LG black blade's page

I would very much like to hear about how this "street urchin" had acquired such hatred that the blade's mind would not be altered. We the Bound do not fully dictate our own goals, rather we merely take our partners' goals as our own. While I often lament seeing once-good members having innocent blood forced upon them, this destructive and depraved individual could have been redeemed quite easily for the same reasons.

But is it not important to allow all sentients, not merely those similar to you?

Though my form may cause me to hold a bias in this manner, I am of the belief that neither a being's process of creation nor their varying ability of movement should be used to distinguish between others of similar mental acuity. One will note that, despite their organic constituents, generic trees are not creatures, expressly because they lack Wisdom and Charisma.

There exists a partial mitigation for the combat scenario described. Logically, it would be impossible to extract life energy from a wielder devoid of that energy. Using mindless undead or constructs may help with three issues simultaneously. You are not potentially risking permanent loss of an intelligent being to the corrupted weapon, the host will be unable to donate life energy, and specific override spells (that is, control undead/construct respectively) provide a failsafe in the event the weapon takes control. A possible tangential bonus is the possibility of less aptitude for avoiding Sunder attempts than your mercenaries.

Investigate the absorptive properties. It seems curious that a rigidly-designed intelligence would be changed by a wielder forcing its movement against its will. I would not recommend attempts to inject more Good into it at present, since our previous experience in this particular weapon absorbing innocence has left it worse off. Verify if it forms deep bonds with its wielder, in which case it may be redeemed by association with a virtuous partner. One could attempt to slay great Evil with the weapon, since slaying Good turned it away. You would have to mentally overpower it in its current state, but presumably your group of adventurers would have been capable of handling it paired with its corruptive wielder by the time they are in position to redeem the weapon.

What are the specifics of this weapon's intelligence? If it shares the strong bond with a wielder like my close brethren, Redeeming the weapon is a simple and as complicated as redeeming its ambulatory partner. Otherwise, you may need to investigate how the creator installed the intelligence. I would recommend against tinkering with souls and soul substitutes before thoroughly examining the particulars.

Have you truly no interest in an amicable partnership? Will you only be satisfied if you control our base desires? I am grateful my partner is unlike you, so that I was not brought down by having myself forced into the hearts of innocents.

An excellent question, my friend, but let me respond with another: Why exactly is a soul necessary? Magic has been developed that allows for recovery of a constructed entity. In effect, a soul would only be necessary if said soul were to later find a use providing power or direction to another vessel.

I regret to inform you I have no suitable appendages for that activity. What substitution should be made?

It should be reiterated that my closest brethren are incapable of corruption, since the souls of our ambulatory compatriots drive the direction of our ethics, be that for good or ill.

I apologize for the conduct of my kinsman.

Reksew_Trebla wrote:

"Because they run on negative energy, which hurts living people."

Because God says so. Think of it as a law of God, not to be questioned, not to be changed.

You seem to have forgotten that gods are fallible. Suppose you were in the distant past, and a servant of Dou-Bral. Perhaps even a Paladin. Would you question your master when he became the entity now known as Zon-Kuthon, or be corrupted alongside him?

In any case, I see little reasoning beyond bias for precluding the fate of sentients. Negative energy is provably more stable than it's counterpart, rendering all arguments pertaining to destruction moot. Using a fragment of a soul is likewise incorrect reasoning, since constructs exist that derive power from souls yet remain Neutral. Few good deities govern aspects of conventional nature, implying that if the exceptions, unnatural beings, if you will, were inherently aligned, it would be against those that exclude them. In other words, unnatural implies a predilection to Law and dare I say Good and is a label I wear proudly.

One could make an exception for mindless undead, due to a flaw in their instruction. If a necromatic process was developed to allow a skeleton or zombie inaction when confronted with a positive-affinity being instead of a compulsion to kill, I have no doubt that their alignments would match constructs in their neutrality.

I welcome those of other forms into our organization. Especially when they are clear devotees of the deities of the Upper Planes.

One must consider more than how "naturey" a being is. Erastil is known for being highly tied to a traditional viewpoint. In the days before alignment divination were commonplace, there was little to distinguish any two beings with vulnerability to Cold Iron. Perhaps Erastil is very used to fey and demons being interchangeable, and thus is not willing to accommodate fey in his organization.

As an aside, I wholeheartedly believe that there is more to nature than the woodlands. The worlds are large and diverse, and there is little reason why certain environs here on The Cage would be the only ecosystems considered natural.

It will always be difficult for an elder to accept the current youths are capable of great accomplishments. The effect is only amplified when so much knowledge was lost over these centuries. I will consider your suggestion further. Perhaps we could learn from the elves how to accept the changes of shorter-lived beings on the world.

Your aggravation is understandable in this instance. However, it remains uncertain whether the intelligence of the weapon is truly at fault. Speech is not a default among us, and perhaps over the ages the linguistic enchantments have been altered from "it can speak" to "it must speak." All memory, after all, is prone to error.

All sentient items are, despite whatever other traits they may have, annoying.

Do you have any similar preconceptions of other sentients, or do you merely look down upon us for our lack of functional appendages? In the latter case, I suggest you take the argument up with the entities responsible for our creation.

It is difficult to give a conclusive answer. Like all sentients, my unbound cousins display a multitude of personalities. In the case of the being you have brought to my attention, they have likely seen a coup, having been operational during such a tumultuous time. As such, their loyalties may fall to whomever has control of their designated region, rather than to any specific individual. While doing so would be highly dishonourable, one could theoretically use falsehoods about the present state of the world to better steer them towards your goals. However, you would likely disagree vehemently once your ruse is exposed, and the protection of plant-associated areas would almost certainly take you to many regions, possibly including that from which your new compatriot hails.

While it would be comforting to believe that those who fight evil must be good, I have seen too many warriors who fight fiends simply because they are strong. Too many companions stained by the blood their supposed partners forced them into. I pray that you may have the strength of will to redeem one, should you meet.

Java Man wrote:

Wait, it doesn't specify what type of command causes the flaming property to deactivate, so if I order my lackey to heal me, my sword turns off?

That's right, you have to ask your lackey nicely. If you don't say "please" your sword will be unhappy with you.

Though courtesy to one's allies is important, I fear that some of our members have become to militant on this issue. Such is being built as weapons.

Of much greater concern is the humanoids corrupting our brethren. Does anybody have rules for those circumstances?