I'm thinking of making Nuitari the winner of the conflict for whom heads the pantheon in a surprise move for the "war of the evil gods" in my game.
He's already an intermediate god due to the fact that in our game he got to absorb a demigod child of Chemosh and Takhasis thanks to the PC's help
I think he's portrayed as suave, calculating, and pretty much as close to Evil Raistlin as a god you can get without those wonderfully troubling qualities like weakness or insane bitterness....
Probably a bit like Dalamar.
What do you guys think and what would his new porfolio and Priesthood be like?
But my point is - Why does he -want- more? Already, pretty much every evil endeavor goes through him first. People want powerful wizards on their side, after all. I see him as more of an advisor, power-behind-the-throne type, that lets the war between evil rage on so that he can ease up to a spot of power right beside the winner. But does he want to win, himself? No. That means time away from magic, time spent managing the endeavors of evil as a whole. Why would he want that? Much better to keep on doing what he does, but possessing the power to make whoever's in power do what he wants - Be it Sargonnas, Chemosh, Hiddukel, Morgion, or even Zeboim.
Anyway, that's how I see him. I think tearing him away from the magic trio would upset the balance there, since he'd either be unable to put all his time towards magic, or be exerting too much power towards magic, forcing his cousins to find some way to compensate. He's also not supposed to have a priesthood.
He's got wizards.As Udjat said, Nuitari doesn't have any clerics, as his followers are wizards.
That isn't to say that Nuitari doesn't have his own aspirations for power. I see him moreso as a niche player. He has magic, he's cool with that.
As for the player behind the scenes, that's Hiddukel. He'd be the guy manipulating everyone against each other.
Sargonnas is more of your power player right now. He has a healthy following in the minotaurs, and the ways of wrath and vengeance are eternal.
Chemosh is also a power player right now, having all those lost souls after the War of Souls. He knows that Sargonnas is the big guy on the block, but he's no wimp himself.
As for Morgion and Zeboim...we'll just have to see.
In other news, did anyone else wonder exactly why it was that KJ got the nod in the good corner? If I remember correctly, he was pretty far down the line in the pecking order when Pally was around. I think Majere or Mishy was second in line - but of course, again, I doubt any good novelist will stick the pacifistic goddess of healing in charge, and ditto on the god of monks, who doesn't seem to have many, if any, followers on Krynn - they would not make for good stories. Also, did anyone wonder about Habbakuk and the KoS? It was my understanding that Pally formed the orders with his TWO sons - KJ and Habby. I think Pally had the Rosies, KJ wielded the Swords, and Habby wore the Crowns - is this not correct? Now, it seems to be all KJ's thing. I guess they had to do something after Pally left, but why give it wholly over to KJ, with nothing for Habby? Although, really, I have to wonder why Habby was ever part of it to begin with, since he's nature-boy and doesn't seem to have much to do with the KoS.
Anyway, enough rambling, and back to Christmas.
I'm thinking for my campaign Nuitari might EXTREMELY reluctantly give his dominion over magic to a mortal to take his place as god of black magic while he takes some other porfolios to compensate.
(one of the player characters in our game whose supposedly his son might work)
The problem with this of course is that Good very much is suddenly back in the suck corner.
In any case I do have some general problems with Sargonnes. Frankly I just don't LIKE "Grrr, gnash, hahaha" Darth Vader style evil dominating warlord gods.
I didn't like Bane in Forgotten Realms either or as my players called him "The Punk"
I don't much care for Undead kill everything mad gods either.
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Re: Kiri
He's the most similar to Paladine really save he's a younger vibrant one. It's sort of like Tyr vs. Torm. Their roles are identical really save one is portrayed as a young hothead. A more mythological example might be Horus ascending to become Horus-Re after Ra died
Re: Chemosh
Actually if he became head of the pantheon I imagine he'd probably get all death in his porfolio and become a "grim reaper" type
As far as Kiri-Jolith becoming the head honcho of the good gods I can actually see this.
Let's look at it.
Branchala - The bard king. Like he would want to be in charge.
Habbakuk - As stated earlier he seems to be more interested in nature than the people.
Majere - He is actually a possibility if he wasn't suce an inner focused god (Monk), as before, he is more along the lines of an advisor.
Mishakel - Goddess of healing. She doesn't seem to want power or even control.
Solinari - Only cares about magic, and has enough to worry about with sorcerors free again in the land.
So Kiri-Jolith would seem like the only logical choice.
Now if Sirrion and Shinare get a "divorce" and one goes good and the other bad, who knows.
As for the evil side.
Chemosh - God of the dead. Everyone dies eventuality anyone so why not start controlling them now? I mean Hades was always trying it wasn't he?
Hiddukel - As always the con artist in the background. I can see him controlling from the shadows maybe but not where everyone can see him.
Morgion - Another worker behind closed doors.
Nuitari - Same as Solinari above.
Zeboim - She would try simply because nobody even thinks about her.
Sargonnas - Simply because he thinks he is entitled to it. I mean Nuitari and Zeboim are his kids and he ain't about to let them rule.
So the gods of good already has a leg up on the gods of Darkness.
It's always been a feature of my campaign world...
The Clerics are usually drawn from the families of wizards or would-be-mages whom for whatever reason find that they are ill suited for the magical lifestyle (often showing no apptitude for spellcasting)
Clerics of the Gods of Magic mostly serve the process of record keepers, managers of finance, and spiritual advisors to the Orders of High Sorcery in my game.
They work in general to seek out candidates for wizardry with their spells (that detect magical potential) along with helping to establish magical schools as well as blunt the opinions against wizardry that is prevalent in so many areas.
Multi-classing is not unheard of and actually quite common but the fact is quite clear in the heirarchy that you will never rise as powerful in the world of wizardry if you devote yourself to the Gods of Magic's heirarchy as you would if you devoted yourself to their "gift"
They are small churches but important ones that are very close to the Orders of High Sorcery. I always played their relationship though as one of alliance, friendship, but mutual disdain....
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The Clerics saw the Mages as all too lax in realizing all their power came from the Magic Gods2
The 'secret' consensus was that the clergy was for washouts whom had to have their magic 'dolled' out to them with a spoonHowever, I would prefer that the gods of evil struggle for power ends with a resolution that sees no victory for any particular diety. After all, we don't need all the gods of evil in alliance under a strong leader, because we don't need another War of the Lance. It would be much better to have evil turn upon itself and be independent.
Myself, I'm going to resolve the power struggle amongst the gods by creating two new ones. On the side of good will be born a child goddess of innocence and purity, while on the side of evil will be born a goddess of madness. The latter goddess will sow discord among the gods of evil, ensuring that no evil god steps onto Takhisis' throne.
The entire place becomes a beacon to evil and a massive swamp of darkness filled with all manner of horrors that the tower at the center is filled neverthless great knowledge from.
As for the other gods? In a way I agree with Ferratus, that they should never get truly, totally united under one banner again. But I'd like to see them try. And maybe, for short stretches of time, one of them can seize the 'throne', so to speak - But I think in general, separate is better. They each have their own niche, and none of them are really fit to claim dominance for an extended period of time. Chemosh is too central to death, Sargonnas not subtle enough, Zeboim's too random and fickle, Morgion is practically a force of entropy in and of itself (I don't see much of anything surviving his reign), and Hiddukel is not a strong enough figurehead. The power struggle will go on for a while, which I think is just fine - Gives some time for the world to rebuild without there being another Age of Might, and it keeps things immensely interesting. So much for 'black and white'!
Good has its own problems. Kiri-Jolith got the nod, but I don't think it was an all-encompassing nod, so to speak. He's too focused, not as versatile as his father. I don't think he'll ever be 'in charge', but then I can't really see this of any of the Good gods. But is this a problem? Not really. Unlike Evil, Good has the option of uniting, of being more a council. This keeps them united, but also divided, so that they can't mount another Age of Might or truly overcome the Evil side, which will forever be fractioning and reforming and realligning itself. But they'll be steady, and constant - Quite the opposite, but in a very good way for the setting, I think. Like Evil, they each have their own niche.
Neutral remains the only faction that has a versatile leader, so to speak. When you look at it, Takhisis and Paladine were just great leaders because they had no one particular thing (save dragons) that they were about. They could do several things, though not quite as well as their subordinates. Upon losing them, there's quite a bit of chaos left in the wake - Which means the Father of All and Nothing did his job.
New times for Krynn, and definitely interesting times. And there's so much campaign material in all of that! I love it.
The gods are after all the source of adventures on Krynn and suddenly having evil recover from the War of Souls while Good is considerably less so is something that really keeps things interesting.
Similarly so if Iolanthas is freed and takes over Evil after being "removed" from Chaos's possession (like Gilean suspects in the write-up by the Appendix author in the back of the book)
The balance being disrupted makes for fun adventuring after all and puts good at a disadvantage.
It also gives the interesting incentive to perhaps find some candidate for godhood to raise up for the gods of Good. Sort of like the fact the White Robe position Palin held is vacant and aching for a player character to hold.
Though you might be right, having various gods claiming the throne at different times might be interesting
No, I'm firmly of the belief that a period of balance needs to occur. Hopefully a long period of balance. And in my opinion, this sort of situation could be even more interesting than another calaclysmic 'Evil is taking over everything!' plot. Much more 'shades of grey' than 'black and a little white'. Just my opinion, though.
That's about the sum of my rebuttal.
It's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There's a never ending tide of evil and adventure that will only finally go into it's time of "peace and harmony" when the game is over.
Besides the Middle Ages were non-stop wars and lasted centuries