UnCon: War of the Worlds - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

UnCon: War of the Worlds

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
ORC_Paradox
Sep 18, 2005 21:43:29 This competition is multi layered and is taking place across the cosmos.

It is run in four phases. The first phase runs until Thursday. This is where people post their entries. On Thursday, nomination phase will take place where people may nominate threads to move to the next round. The top entries (Three to five, depending on the number of entries) will be up on a poll to be voted on as Friday's phase. The votes will end Friday night.

The final entries will be put up against each other in one final poll against the top entries from the other world entries on Saturday. Woo hoo! You're not just setting up the best entry for your area, but against the other areas as well!

Here's what you'll be making:

A mace.

Not just any mace, but one that represents this world. We need to see the back story of the mace, the powers of the mace, the material it's made of, and it's current location/owner. Be as creative and descriptive as possible. The challenge is to present the mace as part of your chosen game world, but be clearly explained to folks who may or may not know anything about the world. Folks will be voting on your entry based on coolness factor and adaptability to any game world, even with the rich history. What this means is we don't need a detailed description of every war in the game world, or all the details of the game world. But enough of the flavor of the game world should be apparent in the mace's description.
#2
ripvanwormer
Sep 19, 2005 21:26:02 The Mace of St. Carmichael.
In his mortal life (in either southern Keoland or what is now the Yeomanry) St. Carmichael of the Conflagration was a cleric of Rao, God of Peace, and he desired peace above all things. He ran a home for the orphans of wars, and his temple gave money to widows. He hated war but had no idea how to stop it, so patching up its casualties was the best he thought he could do.

Then his peaceful life was shattered by a group of demon-worshipping marauders calling themselves the Cult of Chaos, who burned his village and his temple with it using terrible magics. Although he survived, Carmichael had lost all hope, and he sat in the ruins simply waiting to die. It was then he was saved by a song, a mournful threnody sung by a neighbor whom Carmichael had seldom interacted with before. The song described in lurid detail the horrors of the Rain of Colorless Fire, where half the continent, the entire ancient empire of the Suel, was destroyed in a magical holocaust - it was a traditional song, not so ancient in those days, but Carmichael had never heard it sung so completely or so well, or in circumstances so fitting. So moved was he that he made a pilgrimage to the Sea of Dust, the endless sea of dust and ash that was the only remnants of the land where the Suel people had once ruled. For months he wandered the ashen desert, and when he returned he was a changed man.

Now Carmichael was filled with an evangelistic fire, certain that, if it could cause such devastation, magic must be inherently and irredeemably evil. At last, he thought, he had a solution to the problem of mortal suffering. Bringing together like-minded followers of Rao, St. Cuthbert, and St. Bane, he declared a crusade against all evil magic.

Although the crusaders concentrated their wrath on evil spell casters, they preached vehemently against all magic, holding public burnings of magical books, scrolls, spell components, and other paraphernalia whenever possible. They urged wizards to follow their example, and it wasn’t unknown, there or since, for overzealous followers of St. Carmichael to target spell casters who were perhaps not as evil as they thought. Still, Carmichael’s flock has done quite a bit of good, slaying many high-profile necromancers as well as defeating the notorious Cult of Chaos on several different occasions over the centuries (though not as permanently as they might have liked).

After taking his crusade to the Outer Planes and slaying several powerful infernal lords, Carmichael made a pilgrimage to the great vortex of null-magic at the center of the Outlands, also known as the plane of Concordant Opposition, where he vanished from the knowledge of all sages both mortal and divine. Years later he reappeared as a quasi-deity of sorts and reassembled his followers into a church of his own.

St. Carmichael’s prohibition against magic, interpreted strictly, is also a prohibition against divine magic, and as a consequence many of his worshippers are simple fighters, warriors, and barbarians. However, the faith of St. Carmichael allows divine magic if used judiciously, in the service of the greater good, so a small amount of clerics, rangers, and paladins also serve the saint, with the provision that if their goal of eliminating all magic is ever reached they must destroy any magical items in their posession and must never cast a spell again. No arcane spell casters are permitted in St. Carmichael’s flock.

St. Carmichael's creed.
Magic is the cause of all war and strife. Magic makes swords and spears sharper and more deadly; it allows evil-workers to rain fire from the sky and assassins to manifest from other planes. It is over the promise or threat of magic that kingdoms fight; magic makes men greedy and fearful, the carrot and the stick of atrocity. Boccob is the twin of Hextor, the inspiration and soul of all demons and creatures of darkness.

The Freemages of Keoland are a threat to public order; better to return to the old days when magic was only in the hands of those of noble birth. Far better to rid the world of it entirely, and claim the world in the name of Reason.

St. Carmichael is Lawful Good. His domains are Law, Good, and Protection.

Variant myths:
Some claim that St. Carmichael is only the latest name taken by the man once known as Slerotin, the great Mage of Power who led his people to safety from the Rain of Colorless Fire, splitting the very mountains apart to form a subterranean path. Slerotin did not die, as the great Suel Houses claim today, but instead repented of the foolishness of the Suel Imperium, broke his wands, burnt his books, and returned to the Sea of Dust, where he wandered, lamenting, until he reemerged as Carmichael of the Conflagration.

Others suggest that St. Carmichael is only a pawn of the being known as Tharizdun, who is intent on draining away all the magic (and all life!) of Oerth. St. Carmichael is the dark god’s herald, helping to usher in magic’s final entropy by destroying the knowledge that is the only true defense against the evil god’s awakening.

The Mace itself.
The Mace of St. Carmichael is a minor artifact, a relic said to have been wielded by the saint himself. It has no magical bonus when used against mundane opponents, but it is a bane weapon; when used against a spell caster, or a creature with spell-like abilities it has a +2 enhancement bonus and does +2d6 points of bonus damage against the foe. It also generates a constant anti-magic field, though the weapon itself is unaffected by this as a construct would be. Further, the wielder can project greater dispel magic, three times per day, at a 20th caster level.

The mace is made entirely of a dark metal said to have come from a meteorite. It is black, three feet long, and its head is crudely forged, but clearly intended to resemble a human fist. Other than its unusually long grip and supernatural properties, it is otherwise similar to a standard heavy mace.

The Church of St. Carmichael lost this precious relic in -162 CY while one of its champions was fighting the Insurrection of the Yaheetes, a revolt started by a man possessed by the Hand and Eye of Vecna. The champion tumbled into a dimensional rift thought to open into either the Negative Energy Plane or one of the negative quasielemental planes, and neither his body nor the mace have yet been recovered.

In other worlds.
In other campaign worlds, all you need is a saint, an ancient magical holocaust, and a group of evil magic-workers to inspire him.
#3
ORC_Paradox
Sep 23, 2005 20:34:44 Congrats, ripvanwormer! You're the winner of this round and move on to the next.
#4
ORC_Paradox
Sep 25, 2005 9:31:22 http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=508286

Final round
#5
zombiegleemax
Sep 26, 2005 5:52:18 Yikes! The Mace of St. Carmichael is waaay off the lead.

C'mon 'Hawkers!
Let's put our votes where our mouths are (if that makes any sense at all) and show that there's life in the Old Setting yet!

P.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 ORC_Paradox Sep 18, 2005 21:43:29	This competition is multi layered and is taking place across the cosmos. It is run in four phases. The first phase runs until Thursday. This is where people post their entries. On Thursday, nomination phase will take place where people may nominate threads to move to the next round. The top entries (Three to five, depending on the number of entries) will be up on a poll to be voted on as Friday's phase. The votes will end Friday night. The final entries will be put up against each other in one final poll against the top entries from the other world entries on Saturday. Woo hoo! You're not just setting up the best entry for your area, but against the other areas as well! Here's what you'll be making: A mace. Not just any mace, but one that represents this world. We need to see the back story of the mace, the powers of the mace, the material it's made of, and it's current location/owner. Be as creative and descriptive as possible. The challenge is to present the mace as part of your chosen game world, but be clearly explained to folks who may or may not know anything about the world. Folks will be voting on your entry based on coolness factor and adaptability to any game world, even with the rich history. What this means is we don't need a detailed description of every war in the game world, or all the details of the game world. But enough of the flavor of the game world should be apparent in the mace's description.
#2 ripvanwormer Sep 19, 2005 21:26:02	The Mace of St. Carmichael. In his mortal life (in either southern Keoland or what is now the Yeomanry) St. Carmichael of the Conflagration was a cleric of Rao, God of Peace, and he desired peace above all things. He ran a home for the orphans of wars, and his temple gave money to widows. He hated war but had no idea how to stop it, so patching up its casualties was the best he thought he could do. Then his peaceful life was shattered by a group of demon-worshipping marauders calling themselves the Cult of Chaos, who burned his village and his temple with it using terrible magics. Although he survived, Carmichael had lost all hope, and he sat in the ruins simply waiting to die. It was then he was saved by a song, a mournful threnody sung by a neighbor whom Carmichael had seldom interacted with before. The song described in lurid detail the horrors of the Rain of Colorless Fire, where half the continent, the entire ancient empire of the Suel, was destroyed in a magical holocaust - it was a traditional song, not so ancient in those days, but Carmichael had never heard it sung so completely or so well, or in circumstances so fitting. So moved was he that he made a pilgrimage to the Sea of Dust, the endless sea of dust and ash that was the only remnants of the land where the Suel people had once ruled. For months he wandered the ashen desert, and when he returned he was a changed man. Now Carmichael was filled with an evangelistic fire, certain that, if it could cause such devastation, magic must be inherently and irredeemably evil. At last, he thought, he had a solution to the problem of mortal suffering. Bringing together like-minded followers of Rao, St. Cuthbert, and St. Bane, he declared a crusade against all evil magic. Although the crusaders concentrated their wrath on evil spell casters, they preached vehemently against all magic, holding public burnings of magical books, scrolls, spell components, and other paraphernalia whenever possible. They urged wizards to follow their example, and it wasn’t unknown, there or since, for overzealous followers of St. Carmichael to target spell casters who were perhaps not as evil as they thought. Still, Carmichael’s flock has done quite a bit of good, slaying many high-profile necromancers as well as defeating the notorious Cult of Chaos on several different occasions over the centuries (though not as permanently as they might have liked). After taking his crusade to the Outer Planes and slaying several powerful infernal lords, Carmichael made a pilgrimage to the great vortex of null-magic at the center of the Outlands, also known as the plane of Concordant Opposition, where he vanished from the knowledge of all sages both mortal and divine. Years later he reappeared as a quasi-deity of sorts and reassembled his followers into a church of his own. St. Carmichael’s prohibition against magic, interpreted strictly, is also a prohibition against divine magic, and as a consequence many of his worshippers are simple fighters, warriors, and barbarians. However, the faith of St. Carmichael allows divine magic if used judiciously, in the service of the greater good, so a small amount of clerics, rangers, and paladins also serve the saint, with the provision that if their goal of eliminating all magic is ever reached they must destroy any magical items in their posession and must never cast a spell again. No arcane spell casters are permitted in St. Carmichael’s flock. *St. Carmichael's creed.* Magic is the cause of all war and strife. Magic makes swords and spears sharper and more deadly; it allows evil-workers to rain fire from the sky and assassins to manifest from other planes. It is over the promise or threat of magic that kingdoms fight; magic makes men greedy and fearful, the carrot and the stick of atrocity. Boccob is the twin of Hextor, the inspiration and soul of all demons and creatures of darkness. The Freemages of Keoland are a threat to public order; better to return to the old days when magic was only in the hands of those of noble birth. Far better to rid the world of it entirely, and claim the world in the name of Reason. St. Carmichael is Lawful Good. His domains are Law, Good, and Protection. *Variant myths:* Some claim that St. Carmichael is only the latest name taken by the man once known as Slerotin, the great Mage of Power who led his people to safety from the Rain of Colorless Fire, splitting the very mountains apart to form a subterranean path. Slerotin did not die, as the great Suel Houses claim today, but instead repented of the foolishness of the Suel Imperium, broke his wands, burnt his books, and returned to the Sea of Dust, where he wandered, lamenting, until he reemerged as Carmichael of the Conflagration. Others suggest that St. Carmichael is only a pawn of the being known as Tharizdun, who is intent on draining away all the magic (and all life!) of Oerth. St. Carmichael is the dark god’s herald, helping to usher in magic’s final entropy by destroying the knowledge that is the only true defense against the evil god’s awakening. The Mace itself. The Mace of St. Carmichael is a minor artifact, a relic said to have been wielded by the saint himself. It has no magical bonus when used against mundane opponents, but it is a bane weapon; when used against a spell caster, or a creature with spell-like abilities it has a +2 enhancement bonus and does +2d6 points of bonus damage against the foe. It also generates a constant anti-magic field, though the weapon itself is unaffected by this as a construct would be. Further, the wielder can project greater dispel magic, three times per day, at a 20th caster level. The mace is made entirely of a dark metal said to have come from a meteorite. It is black, three feet long, and its head is crudely forged, but clearly intended to resemble a human fist. Other than its unusually long grip and supernatural properties, it is otherwise similar to a standard heavy mace. The Church of St. Carmichael lost this precious relic in -162 CY while one of its champions was fighting the Insurrection of the Yaheetes, a revolt started by a man possessed by the Hand and Eye of Vecna. The champion tumbled into a dimensional rift thought to open into either the Negative Energy Plane or one of the negative quasielemental planes, and neither his body nor the mace have yet been recovered. *In other worlds.* In other campaign worlds, all you need is a saint, an ancient magical holocaust, and a group of evil magic-workers to inspire him.
#3 ORC_Paradox Sep 23, 2005 20:34:44	Congrats, ripvanwormer! You're the winner of this round and move on to the next.
#4 ORC_Paradox Sep 25, 2005 9:31:22	http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=508286 Final round
#5 zombiegleemax Sep 26, 2005 5:52:18	Yikes! The Mace of St. Carmichael is waaay off the lead. C'mon 'Hawkers! Let's put our votes where our mouths are (if that makes any sense at all) and show that there's life in the Old Setting yet! P.