Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Feb 15, 2004 12:34:03	Heres a neat idea. We all know that the Gods of the Outer Planes have no influence, or ways to extend their influence to, Athas, because of the Grey. However, what about near-divine beings from the Inner Planes? For instance, the Archomentals, powerful, nearly divine beings, could convince, lets say, a random Athasian priest to worship it. In return, the Archomentals, while unable to grant all of the spells a full fledged god could, grant the priest up to 3rd level spells of its element. Eventually, if the "Archomental Cult" grows big enough, the Priests might find more power offorded them, as their Archomental patron begins to grow in power. Does it work in Darksun?
#2 Kamelion Feb 15, 2004 13:00:23	Sounds cool. Isn't this kind of thing even hinted at in some of the 2e material? Thinking of EAFW here - been a while since I read it properly...
#3 zombiegleemax Feb 15, 2004 15:39:56	I would have to sit and give a re-read of Earth, Fire, etc, etc, for the canon based answer, but my take on the elemental priests was that yes, there are elemental lords and 'archomental' like beings, but they are not directly the ones being worshiped by the priests of Athas. They have their own, more personal goals in mind, goals that are somewhat removed from the day to day activities of the Athasian priests (although they would in fact support those who worship their own element). Its the nature of the element itself that priests worship; the intangible aspect of the element given form. Elemental lords are like the go-betweens. They set up the pact between priest and element, but they don't grant spells, they don't have divine-like power. A fire elemental lord can be considered the Voice of Flame (a name for an elemental lord that has played into several of my campaigns). Its rather like in Ravenloft, having someone worship the Dark Powers. In the end, the elemental lords (archomentals if you wish), are simply potent yet petty beings who concern themselves more with their own internal politics and schemes, a few of which spill over into Athas proper.
#4 zombiegleemax Feb 16, 2004 19:43:19	Interesting. But I was wondering if the Grey disables the connection of Gods and their worshippers if they aren't from the Outer Planes, for instance, their are Elemental Gods(Not many), and Archomentals are almost Demigods, so is there anything preventing a Elemental Priest from serving a particular God of his or her element, rather than the entire Plane?
#5 zombiegleemax Feb 16, 2004 21:59:30	There are no elemental gods in the Athasian cosmology. The elemental planes for Athas just aren't the same as the ones presented in Planescape and Manual of the Planes. And while I don't have a major issue incorporating archomentals into the mix, they were never originally there to begin with. So, as far as them being 'almost' demigods wouldn't make a lick of difference even if you did include them since there is no way to become an actual god on Athas. This most likely holds true for elemental beings just as it would for anyone or anything else, otherwise, you'd be giving Dregoth an easy way towards Ascend that I personally wouldn't rather have happen. Sorry, but if your looking for a shortcut around canon, your simply not going to find any. But, if you want to bypass canon altogether, that's fine as well. Exploitable loopholes are not the mainstay of the setting, and that seems to be what your digging for.