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Mengkare's subjects are volunteer subjects, however.Volunteering to enter a cage is still entering a cage.
If you honestly believe that then why don't you live out in the woods with no contact with society?
Social contracts and the rule of law is the foundation of civilization, from the laws the government sets (Which all curtail our choices, after all, stabbing your neighbor because he has a really sweet hat you want is a choice) right down to the code of conduct on this forum.If you honestly and truly believe that anyone that opts in on anyone else being allowed to influence their life with the best intentions is being taken advantage of, then I'm not sure what to say really.
Are all friendships pure manipulation? All relationships you have with a significant other simply abuse? What about being a parent, I mean heck, you don't even get to choose who your parents are do you?
Sometimes there are people who know better for a person, than the person themselves, be it through immaturity, not realizing the full consequences, or situations such as drug addicts.
Is it benevolent, to let your meth addicted friend, keep going down the path he's currently on?
Way I see if it Mengkare has made himself a parental figure to what in his eyes, is a race of children. He is not doing it for personal gain, at all, he doesn't get anything out of it and frankly, being a powerful Gold dragon there's far, far more important and self-serving things he could be doing.
You might think Daddy is being mean, not letting you go out dressed like that, but look back in 10-20 years time and you'll realize he was just looking after your best interests.
If you honestly believe that then why don't you live out in the woods with no contact with society?Mengkare's subjects are volunteer subjects, however.Volunteering to enter a cage is still entering a cage.
Since you seem to have a good head of steam, by all means, go on tilting at that straw man if it suits you. I'm talking about a magical dragon with his magical island nation experiment with a species he clearly believes himself superior to as its test subjects. You go wherever you like with that.
This isn't "daddy won't let Cindy wear a crop top in public for fear of what the neighbors will say and do about her."
This is "here's who you're going to marry to produce the offspring I require for my master plan, which, by the by, I cooked up because I regard your entire species as a bunch of screwed up infants who can't be trusted to make their own decisions."
If you can't tell the difference, man, well, I got nothing for you.
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Mengkare, as far as we know, doesn't stop people from leaving if they object to his decisions, and appears to be very honest about what life will be like in Hermea.
Both those being true...is it still a cage if you can leave any time? And what if you like living in a cage? Some people do like that sort of thing, after all.
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Mengkare's subjects are volunteer subjects, however.Volunteering to enter a cage is still entering a cage.
What Deadmanwalking just said, basically.
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Since you seem to have a good head of steam, by all means, go on tilting at that straw man if it suits you.If you honestly believe that then why don't you live out in the woods with no contact with society?Mengkare's subjects are volunteer subjects, however.Volunteering to enter a cage is still entering a cage.
"Even if you volunteer and willingly enter into a contract with a person whereby that person can tell you what to do, they're still evil for offering such a contract."
Your words, not mine, if its a Strawman then its one you built of yourself.As for the latter, imagine being a person that has lived a thousand years. Older than the concept of Britain as a country, or Germany, certainly older than America, you'd have seen nations rise and fall, the world change in ways people couldn't even comprehend from century to century, let alone across the one thousand years.
Imagine being older than the Windmill, or the Papermill. Paper? Older than it. Spectacles? Older than those.
This is a creature that is 400 years older than the game of chess. And 100 years older than Liquor, minimum.
Would you know better than most people, having lived and experienced such things? I think its fair to say you would. I mean, we trust doctors after just 10 years (Minimum mind you) to tell us what to do and make it better, yes even life changing decisions.
And you can't see the benefits of a system that removes a certain amount of the corruptible, human element from Government? Yes, its a dictatorship, but its one with a purely benevolent dictator and the concept of arranged marriage isn't a new one.
If it bothers you that much, I doubt Goldy is so micromanagement happy that he'd care if you had a mistress after getting married, or your wife had a lover on the side either and thus you have one really, really good child together and then if you're not happy go your own way and just be friends.
Which is pretty much exactly the attitude Shelyn has to such things.
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Yeah, I don't think there's any evidence at all Mengkare gives a damn who you sleep with as long as you have children through approved channels.
There's no evidence either way, that I recall, although it would be more 'Lawful Good' if Mengkare at least encouraged (if not necessarily mandated) fidelity and monogamy.
Indeed, it might actually be evidence that he's shifting away from LG, and more concerned about the end-goal, if he's got a more relaxed view on things like marriage and multiple partners (or literally doesn't care at all, so long as children are produced according to the plan, much like the old Biblical tradition of marriage in which it was okay to have multiple wives and 300 concubines, so long as you didn't knock up any of the concubines and mess up lines of succession / inheritance, as King David did), indicating that he's less interested in moral issues or long-term stability / emotional health of relationships.
Unlike our world, good and evil are measurable quantifiable things in Golarion, not at all subjective or subject to change as society evolves, and have mechanical effects (such as spell interactions). It's unlikely, in Golarion, that anyone could be confused as to whether or not what Mengkare is up to is good or evil, since these things are as mechanically set down in Golarion as the laws of gravity or combustion. We can have debates about morality and ethics all the live long day, because they are abstractions, whose definitions change across time and cultural divides, but alignment in Golarion is a descriptor, with mechanical effects, like fire or electricity.
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There's no evidence either way, that I recall, although it would be more 'Lawful Good' if Mengkare at least encouraged (if not necessarily mandated) fidelity and monogamy.
Shelyn doesn't care about such things, and she's indisputably NG and the literal Goddess of Love. So...I'd say the evidence is pretty strong that caring about monogamy per se is basically Lawful rather than Good.
You're right that there's no evidence either way regarding him caring, of course, I'm just arguing interpretation.
Indeed, it might actually be evidence that he's shifting away from LG, and more concerned about the end-goal, if he's got a more relaxed view on things like marriage and multiple partners (or literally doesn't care at all, so long as children are produced according to the plan, much like the old Biblical tradition of marriage in which it was okay to have multiple wives and 300 concubines, so long as you didn't knock up any of the concubines and mess up lines of succession / inheritance, as King David did), indicating that he's less interested in moral issues or long-term stability / emotional health of relationships.
Well, long-term stability is, again, more of a Lawful goal than a Good one, and being trapped in loveless marriages and forcibly kept away from those you love is pretty harshly non-Good, IMO. While allowing people freedom to find love is pretty much the definition of Good in a lot of ways.
So I disagree. If you have to marry and have kids with who you're told (and you do in Hermea) then it's borderline Evil to make you also not pursue a relationship that could actually make you happy, and Good to generally allow such things without stigma.
Unlike our world, good and evil are measurable quantifiable things in Golarion, not at all subjective or subject to change as society evolves, and have mechanical effects (such as spell interactions).
This is true, and the fact that Shelyn agrees with my views on relationships mentioned above thus means I'm probably right within Golarion. :)
It's unlikely, in Golarion, that anyone could be confused as to whether or not what Mengkare is up to is good or evil, since these things are as mechanically set down in Golarion as the laws of gravity or combustion. We can have debates about morality and ethics all the live long day, because they are abstractions, whose definitions change across time and cultural divides, but alignment in Golarion is a descriptor, with mechanical effects, like fire or electricity.
This is, I think, incorrect. Alignment is objective and verifiable, but it actually requires pretty advanced instrumentation (you need a phyalctery of faithfulness and nine cooperative atheists who are each verified to be of a separate alignment to properly and scientifically answer any one question about it...you can then go on to answer lots more, but this is tricky to arrange) to actually make definitive statements about it, and then there's all the magic to conceal alignment, and the fact that it's not most people's primary area of study, and you get widespread ignorance about a lot of the details.
Really, I tend to think of it in the same category as advanced physics is in, in our world. There certainly are people in the world who understand much of the theory, but they're quite rare and their explanations may not make a lot of sense to a layperson. There are a lot more people (like most Paladins) who have a good intuitive understanding of the practical side of things, but without knowledge of the theory, their preconceptions can lead them astray.
So, no, I don't think most people know in-world. Especially since only people in Hermea could have the necessary information to make such a supposition with any hope of the myths surrounding it not getting in the way. There's also the whole motivation component. Something can be a Neutral act and be perpetrated by both Evil and Good characters for very different reasons...I suspect a lot of what most governments do falls under that umbrella, making it even harder to judge without using alignment detection on the Dragon himself, something he could easily have a way or three around.
The problem with a straight edge Mengkare who's not hiding anything:
DM: There's an ultra powerful dragon on this island with completely unchecked political power. He recruits Humans to populate it, hoping to eventually breed the entire race to his liking.
Paladin: Absolute dictatorships, dragons, eugenics?! *draws sword*
DM: There is no trace of corruption or coercion. Everyone is here of their own free will and can leave whenever they want. They have as much magic as any other large city-state, and people get proper food, housing and education.
Paladin: Ah. Well, he might not be completely honest about his moti-
DM: This is not done to start some planar proxy war or satisfy the dragon's ego. It is entirely out of the kindness of his heart. He wants to make Humans better as a species because he sees their potential for great justice and peace in the multiverse.
Paladin: Can we go back to Cheliax?
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The problem with a straight edge Mengkare who's not hiding anything:
DM: There's an ultra powerful dragon on this island with completely unchecked political power. He recruits Humans to populate it, hoping to eventually breed the entire race to his liking.
Paladin: Absolute dictatorships, dragons, eugenics?! *draws sword*
DM: There is no trace of corruption or coercion. Everyone is here of their own free will and can leave whenever they want. They have as much magic as any other large city-state, and people get proper food, housing and education.
Paladin: Ah. Well, he might not be completely honest about his moti-
DM: This is not done to start some planar proxy war or satisfy the dragon's ego. It is entirely out of the kindness of his heart. He wants to make Humans better as a species because he sees their potential for great justice and peace in the multiverse.
Paladin: Can we go back to Cheliax?
Yes... and no. That's a very cut-and-dried interpretation.
Let me spin it differently, eh?
The problem with a straight edge Mengkare who's not hiding anything:
DM: There's an ultra powerful dragon on this island with completely unchecked political power. He recruits Humans to populate it, hoping to eventually breed the entire race to his liking.
Paladin: Absolute dictatorships, dragons, eugenics?! *deep investigation, including several difficult adventures to gain power, sometimes being hired by the dragon, sometimes being hired by "independent" groups looking for information, including churches, such as the Paladin's own*
DM: There is no trace of corruption or coercion, from what you can tell. Everyone seems to here of their own free will and can leave whenever they want. It seems they have as much magic as any other large city-state, and people do appear to get proper food, housing and education.
Paladin: Ah. Well, he might not be completely honest about his motives. This needs to be researched from more angles. Hey! Let's talk to some angels. *goes adventuring to meet important sages across the planes, and among some of the other dragon kind, earning prestige to gain proper audiences*
DM: This
is notdoesn't look like it's done to start some planar proxy war or satisfy the dragon's ego. From what you can tell, it seems to be genuinely out of the kindness of his heart. Though you can't get any sort of divination to function read on him, from what you can tell, he wants to make Humans better as a species because, according to the public statements, he sees their potential for great justice and peace in the multiverse.Paladin:
Can we go back to Cheliax?He certainly seems legit! I wonder if...
-> a) ... I can join his cause as a worker abroad!
-> b) ... I can turn my (more powerful) abilities toward other foes (and my <church/order/whatever> has fewer objections, now, and is, in fact, in talks with Mengkere's island over trade agreements <and/or> recruitment <and/or> isn't expending useless resources on fighting a good guy), like Cheliax!
-> c) ... I guess everything was for naught. That sucks.DM: Uh...
-> a) ... you can ask!
-> b) ... sure!
-> c) ... Well, I'm sorry you feel that way, I guess when Mengkere's invitation actually arrives at your door, you just ignore it, then.
I mean, another option is:
The problem with a bad Mengkare who's hiding nefarious deeds:
DM: There's an ultra powerful dragon on this island with completely unchecked political power. He recruits Humans to populate it, hoping to eventually breed the entire race to his liking.
Paladin: Absolute dictatorships, dragons, eugenics?! *draws sword*
DM: You lose.
Paladin: Ah. Wait, wha-
DM: He's an ultra powerful dragon on this island with completely unchecked political power. He recruits Humans to populate it, hoping to eventually breed the entire race to his liking. You know that much, but didn't let me finish. There is a small army of devoted fanatics, and he has contacts among every nation in the inner sea.
Paladin: Can we go back to Cheliax?
DM: No, you're dead. Everyone's pretty sure you turned from the light, forsook your oaths, became an antipaladin, and he slew you for great justice. Also, he's now a public enemy of the World Wound and is noted as a hero there.
Paladin: What, but how-
GM: He's an ultra powerful dragon on this island with completely unchecked political power. You seem to have been summoning demons in an attempt to expand the World Wound, but, fortunately for the world, he stopped you.
Paladin: Right. Nevermind. When I roll up my next character, I want to make sure that I'm in Cheliax.
It all depends on how the GM and the players handle the situation.
Unless there's something amiss with the dragon or his experiment, then he's being stupid by hiding his alignment (if he does).
If the little info we have now from the campaign setting is true and he's a Good guy doing non-violent Good things to a bunch of consenting adults, then it's a completely adventure-less location. They won't even let you go there unless you're one of the people they trade with or you sign an agreement to listen to what the dragon says. If they get attacked, they have, you know, an ancient dragon.
Say you are sent to investigate this suspicious island and the human experiments by your king/leader/god. You sneak past a bunch of guards who you can detect are absolutely Good. You detect the thoughts of the sleeping council members who are constantly preoccupied with the idea of children somewhere in the world starving and how to fix it.
Then you get to the big lizard himself. He's an ancient Gold Dragon hiding the awful secret that he is, in fact, Lawful Good.
Why are we here?
On the other hand, if the dragon who demands you sign over your right to disagree with him to live on his island and attempts to breed 'undesirable' qualities out of people ends up Evil, who didn't see it coming a mile away? How could the truth possibly not get out unless every single islander was brainwashed and not a single person who could sense that motive ever came in contact with a recruiter?
It's more unbelievable than Razmir actually fooling anyone.
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There's someone else in Golarion's universe who believes that human freewill is a royal pain and something that needs curtailing, and he is most decidedly not a nice guy.
You can pretty much level that charge against virtually every governing nation that has existed on this planet. Some more than others, but there were even a fair number like James Madison among the Founding Fathers who believed that the "important things" should be left up to the elite, not a democracy ruled by the commons.
The guiding ethic of midieval Christianity was that everyone was born into his or her place as part of God's Plan and that his vicars had the right and responsibility to guide their "test tube" subjects as if it were.
There's no evidence that the lives of Hermeans are any more constrained than those of the average Inner Sea commoner. More than likely Mengkare is more likely to encourage his subjects to make the best of themselves than the average ruler.
The people here are judging them as if the ideals that America preaches more than it honors were a normative standard in Golarion, They aren't... not even in places like Andoran... and certainly not in Absalom, or the bulk of the other nations on the planet.
Unless there's something amiss with the dragon or his experiment, then he's being stupid by hiding his alignment (if he does).
Mind blank offers blanket immunity, even in the cases when you'd rather it didn't.
There is no way around this.
Alignment prohibition is just small price to pay, compared to all of that protection, and it's a thing that any high-powered dragon is not going to allow himself to be easily known by overly-inquisitive enemies, regardless of their alignment.
Once per day, 24 hours, total immunity. Oh, well.
EDIT:
If the little info we have now from the campaign setting is true and he's a Good guy doing non-violent Good things to a bunch of consenting adults, then it's a completely adventure-less location.
This... isn't even remotely true. Have you seen the "bad things" rumored to happen around? Even in Mengkere is innocent, those things need to be dealt with. Why doesn't the dragon deal with it? There are lots of reasons. Reasons that adventures are built around.
Say you are sent to investigate this suspicious island and the human experiments by your king/leader/god. You sneak past a bunch of guards who you can detect are absolutely Good.
I'mma let you finish, but, uh... why are they Good? How would you know, unless you're not? Good people can't detect good.
You detect the thoughts of the sleeping council members who are constantly preoccupied with the idea of children somewhere in the world starving and how to fix it.
Why would they preoccupied with people outside of their homeland?
Then you get to the big lizard himself. He's an ancient Gold Dragon hiding the awful secret that he is, in fact, Lawful Good.
... or he's hiding lots of other secrets, but he happens to be lawful good.
Why are we here?
I dunno. Off the top of my head:
- you're evil; you're there to ruin paradise
- you're servant of a deity or church; they're prohibited, you know, and many want to know why and/or infiltrate the society anyway
- you're a mercenary or explorer
- you're a treasure seeker: dude owns a country, he must be loaded more than other dragons
- you're a seeker of derring-do who just wants to "prove" something to the world and show your stuff, accomplishing the otherwise impossible
- you've a distant cousin, and you're worried about the evil ruins
On the other hand, if the dragon who demands you sign over your right to disagree with him to live on his island and attempts to breed 'undesirable' qualities out of people ends up Evil, who didn't see it coming a mile away? How could the truth possibly not get out unless every single islander was brainwashed and not a single person who could sense that motive ever came in contact with a recruiter?
- because there's a lot of people with high bluff checks
- because there's a few people with high bluff checks, and they've persuaded a few people with low sense motives and high diplomacy checks- because the recruiters genuinely believe in their island home
- because the dragon, regardless of his alignment (good or evil or neutral or lawful or chaotic) has a personal goal: he wants to improve humanity.
It's more unbelievable than Razmir actually fooling anyone.
Nah. They're about equal.
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Unless there's something amiss with the dragon or his experiment, then he's being stupid by hiding his alignment (if he does).Mind blank offers blanket immunity, even in the cases when you'd rather it didn't. There is no way around this.
Alignment prohibition is just small price to pay, compared to all of that protection, and it's a thing that any high-powered dragon is not going to allow himself to be easily known by overly-inquisitive enemies, regardless of their alignment.
Once per day, 24 hours, total immunity. Oh, well.
My wizard is one of the most lawful abiding people in the city of Amythdor, and while gruff, not particularly unkind Mind Blank is his daily go to for both himself and his cohort. Because it's protection from all the enemies he's made in his service to the City.
My wizard is one of the most lawful abiding people in the city of Amythdor, and while gruff, not particularly unkind Mind Blank is his daily go to for both himself and his cohort. Because it's protection from all the enemies he's made in his service to the City.Unless there's something amiss with the dragon or his experiment, then he's being stupid by hiding his alignment (if he does).Mind blank offers blanket immunity, even in the cases when you'd rather it didn't. There is no way around this.
Alignment prohibition is just small price to pay, compared to all of that protection, and it's a thing that any high-powered dragon is not going to allow himself to be easily known by overly-inquisitive enemies, regardless of their alignment.
Once per day, 24 hours, total immunity. Oh, well.
Exactly. My lawful good Kingmaker King, the neutral good Queen, and literally every other member of the council gets a free mind blank* as part of their daily/etc rituals.
It's far too useful to worry about the downsides.
* and permanent/constant magic circle against evil and magic circle against chaos, and wisdom booster plus stat boost to their most important stat
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It's more unbelievable than Razmir actually fooling anyone.
How is that so unbelievable? Razmir is essentially El Ron Hubbard, an look at all that Hubbard managed to create without the power of being one of the most high level wizards in history.
The people of Golarion, even the most high muckety mucks do not have the advantage we get from a Paizo subscription.
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Okay, I figured out that I'll write general response to whole "But breeding dogs is okay!" thing since that thing is one of my pet peeves. Pun not intended.
Even if dog breeding itself isn't "animal cruelty", its still fricking horrifying. Nobody cares about what it does to dogs themselves, most dog breeds don't live as long as wolves can live(well in captivity at least) :/ And imagine what it takes to make wolf into fricking chihuhahua or dachshund. Or into fricking pug. Sure its been done in long period of time, but those dog breeds suffer from health issues.
So yes, I don't consider creation of dog breeds to be example of "a good thing done by eugenics" because it really isn't good for the animals. Only reason we allow it is that we don't consider animals' well being that important in favor of "Aww, that dog looks so cute and wuddly". Doing same to humans would be horrifying, at least Mengkare isn't doing eugenics to make humans tiny and helpless pets so thats a point in his favor :P
Now, I'm probably going to get a lot of hate from people who ignore what I just said, but I'll stand by my stance that I don't really see how creation of pugs was beneficial to pugs. A lot of dog breeds have specific diseases that apply to them... Sure, not all dog breeds have it that bad, but still, pet industry is rather horrifying and I'm not going to see why creating "cute pets" with horrible health issues is a good thing.
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It's all very simple, Mengkare is under a terrible curse - on even days, he's a benevolent dragon who wants to encourage the best of humanity to build a perfect society, on odd days he's a omnicidial villain who pursues eugenics in order to build a perfect army to conquer the universe with.
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@CorvusMask:
I agree entirely. Dog breeding is pretty messed up. I'll reiterate that it's probably not a good comparison with Mengkare's actions, though. For a host of reasons.
Frankly, this is one of the many reasons I prefer cats, who are (for the most part) still their original selves, not a slave species we've turned them into.
Okay, I figured out that I'll write general response to whole "But breeding dogs is okay!" thing since that thing is one of my pet peeves. Pun not intended.
Even if dog breeding itself isn't "animal cruelty", its still fricking horrifying. Nobody cares about what it does to dogs themselves, most dog breeds don't live as long as wolves can live(well in captivity at least) :/ And imagine what it takes to make wolf into fricking chihuhahua or dachshund. Or into fricking pug. Sure its been done in long period of time, but those dog breeds suffer from health issues.
There is one thing you're not taking into account. All that suffering comes from the fact people are choosing cute traits over practical ones like being healthy or capable of doing things, that is only a situation that has come up in the time since the dog fell out of use as a working animal and even dogs like the pug had some use back when they were, well, useful. I mean even the Pug itself which was bred specifically as a pet dog was at least functional and didn't suffer from health issues until the modern 'Who needs function when you can have form' dog breeding attitude came up:
http://i.imgur.com/uHnGVZS.jpghttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Henry_Bernard_Chalon_-_ A_favourite_Pug_b!#*@_%281802%29.jpg
The problems that arise in selective breeding of animals today come from breeding exclusively for very, very specific traits and not caring what other problems arise and when you breed for purpose first and looks later? You get actually functional creatures.
Mengkare isn't breeding cute humans. He isn't breeding people for the best noses or the glossiest hair or the waggiest ears.
He's breeding for strength, for intelligence, for ability. He's not a pug breeder, he's a working dog breeder, where looks come a long distant second to ability and breeding 'pure' isn't even a factor.
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If the little info we have now from the campaign setting is true and he's a Good guy doing non-violent Good things to a bunch of consenting adults, then it's a completely adventure-less location.
And yet there are people all over the Inner Sea (and perhaps even some on Hermea itself) who desperately want to believe that Mengkare is evil and that Promise is false, and spread tales of burned bodies of those who try to leave. Whatever their motivation (Norgorber worshippers, who have a thing against godless societies that outlaw their church, and practice trying to tear them down? Jealous Chelaxians who don't like the idea of anyone else considering themselves the heirs to Azlant?), they could be up to shenanigans, not just poisoning the reputation of Hermea, but actively seeking out Hermeans to kidnap and leave burned-to-death as 'proof' that 'the dragon is evil.'
Worse, from Mengkare's perspective, people sometimes get it wrong. Maybe some of his own most devoted followers are responsible for these rumors, perhaps starting out as a story parents tell their kids (finish your brussel sprouts or the dragon's gonna eat you!) and turning over the years from an urban legend / cautionary tale into an elitist movement in which a secret society of Hermean extremists abducts and kills anyone they think isn't 'good enough' to be part of the Great Experiment (whether it be for shallow race-based reasons, to maintain some sort of purity, or to exclude some elements, such as elvish or orcish traits, or more situational and based off of a person's past history or current role in society). Hermeans aren't all shiny happy robots, after all, and it's entirely possible that some might disagree as to how best to proceed, or who might be a good addition to the island, or even which path to take is more morally good (and since we've got a civil war going on between factions of Sarenites, a NG goddess of honesty, that involves a Prestige Class based on deception, disguise and lying, it's safe to say that good people, in Golarion, can disagree!).
It's also a decent sized island, and who knows what lives (or once lived, and left behind cyclopean ruins, with subterranean levels full of...) on the rest of the island. The Isle of Kortos, home of Absalom, a *far* more established, settled and 'tamed' location, had plenty of adventure locations outside of the city.
Hermea being a good place makes it *easier* to run adventures out of it (whether investigatory stories of things going on in Promise, or 'taming the wilderness' / dealing with external critters on the island), than any city in Cheliax or Nidal or Geb, where running afoul of the authorities of the entire nation is a looming threat to campaign stability. It's less restrictive to PC choice *by far* than somewhere like Rahadoum or Alkenstar.
There do seem to be those who *want* Hermea (or Rahadoum) to be unplayable and useless from a game-playing perspective (and therefore a waste of page count), but they don't *have to be.* More extreme versions of this view even regard nations like Andoran or Taldor to be 'too civilized' or 'boringly good' to be suitable adventure locations, and seem to want every story to be stuck in the untamed areas of Varisia or someplace more exotic, but there's *plenty* of adventure to be found in Andoran and Taldor as well.
It's all very simple, Mengkare is under a terrible curse - on even days, he's a benevolent dragon who wants to encourage the best of humanity to build a perfect society, on odd days he's a omnicidial villain who pursues eugenics in order to build a perfect army to conquer the universe with.
"What a horrible night for a curse!"
Necroposting after three years.
I know, this is something against the rules (I suppose?), but after four years of waiting
The heroes have defeated the Scarlet Triad, but in doing so have learned a shocking truth—the Scarlet Triad has been financed all these years by the enigmatic ruler of the island nation of Hermea, the gold dragon Mengkare! After a devastating manifestation of a violent dragon god erupts from the portals the heroes have been using the entire campaign, they must travel to Hermea to confront Mengkare about the Scarlet Triad and find out what the gold dragon's plans actually are. Does he seek to save the world... or to end it in a devastating Age of Ashes?