What is horrible vengence? [SoD spoilers]

[TheElfLord]

Alrighty, another thread prompted me to look at the exact wording of Eugene Greenhilt's blood oath. Eugene swears, "I, Eugene Greenhilt, swear on the blood that... flows from my wounds this day that I shall not rest, in... this life or any other, unitl I or my heirs have enacted... horrible vengeanceon those that have slighted me, named here as Xykon the... sorcerer." 1 (emphases mine).

There is no killing or destroying mentioned in the oath. In fact it is extremly vague. Horrible vengence can be defined many ways. The most extreme is that Xykon has to be perminanlty destroyed. But horrible vengence could also be causing him to shatter into a thousand bony bits by contact with a portal of prisonly goodness. Heck, considering the original offense started with Xykon stealing a crown, maybe taking it back would be horrible vengence.

So to recap, the oath uses a vague phrase. What is horrible vengence?

1. Burlew, Rich. Start of Darkness. Philadelphia, Giant in the Playground Games: 2007.

[FujinAkari]

Watch "The Usual Suspects"

That is horrible vengeance :P

[TDG]

To be honest, horrible vengeance in this sense pretty much has to mean the permanent destruction of Xykon.

The main story revolves around Roy and co's quest to stop Xykon and Redcloak from capturing a Gate that they can use for their own evil purposes. The instigating event of this quest was that Roy had to carry out a blood oath sworn by his father against Xykon.

Although his motives have changed slightly, the story's roots were the blood oath and the story's climax will revolve around the gates and Xykon (frankly, the Linear Guild are the B cast who pop up in between main storylines, they can go for whatever gate they want, but the final conflict is far more likely to revolve around Team Evil). Its unlikely that Rich would say "Oh yeah, that blood oath thingy, its gone due to a technicality - but carry on the quest and all that", instead, the Blood Oath (although not a primary reason for the quest anymore) will linger until the final battle.

If I was to go as far as creating a blood oath where I swore vengeance on the guy that killed my master and all that jazz, it wouldn't be "I swear I will have my revenge on making him feel discomfort as he regenerates after I break him into pieces", it'd be "I'm not resting till he's gone once and for all"

[thereaper]

Considering the blood oath stopped being the driving force in Roy's decision to stop Xykon, I actually wouldn't be surprosed if this theory turned out to be correct. It's still going to come down to stopping Xykon (which will inevitably involve killing him). And this would end up being a great joke. Can you imagine it?

*Xykon has just been killed. Eugene happily runs up to the celestials*

Eugene: Let me in! Xykon has been defeated! The blood oath has been carried out!

Celestial: *looks at him funny* Um...Ok. I was wondering where you were. Why did you wait until now to tell me that?

Eugene: Because it just happened!

Celestial: What? The oath's fulfillment? No, that happened (insert number here) strips ago when that son of yours threw the lich into the gate, causing him extreme pain and inconvienence that translated to "horrible vengeance" like you specified when you made the oath.

Eugene: ...You're kidding me.

Celestial: Nope.

Eugene: *preps spells* You know, I'm suddenly very thankful actions after death don't count towards the afterlife.

*Violence ensues*

[SteveMB]

Celestial: What? The oath's fulfillment? No, that happened (insert number here) strips ago when that son of yours threw the lich into the gate, causing him extreme pain and inconvienence that translated to "horrible vengeance" like you specified when you made the oath.

Nah, it wasn't that bad (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0115.html).

[newcresty]

Alrighty, another thread prompted me to look at the exact wording of Eugene Greenhilt's blood oath. Eugene swears, "I, Eugene Greenhilt, swear on the blood that... flows from my wounds this day that I shall not rest, in... this life or any other, unitl I or my heirs have enacted... horrible vengeanceon those that have slighted me, named here as Xykon the... sorcerer." 1 (emphases mine).

well, it seems that the only one who cannot rest after xykon is destroyed is eugene, he didn't say "that I or mi heirs shall not rest...", he said "that I shall not rest in this life or another until I or my heirs have...."

so the oath made his heirs responsible of killing xykon, but not prevent them from resting

what do you think?

[TheElfLord]

I agree, acording to the Oath, there should be nothing keeping Roy from full afterlife priviliges.