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View Full Version : The Nine, The Six & The one... (Eberron thread)



Kol Korran
2008-03-12, 10:02 AM
there have been a few recent threads concerning the Soverign Host and the Dark Six (apologies for those who don't know about Eberron religions. this thread won't make much sense to you. i did give a arning though...) this got me reading the various books (Faiths of Eberron the main one) and articles about the two faiths (some would say two halves of the same one), and it got me wondering...

in many places there are references to "the nine, the six, and the one", and as always in Eberron- there are multiple interpertations, but no real conclusive evidence, to what "the one" represents. the common interpertation is that "the one" refers to the entire pantheon, before it was broken. but, some references, (can't remember which), speak of another god. the Dhakanni empire od old also had 16 gods, and when the priest of the host integrated it (the all inclusive host at work), it for some reason didn't integrate the last. in fact, it eradicated every concievable mention of it's existence, especially it's name...

so, dear fellow imaginative people, i ask you- who could have been that god? why was he singled out to be so throughly erased? (considering the Dark Six are preety "bad gods", and were exempt) this has no actual implication what so ever, but i like to hear your ideas...

oh, one last idea i had, for which i would love to recieve any comments: what if the "original gods" were the known soverign host (the nine), the devourer, fury, shadow, keeper, and mockery (5 from the 6), and the last of the six was the eradicated god? perhaps the traveler was "the one", not being truly connected to Soverign or Dark agenda, as well as being vastly different in worship then all the rest?
- perhaps after obliterating the memory of the forgotten god, the soverign clergy "joined" the traveler with the remaining five? who will know? the followers of the dark five worship their singular gods anyway, the worshipers of the travelr would either reinforce this deception, ot just won't care, and the followers of the soverign would belive what their priests tell them.
- or perhaps the deception was taken by the traveler's followers themselves (infiltrating and posing as Soverign religious authorities). if so, then they are hiding something, perhaps the other god who desires to be forgotten... what secret can it be?

any replies would be welcome, thanks in advance.

Mr. Friendly
2008-03-12, 10:25 AM
I know little of the Eberronian deities, though I would suspect that "the one" is, in order of likelyhood:


The pantheon as a whole.
The world.
The aforementioned secret evil deity of Doom (tm) who will rise up to destroy everyone. (Tharizdun II: Eberron Boogaloo)

Illiterate Scribe
2008-03-12, 10:44 AM
The aforementioned secret evil deity of Doom (tm) who will rise up to destroy everyone. (Tharizdun II: Eberron Boogaloo)


Seems likely. Alternatively, some sort of Mary Sue saviour figure who will come from ... somewhere, in order to save Eberron from a Lovecraftian onslaught from Dal Quoir.

On a tangential yet related subject ...

Given that Eberron is probably reachable via the Plane of Shadow, could it withstand an invasion from, say, Abeir-Toril, or The Nine Hells, or the City of Brass? Is there some Planescape agency protecting the comparatively less escalated Khorvaire from all the much, much, much nastier stuff that's out there?

Nerd-o-rama
2008-03-12, 10:51 AM
I know little of the Eberronian deities, though I would suspect that "the one" is, in order of likelyhood:


The pantheon as a whole.
ZA WARUDO!
The aforementioned secret evil deity of Doom (tm) who will rise up to destroy everyone. (Tharizdun II: Eberron Boogaloo)
Fixed. Come on, knowing Keith Baker's sense of humor, it's pretty likely.

I think it's an open-ended plot hook. My current Eberron characters will tell you, respectively:
1) The world or the pantheon as a whole (the same thing, in his doctrine)
2) To sod off, she's got more important things to think about.

As a DM in Eberron, I'd probably vary it depending on whether I needed an apocalyptic opponent. Other possibilities include:

Mortalkind
A Daelkyr the goblinoids took to worshipping out of fear
Neo
Tharizdun. Not a copy, the actual guy, who's wandered across the void between campaign settings that exists where the Great Wheel and the Phlogeston used to be before 3rd Edition.
The Dreaming Dark (okay, this makes little sense in terms of timelines).
Captain Jarlot

On a tangential yet related subject ...

Given that Eberron is probably reachable via the Plane of Shadow, could it withstand an invasion from, say, Abeir-Toril, or The Nine Hells, or the City of Brass? Is there some Planescape agency protecting the comparatively less escalated Khorvaire from all the much, much, much nastier stuff that's out there?Character #1, up in the first half of the post. Although in that particular campaign (http://www.sigilprep.com), Eberron's aware and in contact with the other Campaign Settings, and it's far too much of a comedy for serious interplanar threats to happen without getting stomped on by the PCs. Although a few people seem like they could be laying the groundwork lately...

I will say that Eberron as written is ill-prepared against settings with as high a power-level as Faerun, or the Great Wheel outer planes.

Bryn
2008-03-12, 11:04 AM
Although it's not part of the same pantheon, and it's a bit boring compared to some interpretations in this thread, could it be the Silver Flame? That's the other prominently recognised religion in Khorvaire, and there is only one of it.

Illiterate Scribe
2008-03-12, 11:13 AM
You mean that Dio Brando is the mysterious sixteenth god?

O_o.

Let us praise his celestial steamroller.

CASTLEMIKE
2008-03-12, 12:10 PM
in many places there are references to "the nine, the six, and the one", and as always in Eberron- there are multiple interpertations, but no real conclusive evidence, to what "the one" represents. the common interpertation is that "the one" refers to the entire pantheon, before it was broken. but, some references, (can't remember which), speak of another god. the Dhakanni empire od old also had 16 gods, and when the priest of the host integrated it (the all inclusive host at work), it for some reason didn't integrate the last. in fact, it eradicated every concievable mention of it's existence, especially it's name...

so, dear fellow imaginative people, i ask you- who could have been that god? why was he singled out to be so throughly erased? (considering the Dark Six are preety "bad gods", and were exempt) this has no actual implication what so ever, but i like to hear your ideas...

oh, one last idea i had, for which i would love to recieve any comments: what if the "original gods" were the known soverign host (the nine), the devourer, fury, shadow, keeper, and mockery (5 from the 6), and the last of the six was the eradicated god? perhaps the traveler was "the one", not being truly connected to Soverign or Dark agenda, as well as being vastly different in worship then all the rest?
- perhaps after obliterating the memory of the forgotten god, the soverign clergy "joined" the traveler with the remaining five? who will know? the followers of the dark five worship their singular gods anyway, the worshipers of the travelr would either reinforce this deception, ot just won't care, and the followers of the soverign would belive what their priests tell them.
- or perhaps the deception was taken by the traveler's followers themselves (infiltrating and posing as Soverign religious authorities). if so, then they are hiding something, perhaps the other god who desires to be forgotten... what secret can it be?

any replies would be welcome, thanks in advance.

IMO The One originally meant the entire pantheon of all 16 Gods before the One was thrown out.

With the Daelkyr in ECS I like Keith giving a nod to Gary and Tharizdun (Original D&D/Greyhawk God for the one thrown out and forgotten.

For the Traveller I like either an Aspect of Aoskar (or one of his Incarnates as per BoED) who was "killed" by the Lady of Pain in Sigil which resulted in the "planar isolation" of the ECS cosmology from the rest of the multiverse until he is fully resurrected.

RTGoodman
2008-03-12, 01:24 PM
I don't know much about Eberron, but "The One" just be that one evil dragon cult thing? I can't remember the name of it, but surely the evil dragon thing that people are trying to bring back into the world could be a possibility as the last member of the major powers.

EDIT: A-ha! Wikipedia to the rescue! I was thinking of the Cult of the Dragon Below. Of course, now that I read about it, it isn't what I thought it was. Oh well.

The_Snark
2008-03-12, 02:16 PM
The aforementioned secret evil deity of Doom (tm) who will rise up to destroy everyone. (Tharizdun II: Eberron Boogaloo)
[/LIST]

Ebberon's got, like, three of these already. There's the rakshasa rajahs, and the daelkyr, and maybe the Inspired—though the Inspired probably don't count; they don't have the raw power the others do, but they are ahead of the competition. (Inspired 1, everyone else 0, where points are measured in continents.)

And then there's Khyber too, I guess, which may or may not exist. But if it did, and if it ever awakened, a star-eating dragon that makes up your planet's core would certainly destroy everything.

Kol Korran
2008-03-12, 03:02 PM
first, thanks for the speedy responses.


I think it's an open-ended plot hook. My current Eberron characters will tell you, respectively:
1) The world or the pantheon as a whole (the same thing, in his doctrine)
2) To sod off, she's got more important things to think about.

i know it's open ended, as most things are on the ECS. i like it that way! i posted the question out of pure curiousity of what people might think, imagine, or come up with.
as to "the one is the world/ the panthenon/ the host/ creation" and so on- of course that's the Host's interpertation ("as are the gods, so is the world. as is the world, so are the gods"). i was interested in other, more esoteric ideas...
and as to "sodding off". well, i might. i did mention this thread had no practical implications whatsoever, didn't i? i am DMing in Eberron, but i don't plan to use it at a campaign. i don't intend to make it any "hard truth" (i prefer most things to remain ambiguos and vague in Eberron). was just curious.

(sigh, perhaps i didn't explain my intentions properly) anyway, thanks for the input..

skeeter_dan
2008-03-12, 06:52 PM
In the campaign I'm running, the "one" is the creator of the planes/eberron and has been imprisoned. So, instead of the classic, "the big bad evil god is being unleashed, you have to stop them from getting the plot device!" the good guys are attempting to free the big lawful good god and there are a whole bunch of people trying to stop them. It's been a fun twist on the convention.

CASTLEMIKE
2008-03-12, 07:10 PM
In the campaign I'm running, the "one" is the creator of the planes/eberron and has been imprisoned. So, instead of the classic, "the big bad evil god is being unleashed, you have to stop them from getting the plot device!" the good guys are attempting to free the big lawful good god and there are a whole bunch of people trying to stop them. It's been a fun twist on the convention.

I use the Whispering Stone as a former Demi-Power/Incarnate (Cross Pantheon illegitamite son of the Traveller and a forgotten Demon Lord) stripped down to the level of DR1 Imprisoned Incarnate Titan with standard DR1 sensing powers occassionally able to affect and interact physically with the world of Eberron with the effect of a CN Miniatures Hand Book Aspect of Bahamut (with a variant of the Fiend of Blasphemy PRC-6 spellcasting and class specials several times a year for a few minutes).

Terraoblivion
2008-03-12, 07:42 PM
While the nature of the one is in the end up to the GM to decide, a possibility for what it could be occured to me as i read this thread. It could actually be the silver flame which is as old as the fifteen known deities and has at least much reason for being included in a pantheon by the dragons as the others have. In fact it is slightly strange that it has apparently never had any degree of integration with the sovereign host and the dark six despite both religions existing in numerous incarnations in seemingly all four of the continents.

Nerd-o-rama
2008-03-12, 08:35 PM
i know it's open ended, as most things are on the ECS. i like it that way! i posted the question out of pure curiousity of what people might think, imagine, or come up with.
as to "the one is the world/ the panthenon/ the host/ creation" and so on- of course that's the Host's interpertation ("as are the gods, so is the world. as is the world, so are the gods"). i was interested in other, more esoteric ideas...
and as to "sodding off". well, i might. i did mention this thread had no practical implications whatsoever, didn't i? i am DMing in Eberron, but i don't plan to use it at a campaign. i don't intend to make it any "hard truth" (i prefer most things to remain ambiguos and vague in Eberron). was just curious.

(sigh, perhaps i didn't explain my intentions properly) anyway, thanks for the input..
No, I got what you meant. See: the entire rest of my post (except for the tangent). I was just giving in-character perspectives from the characters I'm playing in Eberron. One of them is a Paladin of Dol Arrah and is very fond of the Universal Sovereignty doctrine (saying that the gods are all manifestations of their respective portfolios and therefore part of the world), the other is an ill-tempered mercenary who devotes most of her impressive intellect to learning how to stab or explode things more efficiently. And defending herself from the predations of that damn Gnome. And making obtuse references to Giant Robot shows.

Sorry, tangent again.

Kol Korran
2008-03-13, 12:28 AM
ok, got it... a miss understanding (on my part). like the avatar by the way.