The Mystic
2017-11-13, 01:16 AM
Welcome.
First of all, the usual start to a thread like this. If you recognise my username as that of your GM, kindly leave now.
Otherwise if you are a current player or intend to play in the future I have no personal stake, but suggest not reading further. If you want to though, I welcome your input.
------------------------------------------------
Right, with that out of the way, hello everyone. I'm going to be starting a Wrath of the Righteous campaign in the near future (Probably around the new year, maybe sooner, depending on other circumstances). Almost everybody I talk to about roleplaying is going to be in the campaign, which leaves me having all these ideas I'm excited about, as well as these quandaries I'd love to bounce off of people and little outlet for either. So I'm making this thread. Hope there are some who are interested.
The campaign is "Wrath of the Righteous" adventure path. I'll put up a brief summary here, but unless somebody asks for elaboration I'll be assuming basic familiarity with the campaign.
The plot of Wrath of the Righteous follows the story of the worldwound, a hole rent between the abyss and the material plane just over 100 years ago, among the various cataclysms surrounding the death of the god Aroden, patron of humanity. The game begins with the demons breaking the stalemate of the last 80 or so years by destroying one of the artifacts known as the "Wardstones" which formed a nation sized barrier to keep the abyss contained. Resultant from these events are our Heroes, who find themselves invested with some of the power of this artifact, becoming "Mythic" (more on Mythic in a bit) and the increasing stakes as our heroes must go on the offensive and ultimately close the worldwound before the restraining wall fails completely.
Mythic rules for Pathfinder are similar in some ways to Epic rules from d&d. Both feature characters achieving things "Beyond the impossible" in regular play. However the implementation of these rules are quite different. Epic rules move beyond ordinary levelling, whereas mythic accompanies it. It rarely allows a character to do something they could theoretically achieve sooner than normal, but instead breaks the limits on what somebody could possibly achieve. Of course, many of these limits were there in the first place for balance reasons making Mythic something which requires careful GM management, worse, a number of options are instead "Bigger Numbers" which can really throw balance out the window. One example of breaking these limits is, while a Mythic Necromancer cannot necessarily cast "Create Greater Undead," which is determined by their normal character level, they can gain the "Mythic Command Undead" feat at their first mythic tier, which grants them the ability to control intelligent undead without them receiving a new save every day. In the Golarion setting, as far as I can tell, Mythic is not talent or skill. If you are talented you have higher attributes, if you are skilled you have more levels. Being Mythic is the ability to achieve things that no level of mundane training or practice can achieve.
The background traits of each character leave them "Primed" to carry mythic power, but do not confer anything of the sort on them just yet.
------------------------------------------------
The Cast of Player Characters
The first major change I've made was removing the synergy bonuses for taking the Mythic Path associated with the campaign traits. My players are all capable character builders who are unlikely to have any issue being powerful anyway, and if their traits fit mechanically and thematically there is no reason to arbitrarily curtail their options.
Each of the characters needed to find a trait that suited their backstory, and ideally a different one to the other player's choices. I kept the option open for a custom one, but am glad they've all found one that felt fitting and saved me the trouble (Many had largely designed their characters before selecting traits, so it worked out quite well). The character also needed a reason to be in Kenabres for the Armasse celebrations that would kick of the story. Beyond this, and a willingness to fight the demonic hordes, they have a large degree of freedom in what they create, and I encouraged them to find things that Mythic let them do that was normally just not viable.
Sam Sparrow
Class: "Swiftblade" (Arcane Bloodrager that barely resembles the original class, but in a good way)
Campaign Trait: Riftwarden Orphan
Intended Mythic Path: Trickster
Sam's player has definitely taken the "Find something that normally wouldn't work that you want to play"
suggestion to heart. His character, called a "Swiftblade" to avoid the preconceptions around the bloodrager doesn't get angry,
he gets fast. The Urban Bloodrager archetype lets bloodrage give him dexterity bonuses and has no restriction on the actions he can take. At 4th level he gains a permanent blur while raging and at 8th level he can switch this to Haste. Mythic abilities allow him to further increase his base speed and when he puts resources into it he can achieve some incredible speeds.
As a former 3.5 player he wished to recapture the feel of that edition's prestige class, and has done so wonderfully.
Narratively, the character is definitely built to accommodate the mechanics, but has a Luke Skywalker charm to him never the less.
Sam is a half-elf, born to his crusader mother (Mundane Fighter, now retired) and an elven wizard father who abandoned his mother with a child, and an excuse of "A secret mission." Though his father bequeathed an Arcane bloodline upon his son,
his absenteeism soured Sam on arcane spellcasters and never worked to develop that talent, instead living with his mother,
living a relatively simple life and accepting her training in self defence. Never the less, his blood tells and Sam essentially possesses super-speed, which augments his combat prowess.
The savvy among you have probably figured out that his father did not deliberately abandon him, but was in fact killed, or turned to evil, on that fateful mission. (Trying to decide whether "No, I am your father" and "Join me, and together we shall rule" is too cliché or not, particularly as the player will pick up on the slightest speck of foreshadowing a mile away, as the trope really benefits from foreshadowing, but only if it is still a surprise in the end.
Recently Sam has discovered that his birthmark is of mystical significance to a secret society, but so far has only learned their name. The Riftwardens.
Tekri of Belkzen
Class: Fighter 1 / Cleric of Shelyn
Campaign Trait: Touched By Divinity (Heavily modified)
Intended Mythic Path: Hierophant
By far the most detailed character backstory of the group. She is also the one that diverts most from her campaign trait's description, but fortunately in ways that I could work with. More on those later. I'll start with an excerpt from the backstory the player sent me.
"Tekri was born to the Broken Grin tribe, a tribe of orcs which claimed land south of Scarwall in the Hold of Belkzen. The daughter of the tribe’s Abyss-tainted shaman, and an unknown human father. Bred for the half-orc cleverness and cunning, Tekri was destined to serve, and then replace, her mother.
There was one problem. Tekri was not particularly evil. An anomaly in the masses of orcs which populate Belkzen, she had neither the inherent maliciousness or malevolence of her brethren. She did not exactly understand why, or how, but her natural disposition put her at odds with the life she had been born into.
Now, while not exceptionally intelligent - though a little quicker than her full-blooded kin - Tekri was possessed by a strong intuitive sense, and yes, the bred-for cunning her half-breed kind were known for. She knew that if she fought back against, protested, or even merely questioned that which she lived amongst, her days would be ended. So she kept her mouth closed, and kept her eyes open for an escape."
When her tribe captured a party of adventurers, she arranged to set them free, on the condition that they take her with them. Once they had escaped she took on the role of scout and guide to the orcish lands for these adventurers and, as they travelled, began learning the strange details of the world beyond the orcish brutality that had been everything she had ever known. In particular it was the party cleric that showed her kindness. A devotee of Shelyn, goddess of art and beauty, whose mere existence seemed so alien to the Orc-blood.
All good things cannot last forever (much to Shelyn's perpetual discomfort) and Tekri returned one day from hunting to discover the party had been slaughtered.
"Though grief-stricken, Tekri knew that she had to move on, that she could not remain where she was. The orcs who had come for the group could certainly return, and even if they didn’t, sitting in a ravaged campsite that reeked of blood was a fool’s idea. But she had little idea where to go. She could not go back to the Broken Grin, nor did she wish to move backwards in life and try and find a new tribe to join. She did not want to stay in Belkzen. But where was there to go?
Tekri figured she had two options, based on what she had learnt from her foreign compatriots. She could head to Lastwall and join the crusaders there, or she could head to Absalom, and try and become a Pathfinder. She was uncertain that the crusaders would accept an orcish applicant - even if they did not simply kill her when they found her - but she had no idea where Absalom actually was, while she knew that Lastwall at least bordered the Hold.
So Tekri gathered up what camping and travel supplies had survived the raid, stuffing them into an old backpack. Surprisingly, she found the half-elf’s holy symbol, scuffed and unlooted, underneath a shred of tent canvas. So using it as a cloak clasp, she pinned the Shelynite symbol to her chest, and began making her way south-east, towards Lastwall."
But fate again, had other ideas. Between numerous distractions and clear omens, Tekri found her path turning more and more to the north, through parts of Ustalav and along the worldwound border. Eventually bringing her to an unknown city in the throws of celebration. Tekri had arrived at Kenabres in time for Armasse.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mechanically Tekri starts as a fighter, and will be transitioning to cleric shortly after the game starts (I have some ideas for this, later). Her player intends to have her play in the style of a reach cleric, functioning as a tower of safety for the party to retreat to for healing and support.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As for the "Touched by Divinity" trait. The player grossly misunderstood what elements of the trait needed to be retained for the plot to play out as intended. He ended up holding the holy symbol of Shelyn, but there wasn't much mystery or control of her parentage for me. Though her father is unknown, there seems little reason for Shelyn to have had congress with an Demon worshipping shaman. I've long since abandoned that line, as I like Tekri's backstory far better than the likely result of forcing that, and frankly it feels to me that a godling should be more than mundane, right from the beginning.
Instead I will be taking a more general "Chosen One" approach. Tekri is a true rarity among the orcs, and she has earned the attention of Shelyn for it. If not for the events of the campaign, Tekri may have been prepared, then one day returned to create a safe place in Belkzen, where others may find peace. But as she becomes involved in the events of the worldwound incursion Shelyn will have to set that aside, as the world comes to rest on Tekri's shoulders.
Fortunately the game has done a fairly appalling job at making being the child of a god relevant, mechanically or narratively, which means I'm relatively free to play with this trait as I wish.
Karus
Class: Alchemist
Campaign Trait: Chance Saviour
Intended Mythic Path: Trickster / Archmage
Karus was initially inspired by the descriptions of racism in Kenabres against Tieflings, though his player has since come to realise that the racism tends to be more subtle than overt (The epidemic of witch hunting was a few decades ago now). The character's primary aspiration was to discover a way, alchemically, to no longer be a tiefling. This starts in the early stages as being able to use spells such as Disguise Self and Alter Self but with dreams much greater, such as 'curing' the abyssal affliction of the Tiefling and potentially even of Demons themselves.
We have developed on this idea, looking at motivations and history.
Karus was born during, or slightly before, the first crusade, but remembers little of his parentage. He and his younger sister (as he has largely accepted social outcast for himself, somebody else to motivate him felt useful) have grown up in the temple of Sarenrae in Kenabres, but he and his sister grew to adulthood over an entire human lifetime, so while there are those at the temple they love, and that support them, the two still felt isolated and needed to rely on each other.
Now an adult, Karus has found his own house and work as an alchemist, but his sister (about equivalent to a human 16 year old)
remains at the temple, and has begun learning the ways of an acolyte of Sarenrae.
Karus' ambition to create a cure the abyssal taint comes from a skewed perception of Sarenrae's ideology of redemption and seeks not only to cure form, but alignment. In a somewhat childish understanding of the way such things work.
At least at the beginning of the campaign, this is an ambition, not a goal. He is aware that this isn't attainable, or at least far beyond his capabilities.
Ysabel Bertran-Saintraille
Class: Oracle of the Outer Rifts (Flavoured towards angelic powers, rather than demonic)
Campaign Trait: Child of the Crusade
Intended Mythic Path: Hierophant (I think...)
The idea behind Ysabel came from two things the player notices in the rules and lore. The first is the idea that petitioners (the spirits of the dead) are occasionally called to ascend the mountain of heaven and become an archon. The second was a quirk of the spell "Cyclic Reincarnation" which, for non-humanoids, has a 75% chance to return the creature to life as a youth of it's race (Humanoids come back as a young adult who looks suspiciously like them).
The player mused to me about playing as a hero of the first crusade, reborn part way through their ascension to celestia. While normally this is something a little too outlandish for me, I felt that it could be a very interesting concept in a Mythic campaign.
Rather than trying to finagle the mechanics, we've agreed to handwaive the exact process of being reincarnated as an infant.
From this we get Ysabel, with no memories or awareness of her past life, born as a near-human aasimar, whose soul is slowly transmuting into an archon (and indeed her capstone is "You are now an outsider").
Modern day Ysabel is the inheritor to the minor noble title originally granted to her past self, though she has left management of the estate in her mother and sister's hands in order to join the crusades.
Tristan
Class: Sorceror (Words of Power, Abyssal Bloodline)
Campaign Trait: Stolen Fury
Intended Mythic Path: Archmage
Tristan is another example of doing something normally much less viable with mythic.
Specifically this character will be using the Words of Power ruleset, mitigating the loss of normal spellcasting using the Mythic ability "Wild Arcana" which will allow the player to access the more traditional spells a few times a day. After learning that the campaign as written has a fairly low optimisation threshold required to be functional, the player has decided that his first feat will be Martial Weapon Proficiency (Longsword).
This character was born with the arcane bloodline, and in his early teens was just starting to master cantrips when his parents took him from the city to visit relatives, before veering into the worldwound once safely away from civilisation. It was there that they subjected him to the ritual of the Stolen Fury trait, wishing to activate the latent power of their son, and to finally induct him into their demonic cult. (Though their biological child, he was born for the sake of maintaining a disguise, more than out of a desire for a child or love between his parents)
The ritual failed however, and the character escaped and, starving, diseased and more than half dead, was picked up by a crusader patrol.
Given shelter in the temple of Iomedae, the character had lost everything. The life he thought he knew was gone, shattered. Even the magic that he was beginning to discover refused to come to his call, and so, utterly without anything to rebuild his life around, the character became fervently Iomedaen, even as he was watched and suspected by others in the temple.
Only a few months before the beginning of the campaign he finally began to manifest magic again. Only now it was different,
it felt different, even though it still felt wonderful to use. What he now possessed was more chaotic, more primal. Though he does not yet realise it, his power comes now from the abyss.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
It is possible, depending on how the character progresses, that they will be taking a version of the Dragon Disciple prestige class,
adapted to demonic heritage.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Right, that's probably enough to start with, but I've got plenty more to raise. One last thing to leave you with, as it's fairly central to the campaign, are my ruminations on Iomedae.
Iomedae
The Inheritor
As a mortal Iomedae was a paladin in service to Aroden, perhaps the greatest of them. When Iomedae gained a spark of the divine by completing the trial of the starstone she became the herald of Aroden. For nearly 700 years she served in this role, protecting the human world from the many entities that have tried to consume them.
This ended almost exactly 100 years ago upon the death of Aroden. Where Iomedae did what she has always done. She fought chaos and the evils it brings by ascending, taking charge and leading the way. It is in this way that Iomedae is the godess of leadership and of setting an example for others to follow.
Iomedae is not Aroden. Her church is not his church, of advancement and culture. Hers is a church of protection and preservation, for that was always her role as Herald. To create a space for these things to flourish.
Iomedae is unique among the greater gods for her youth, at about 800 years old there are surviving mortals that are older than her, and for the rapidity of her rise to the status of greater god, as she had only a small following prior to stepping in to protect the followers of Aroden. For these reasons, though Iomedae herself is clear in her intent, the religion of those who follow her is, even now, finding it's feet in the world in which it finds itself.
First of all, the usual start to a thread like this. If you recognise my username as that of your GM, kindly leave now.
Otherwise if you are a current player or intend to play in the future I have no personal stake, but suggest not reading further. If you want to though, I welcome your input.
------------------------------------------------
Right, with that out of the way, hello everyone. I'm going to be starting a Wrath of the Righteous campaign in the near future (Probably around the new year, maybe sooner, depending on other circumstances). Almost everybody I talk to about roleplaying is going to be in the campaign, which leaves me having all these ideas I'm excited about, as well as these quandaries I'd love to bounce off of people and little outlet for either. So I'm making this thread. Hope there are some who are interested.
The campaign is "Wrath of the Righteous" adventure path. I'll put up a brief summary here, but unless somebody asks for elaboration I'll be assuming basic familiarity with the campaign.
The plot of Wrath of the Righteous follows the story of the worldwound, a hole rent between the abyss and the material plane just over 100 years ago, among the various cataclysms surrounding the death of the god Aroden, patron of humanity. The game begins with the demons breaking the stalemate of the last 80 or so years by destroying one of the artifacts known as the "Wardstones" which formed a nation sized barrier to keep the abyss contained. Resultant from these events are our Heroes, who find themselves invested with some of the power of this artifact, becoming "Mythic" (more on Mythic in a bit) and the increasing stakes as our heroes must go on the offensive and ultimately close the worldwound before the restraining wall fails completely.
Mythic rules for Pathfinder are similar in some ways to Epic rules from d&d. Both feature characters achieving things "Beyond the impossible" in regular play. However the implementation of these rules are quite different. Epic rules move beyond ordinary levelling, whereas mythic accompanies it. It rarely allows a character to do something they could theoretically achieve sooner than normal, but instead breaks the limits on what somebody could possibly achieve. Of course, many of these limits were there in the first place for balance reasons making Mythic something which requires careful GM management, worse, a number of options are instead "Bigger Numbers" which can really throw balance out the window. One example of breaking these limits is, while a Mythic Necromancer cannot necessarily cast "Create Greater Undead," which is determined by their normal character level, they can gain the "Mythic Command Undead" feat at their first mythic tier, which grants them the ability to control intelligent undead without them receiving a new save every day. In the Golarion setting, as far as I can tell, Mythic is not talent or skill. If you are talented you have higher attributes, if you are skilled you have more levels. Being Mythic is the ability to achieve things that no level of mundane training or practice can achieve.
The background traits of each character leave them "Primed" to carry mythic power, but do not confer anything of the sort on them just yet.
------------------------------------------------
The Cast of Player Characters
The first major change I've made was removing the synergy bonuses for taking the Mythic Path associated with the campaign traits. My players are all capable character builders who are unlikely to have any issue being powerful anyway, and if their traits fit mechanically and thematically there is no reason to arbitrarily curtail their options.
Each of the characters needed to find a trait that suited their backstory, and ideally a different one to the other player's choices. I kept the option open for a custom one, but am glad they've all found one that felt fitting and saved me the trouble (Many had largely designed their characters before selecting traits, so it worked out quite well). The character also needed a reason to be in Kenabres for the Armasse celebrations that would kick of the story. Beyond this, and a willingness to fight the demonic hordes, they have a large degree of freedom in what they create, and I encouraged them to find things that Mythic let them do that was normally just not viable.
Sam Sparrow
Class: "Swiftblade" (Arcane Bloodrager that barely resembles the original class, but in a good way)
Campaign Trait: Riftwarden Orphan
Intended Mythic Path: Trickster
Sam's player has definitely taken the "Find something that normally wouldn't work that you want to play"
suggestion to heart. His character, called a "Swiftblade" to avoid the preconceptions around the bloodrager doesn't get angry,
he gets fast. The Urban Bloodrager archetype lets bloodrage give him dexterity bonuses and has no restriction on the actions he can take. At 4th level he gains a permanent blur while raging and at 8th level he can switch this to Haste. Mythic abilities allow him to further increase his base speed and when he puts resources into it he can achieve some incredible speeds.
As a former 3.5 player he wished to recapture the feel of that edition's prestige class, and has done so wonderfully.
Narratively, the character is definitely built to accommodate the mechanics, but has a Luke Skywalker charm to him never the less.
Sam is a half-elf, born to his crusader mother (Mundane Fighter, now retired) and an elven wizard father who abandoned his mother with a child, and an excuse of "A secret mission." Though his father bequeathed an Arcane bloodline upon his son,
his absenteeism soured Sam on arcane spellcasters and never worked to develop that talent, instead living with his mother,
living a relatively simple life and accepting her training in self defence. Never the less, his blood tells and Sam essentially possesses super-speed, which augments his combat prowess.
The savvy among you have probably figured out that his father did not deliberately abandon him, but was in fact killed, or turned to evil, on that fateful mission. (Trying to decide whether "No, I am your father" and "Join me, and together we shall rule" is too cliché or not, particularly as the player will pick up on the slightest speck of foreshadowing a mile away, as the trope really benefits from foreshadowing, but only if it is still a surprise in the end.
Recently Sam has discovered that his birthmark is of mystical significance to a secret society, but so far has only learned their name. The Riftwardens.
Tekri of Belkzen
Class: Fighter 1 / Cleric of Shelyn
Campaign Trait: Touched By Divinity (Heavily modified)
Intended Mythic Path: Hierophant
By far the most detailed character backstory of the group. She is also the one that diverts most from her campaign trait's description, but fortunately in ways that I could work with. More on those later. I'll start with an excerpt from the backstory the player sent me.
"Tekri was born to the Broken Grin tribe, a tribe of orcs which claimed land south of Scarwall in the Hold of Belkzen. The daughter of the tribe’s Abyss-tainted shaman, and an unknown human father. Bred for the half-orc cleverness and cunning, Tekri was destined to serve, and then replace, her mother.
There was one problem. Tekri was not particularly evil. An anomaly in the masses of orcs which populate Belkzen, she had neither the inherent maliciousness or malevolence of her brethren. She did not exactly understand why, or how, but her natural disposition put her at odds with the life she had been born into.
Now, while not exceptionally intelligent - though a little quicker than her full-blooded kin - Tekri was possessed by a strong intuitive sense, and yes, the bred-for cunning her half-breed kind were known for. She knew that if she fought back against, protested, or even merely questioned that which she lived amongst, her days would be ended. So she kept her mouth closed, and kept her eyes open for an escape."
When her tribe captured a party of adventurers, she arranged to set them free, on the condition that they take her with them. Once they had escaped she took on the role of scout and guide to the orcish lands for these adventurers and, as they travelled, began learning the strange details of the world beyond the orcish brutality that had been everything she had ever known. In particular it was the party cleric that showed her kindness. A devotee of Shelyn, goddess of art and beauty, whose mere existence seemed so alien to the Orc-blood.
All good things cannot last forever (much to Shelyn's perpetual discomfort) and Tekri returned one day from hunting to discover the party had been slaughtered.
"Though grief-stricken, Tekri knew that she had to move on, that she could not remain where she was. The orcs who had come for the group could certainly return, and even if they didn’t, sitting in a ravaged campsite that reeked of blood was a fool’s idea. But she had little idea where to go. She could not go back to the Broken Grin, nor did she wish to move backwards in life and try and find a new tribe to join. She did not want to stay in Belkzen. But where was there to go?
Tekri figured she had two options, based on what she had learnt from her foreign compatriots. She could head to Lastwall and join the crusaders there, or she could head to Absalom, and try and become a Pathfinder. She was uncertain that the crusaders would accept an orcish applicant - even if they did not simply kill her when they found her - but she had no idea where Absalom actually was, while she knew that Lastwall at least bordered the Hold.
So Tekri gathered up what camping and travel supplies had survived the raid, stuffing them into an old backpack. Surprisingly, she found the half-elf’s holy symbol, scuffed and unlooted, underneath a shred of tent canvas. So using it as a cloak clasp, she pinned the Shelynite symbol to her chest, and began making her way south-east, towards Lastwall."
But fate again, had other ideas. Between numerous distractions and clear omens, Tekri found her path turning more and more to the north, through parts of Ustalav and along the worldwound border. Eventually bringing her to an unknown city in the throws of celebration. Tekri had arrived at Kenabres in time for Armasse.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mechanically Tekri starts as a fighter, and will be transitioning to cleric shortly after the game starts (I have some ideas for this, later). Her player intends to have her play in the style of a reach cleric, functioning as a tower of safety for the party to retreat to for healing and support.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As for the "Touched by Divinity" trait. The player grossly misunderstood what elements of the trait needed to be retained for the plot to play out as intended. He ended up holding the holy symbol of Shelyn, but there wasn't much mystery or control of her parentage for me. Though her father is unknown, there seems little reason for Shelyn to have had congress with an Demon worshipping shaman. I've long since abandoned that line, as I like Tekri's backstory far better than the likely result of forcing that, and frankly it feels to me that a godling should be more than mundane, right from the beginning.
Instead I will be taking a more general "Chosen One" approach. Tekri is a true rarity among the orcs, and she has earned the attention of Shelyn for it. If not for the events of the campaign, Tekri may have been prepared, then one day returned to create a safe place in Belkzen, where others may find peace. But as she becomes involved in the events of the worldwound incursion Shelyn will have to set that aside, as the world comes to rest on Tekri's shoulders.
Fortunately the game has done a fairly appalling job at making being the child of a god relevant, mechanically or narratively, which means I'm relatively free to play with this trait as I wish.
Karus
Class: Alchemist
Campaign Trait: Chance Saviour
Intended Mythic Path: Trickster / Archmage
Karus was initially inspired by the descriptions of racism in Kenabres against Tieflings, though his player has since come to realise that the racism tends to be more subtle than overt (The epidemic of witch hunting was a few decades ago now). The character's primary aspiration was to discover a way, alchemically, to no longer be a tiefling. This starts in the early stages as being able to use spells such as Disguise Self and Alter Self but with dreams much greater, such as 'curing' the abyssal affliction of the Tiefling and potentially even of Demons themselves.
We have developed on this idea, looking at motivations and history.
Karus was born during, or slightly before, the first crusade, but remembers little of his parentage. He and his younger sister (as he has largely accepted social outcast for himself, somebody else to motivate him felt useful) have grown up in the temple of Sarenrae in Kenabres, but he and his sister grew to adulthood over an entire human lifetime, so while there are those at the temple they love, and that support them, the two still felt isolated and needed to rely on each other.
Now an adult, Karus has found his own house and work as an alchemist, but his sister (about equivalent to a human 16 year old)
remains at the temple, and has begun learning the ways of an acolyte of Sarenrae.
Karus' ambition to create a cure the abyssal taint comes from a skewed perception of Sarenrae's ideology of redemption and seeks not only to cure form, but alignment. In a somewhat childish understanding of the way such things work.
At least at the beginning of the campaign, this is an ambition, not a goal. He is aware that this isn't attainable, or at least far beyond his capabilities.
Ysabel Bertran-Saintraille
Class: Oracle of the Outer Rifts (Flavoured towards angelic powers, rather than demonic)
Campaign Trait: Child of the Crusade
Intended Mythic Path: Hierophant (I think...)
The idea behind Ysabel came from two things the player notices in the rules and lore. The first is the idea that petitioners (the spirits of the dead) are occasionally called to ascend the mountain of heaven and become an archon. The second was a quirk of the spell "Cyclic Reincarnation" which, for non-humanoids, has a 75% chance to return the creature to life as a youth of it's race (Humanoids come back as a young adult who looks suspiciously like them).
The player mused to me about playing as a hero of the first crusade, reborn part way through their ascension to celestia. While normally this is something a little too outlandish for me, I felt that it could be a very interesting concept in a Mythic campaign.
Rather than trying to finagle the mechanics, we've agreed to handwaive the exact process of being reincarnated as an infant.
From this we get Ysabel, with no memories or awareness of her past life, born as a near-human aasimar, whose soul is slowly transmuting into an archon (and indeed her capstone is "You are now an outsider").
Modern day Ysabel is the inheritor to the minor noble title originally granted to her past self, though she has left management of the estate in her mother and sister's hands in order to join the crusades.
Tristan
Class: Sorceror (Words of Power, Abyssal Bloodline)
Campaign Trait: Stolen Fury
Intended Mythic Path: Archmage
Tristan is another example of doing something normally much less viable with mythic.
Specifically this character will be using the Words of Power ruleset, mitigating the loss of normal spellcasting using the Mythic ability "Wild Arcana" which will allow the player to access the more traditional spells a few times a day. After learning that the campaign as written has a fairly low optimisation threshold required to be functional, the player has decided that his first feat will be Martial Weapon Proficiency (Longsword).
This character was born with the arcane bloodline, and in his early teens was just starting to master cantrips when his parents took him from the city to visit relatives, before veering into the worldwound once safely away from civilisation. It was there that they subjected him to the ritual of the Stolen Fury trait, wishing to activate the latent power of their son, and to finally induct him into their demonic cult. (Though their biological child, he was born for the sake of maintaining a disguise, more than out of a desire for a child or love between his parents)
The ritual failed however, and the character escaped and, starving, diseased and more than half dead, was picked up by a crusader patrol.
Given shelter in the temple of Iomedae, the character had lost everything. The life he thought he knew was gone, shattered. Even the magic that he was beginning to discover refused to come to his call, and so, utterly without anything to rebuild his life around, the character became fervently Iomedaen, even as he was watched and suspected by others in the temple.
Only a few months before the beginning of the campaign he finally began to manifest magic again. Only now it was different,
it felt different, even though it still felt wonderful to use. What he now possessed was more chaotic, more primal. Though he does not yet realise it, his power comes now from the abyss.
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It is possible, depending on how the character progresses, that they will be taking a version of the Dragon Disciple prestige class,
adapted to demonic heritage.
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Right, that's probably enough to start with, but I've got plenty more to raise. One last thing to leave you with, as it's fairly central to the campaign, are my ruminations on Iomedae.
Iomedae
The Inheritor
As a mortal Iomedae was a paladin in service to Aroden, perhaps the greatest of them. When Iomedae gained a spark of the divine by completing the trial of the starstone she became the herald of Aroden. For nearly 700 years she served in this role, protecting the human world from the many entities that have tried to consume them.
This ended almost exactly 100 years ago upon the death of Aroden. Where Iomedae did what she has always done. She fought chaos and the evils it brings by ascending, taking charge and leading the way. It is in this way that Iomedae is the godess of leadership and of setting an example for others to follow.
Iomedae is not Aroden. Her church is not his church, of advancement and culture. Hers is a church of protection and preservation, for that was always her role as Herald. To create a space for these things to flourish.
Iomedae is unique among the greater gods for her youth, at about 800 years old there are surviving mortals that are older than her, and for the rapidity of her rise to the status of greater god, as she had only a small following prior to stepping in to protect the followers of Aroden. For these reasons, though Iomedae herself is clear in her intent, the religion of those who follow her is, even now, finding it's feet in the world in which it finds itself.