas are often preferred. The constant vulcanic activity in the largest island of the Thanegioth Archipelago must have been what drew the first Firelord there. Note: Of course, worship of Rathanos isn't limited to the areas described above. One interesting idea that could widen the scope of the campaign: There might be two Nexus candidates, both gathering forces and building their Ritual sites. Since "there can be only one" Nexus, the years before the time of Ascension might include bitter struggles between the candidates. Actually, these struggles might lead the PCs to Thanegioth. Note II: The earlier text suggests that there was an opportynity for Ascension around 3000 BC (depending on the origins given for Rathanos). Was there a prehistoric Firelord during the destruction of Blackmoor? Elves in Vulcania? To complete the Ritual of Ascension, the Nexus candidate not only needs the required area, he/she also must be either a Cleric of Rathanos or a Fire-related mage. Also, summoning the Starfire Sphere and his Constellation down from the heavens requires a lot of power, inaccessible to any single individual. Thus the candidate has to gather a large amount of Followers, both mages and clerics. This gathering of power is at the core of the Cult of the Starfire Sphere. The Ritual of Ascension will take place in a carefully prepared location, where both natural and artificial power points of Fire should be present. The cultists will gather in cocentric circular formations described by the Fiery Scriptures, channeling power to the Nexus candidate. If some cultists cannot be present, they must be replaced with magical power beacons crafted for just this purpose. Only a certain (small) percentage of the cultists may be replaced thus, so killing enough of them beforehand will stop the Ritual. Another chance to stop the ritual is to kill enough cultists in the middle of their incantations. In accordance with the nature of the Ritual of Ascension, the Cult will organise in hierarchical Spheres of Influence - the Nexus candidate (the Firelord) being at the center of several cocentric circles of cultists. Depending of the culutral background of the current Firelord and the cultists, the followers are designated with symbols that show their place in the hierarchy. (IMC I took the idea of numerical designations from the TV-series "the Prisoner"… "I'm not a man, I'm a free number!"…err.) But the place in the Spheres of influence doesn't only signify the "political" power of the cultists, it also shows how far they have learned the secret crafts of the Starfire Sphere: The Cult of the Starfire Sphere has developed during its history "Secret Crafts" similar to those of the Glantrian Fire Elementalists. (You can very well use the ones in the Glantri Gazetter, but substitute the highest craft with the ability of the Nexus candidate to try the Ascension.) Optional: If you don't like the idea that both clerics and mages in the cult can learn these crafts, then you can make the Fire-Mages the most influential group within it. The mages would form the Spheres of Influence, being the only ones able to try the Ascnesion. The Clerics of Rathanos would function as a support structure, preferring "direct" worship of Rathanos. This might cause scisms within the cult. IMC I preferred this option. The Cult often forms alliances with various fire-based creatures like the efreeti, the fire salamanders, red dragons and fire giants. Through these alliances they can gain protection and important resources required in the Ritual (rara ingredients and such). The allied fire-creatures are promised a better future within the coming Empire of Fire. But there are some beings that are bitter enemies of these traditional allies, like the Sollox who hate the efreeti. anyone opposing the Cult will find willing allies there. (IMC I had the PCs gain the help of a couple of Sollux warriors.) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 02:49:39 -0700 From: Angelo Bertolli Subject: Re: Anyone have any interesting... I don't know how helpful this is, but I always saw Morphail and MacGregor as sort of evil... and Morphail as someone who would try to obtain other lands through force, whereas MacGregor does it more diplomatically. Particularly MacGregor teaming up with Morphail to acquire other states where Morphail seems to do all the work, and the others don't know MacGregor is in on it. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Kelly" Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 1:35 PM Subject: Anyone have any interesting... Hey all, I need to know if anyone has any interesting intrigue plots for the Princes of Glantri, any help would be appreciated. JK Wolf ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 09:16:10 EST From: Alex Benson Subject: Re: Anyone have any interesting... <> In my PS crossover, one adventure that I am playing with involves a Glantrian Princess. Without giving much away and going into much detail, it focuses on a certain post Gaz princess. According to the tanar'ri, her mother made a pact to gain the affections of her supposed father. Given the woman involved, this extra influence can be easily accepted. Since both parents are dead, the debt rests with the daughter. Chaos and irony insue. The plot is a farce. These guys are fiends afterall and enjoy an opportunity to torment this person, perhaps gaining some leverage over them. This woman also used the fiends in a Net Almanac, thus ticking them off. The PS material is set in Glantri so there will be numerous plotlines that pick at sores initiated in canon and non-canon materials. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 07:54:49 -0800 From: John Calvin Subject: Toad heads (was Green orcish blood?) >> > Still, orcs having green blood might be a novelty, and since I don't have > Gaz 10, it might indeed be that it says something about the color of orcish > blood that the writer of that novel but which I didn't. > No GAZ10 doesn't say anything about blood, just color of skin and hair and facial characteristics. According to GAZ10, the most common type of hobgoblins outside of the Broken Lands have toad heads. << Oh wow. Could there be a connection between this and the ancient "Cult of the Frog?" Perhaps hobgoblins started out on Mystara as one of St. Stephen's breeding projects? Some possibilities. John ===== Rule #53. If the beautiful princess that I capture says "I'll never marry you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!", I will say "Oh well" and kill her. from "A Guide to Becoming an Evil Overlord" by Peter Anspach __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Find the one for you at Yahoo! Personals http://personals.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 08:14:11 -0800 From: Joe Kelly Subject: Re: Anyone have any interesting... thanks Giampaolo! that was a great help! Later! >>> agathokles@LIBERO.IT 11/15/01 06:21AM >>> Joe Kelly wrote: > Hey Kit, actually I have been using your stuff for who will attend my = conference but when I tried looking at the Princes there was nothing. > Just their families, relatives and associates. Unless it is mentioned = somewhere else. > I have visited the Houses of Lords and the Noble Houses but nothing on = the Princes. So now what? As GPD, we've never done individual write-ups for the Princes--this is because all of them are detailed in the Gaz or in G:KoM (while the other characters only get a few lines at most). Therefore, the best place to look for the Princes' plots is actually the section "Stories and Tales", and its equivalent on the Paparazzi website. Also, the History section has some insight to offer on the Princes, though it deals mostly with the past ones. Finally, Ohad Shaham's homepage (there's a link in the GPD links page) is mostly about Prince Morphail, and Jennifer Favia Guerra's page has write-ups for Jherek and Carnelia (see the links to the mini-gazs in the GPD links page). -- Giampaolo Agosta agathokles@libero.it agosta@elet.polimi.it http://digilander.iol.it/agathokles ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 08:21:05 -0800 From: Joe Kelly Subject: Newsletter lists If anyone is interested I have persistently been looking up Fantasy = Newsletters for my campaign. I have found several, and if there is = interest, I will post them. So let me know. One thing to keep in mind, is = the newsletters of course will have to be reworded to fit your campaign, = but in the one sense, it gives your players the feeling they are not the = only ones out there. :) Joe JK Wolf ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 11:03:30 -0500 From: Geoff Gander Subject: Re: The Minotaur dilemma (was: Sentient Races of /Agathokles wrote:/ > (BTW, I think there is a fan-created Minotaur nation somewhere, I'll add > it in the next release) Yes, it was Francesco Defferari, IIRC, who wrote it. Should be in the Vaults. Geoff -- Geoff Gander, BA 97 Cartographer/Game Designer/Government Peon Carnifex Loremaster au998@freenet.carleton.ca : www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Realm/2091 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 10:32:12 -0800 From: John Calvin Subject: Re: Firelord Saga - part I Hi Ville, First off I'd like to say, I love reading these campaign ideas of yours. They are full of ideas just ready to be expanded upon and used. Keep sending them! Now, on to some comments: >> In the early years of the Nithian empire, worship of Rathanos was widespread. In addition to the sect created by the Firelord, there were the mysterious Magician Fire Worshippers, who forged various alliances with beings in the Elemetal Plane of Fire. (Read the excellent article by Sharon Dornhoff on the climate of Nithia, and the rise of Ffire Worship. The article is in the Vaults: http://dnd.starflung.com/ylarclim.html) It is highly likely that the latter were also linked to the cult of Rathanos. The arrival of the Alphatians around 1000 BC brought new potential allies to the cult. Even though the main portion of the newcomers were Followers of the Air, some remnants of the Followers of the Fire sect slipped into Mystara, and eventually contacted the Rathanos worshippers in Nithia. Note: It was during this time that knowledge of the Firelord and the Nexus [see below] entered the texts of the Followers of Fire. This would eventually bring them closer to the cult of Rathanos. Thus it is understandable that the new Firelord will have close ties with the underground Followers of Fire in Alphatia. << I really love most of Sharon's work, but I hadn't seen this before. Yes, it all makes sense. I like the way you tied in the Firelord to all of Sharon's postulations. I have my own theories as to why Nithia became such a desert and I'll share them here. IMC, the quick rise of Nithia can be attributed in part to the coming of several gold dragons fleeing the destruction of the Golden EMpire after the GRoF. In order to heal their wounds, these dragons went into hibernation in the Nithian area. They were awoken several centuries later by human encroachment. Instead of destroying these humans, they took them under their collective wings and taught them the "ways of the Dragons" (see some of Bruce's articles in Dragon Magazine IIRC issues 170 and 171). Now they had a force of humans that could watch over their lairs and protect them from any other intrusions. The humans in turn gained powerful magic (much of it fire related) and were taught the practice of Sublimation (see Dragon 170). This is the main reason that the Nithians built pyramids and filled them with treasures. Unfortunately in order to keep themselves alive, the dragons needed to sustain themselves with a form of "defiling" magic. Their efforts slowly turned Nithia from a lush environment into a blazing wasteland. The dragons were soon forgotten by most of the Nithian populace (including all but the most knowledgible pharaohs) and gradually some of the most powerful Nithian magic was lost (including the practice of Sublimation). >> Note II: The earlier text suggests that there was an opportynity for Ascension around 3000 BC (depending on the origins given for Rathanos). Was there a prehistoric Firelord during the destruction of Blackmoor? Elves in Vulcania? << Heh. An interesting idea. What does "an new empire of fire" really mean? Perhaps it is synonomous with "a Great Rain of Fire"... or perhaps the Mystaran archeaologists are all wrong and it is really a "Great Reign of Fire?" Heh. >> To complete the Ritual of Ascension, the Nexus candidate not only needs the required area, he/she also must be either a Cleric of Rathanos or a Fire-related mage. Also, summoning the Starfire Sphere and his Constellation down from the heavens requires a lot of power, inaccessible to any single individual. Thus the candidate has to gather a large amount of Followers, both mages and clerics. This gathering of power is at the core of the Cult of the Starfire Sphere. << Once again I like the Ritual of Ascension. In many respects it parallels the Ritual of Sublimatin that dragons must go through (as outlined in Dragon 170). Recently I've been trying to put together a campaign based on the idea of ancient civilizations rising again. The Firelord is just the thing. This is all something that I can use. Now I just have to find time to use it ;) John ===== Rule #53. If the beautiful princess that I capture says "I'll never marry you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!", I will say "Oh well" and kill her. from "A Guide to Becoming an Evil Overlord" by Peter Anspach __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Find the one for you at Yahoo! Personals http://personals.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 14:14:20 -0500 From: Geoff Gander Subject: Re: Black shadow elves (was Green orcish blood?) David wrote: > Actually, Gaz 5 showed a dark-skinned female elf without clearly > revealing her ethnic origin. Mystara actually offers all sorts of > interesting possibilities to explain her ancestry. You could have an interesting Davanian or Skotharian elven clan have these traits. To be honest, I thought I saw this picture on another product, somewhere. I had initially thought that TSR was just being lazy, and recycling older artwork for newer products, but I could be wrong. Geoff -- Geoff Gander, BA 97 Cartographer/Game Designer/Government Peon Carnifex Loremaster au998@freenet.carleton.ca : www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Realm/2091 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 12:47:26 -0800 From: Chris Furneaux Subject: Re: Black shadow elves (was Green orcish blood?) > Did the shadowelf Gazetteer offer any explanation to > their albino > complexion? I mean, are they born that way? If you wanted to check it for yourself, it's still avalible at: ftp://ftp.mpgn.com/Gaming/ADND/Worlds/Mystara/ And you can get maps for it from: http://perso.club-internet.fr/thibsylv/maps/known_world/shadow_elves/shadow_elves.htm I only just got around to re-formatting it. The Dm guide went from 100+ pages in standard font to a more managable 45 pages (players ~25). It's almost as good as owning it (but you don't get the cool artwork) If anyone wants the re-formatted guide e-mail me. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Find the one for you at Yahoo! Personals http://personals.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 23:45:35 -0500 From: Dan Eustace Subject: Re: Firelord Saga - part I Can you describe the practical effects on Mystara if the Ascension were successful? The campaign seems to be geared at stopping the cult. What if, instead the PCs were followers of Rathanos? One of them could even be the Fire-Lord, and this could be something of a quest for Immortality. ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 14 Nov 2001 to 15 Nov 2001 (#2001-314) ****************************************************************