
keftiu |
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...Thinking back to Hell's Vengeance, another evil AP where I wanted to play as the antagonists waaay more than I wanted to play the actual AP :(
This AP is giving you info on Holomog and on all sorts of nasty folks aligned with the state of Geb - it might not be all assembled for you, but Blood Lords definitely should give you a lot of tools you’d need to tell a story about Holomog beating up on those nasty undead.

Ly'ualdre |

Holomog is kind of interesting in that, while not evil, is a nation suggested to be filled with political intrigue, expansionist warmongering, chaos cults, and a millenia long exposure to the Outer Planes (likely the Maelstrom) that has effected the nation as a whole. What's interesting is that it kind of falls back on the recent topic of "is chaos evil". Again, while not maybe necessarily the case here, Holomog's suggested proclivity towards chaos defiently seems destructive and anti-productive to neighboring nations. Geb, for its part, isn't actively committing atrocities. It's literally a nation attempting to give a place to undead. And while this does include evil acts, Geb and its people aren't attempting to attack any nations or force their agenda outside of their borders; not unlike a certain Whispering Tyrant. And Holmog, for its part, isn't encroaching upon Geb because they see undeath as a scourge needing to be destroyed (at least, there is not indi ation of such ideals); they are seemingly doing so simply because they want to take Gebs land for themselves. So it's kind of a situation of the (mostly) "passive evil" of Geb and the "active chaos" or Holomog; which is a fascinating conundrum indeed.

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Geb, for its part, isn't actively committing atrocities.
This is false. Anuli, the city closest to Geb is also in recovery after Geb randomly magically exploded half of the city.
they are seemingly doing so simply because they want to take Gebs land for themselves.
This is false. Holomog is literally stated in Distant Shores to have a maximum size as per the celestial contract that formed it. It, by divine mandate, CANNOT take more land for itself.
And despite that, this is all mischaracterization of nation as being all like Anuli, the capital of a region repeatedly described as the most unruly and militant, specifically because it has a hostile border with Geb.

keftiu |
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Was the explosion in Anuli confirmed to be Geb’s fault? I thought that was just a leading theory, but that it was unsolved.
EDIT: Peeking at Distant Shores, Geb’s involvement in the Paroxsys is always presented as a hypothetical, one that folk think is the likely answer, but it’s not official or definitive. Part of me wonders if it might not have been a a false flag by agents of Nex; they’d certainly have the requisite knowhow.

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Was the explosion in Anuli confirmed to be Geb’s fault? I thought that was just a leading theory, but that it was unsolved.
EDIT: Peeking at Distant Shores, Geb’s involvement in the Paroxsys is always presented as a hypothetical, one that folk think is the likely answer, but it’s not official or definitive. Part of me wonders if it might not have been a a false flag by agents of Nex; they’d certainly have the requisite knowhow.
A fair point! I had misremembered that detail. Thank you.

Ly'ualdre |

That is fair enough. But my point is that Holomog is actively gearing toward an invasion of Geb, while Geb as a nation (generally) is just kind of trying to exist. From that stand point, it will be interesting dynamic here between the two nations; because under the circumstances, Holomog certainly doesn't strike me as being the "good guys" here.

keftiu |
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That is fair enough. But my point is that Holomog is actively gearing toward an invasion of Geb, while Geb as a nation (generally) is just kind of trying to exist. From that stand point, it will be interesting dynamic here between the two nations; because under the circumstances, Holomog certainly doesn't strike me as being the "good guys" here.
I mean, Geb’s most pleasant status quo still involves keeping massive larders of sentient humanoids as food without any rights - just because they aren’t being belligerent currently doesn’t mean they’re squeaky-clean.
Until we have this book (and the details it’ll give), there’s not much point arguing over how justified any Holomog-based aggression might be.
EDIT: Heck, the baddies in this one might not even be acting with official sanction!

keftiu |
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keftiu wrote:The Raven Black wrote:Isn't it the place where Asmodeus is a LN goddess ?I believe that’s gone the way of the Cult of the Dawnflower.More like the way of the Asmodean paladin; never existed.
The Cult of the Dawnflower is in canon, it's just disbanded by Sarenrae herself.
I believe this /is/ the place where the Asmodean Paladins popped up; the idea was that Asmodeus has helped write the contract with the celestials, and so had a more benevolent place in the local mythology.
I actually liked it a lot, but I know it drove some of the writing team crazy.

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NECR0G1ANT wrote:keftiu wrote:The Raven Black wrote:Isn't it the place where Asmodeus is a LN goddess ?I believe that’s gone the way of the Cult of the Dawnflower.More like the way of the Asmodean paladin; never existed.
The Cult of the Dawnflower is in canon, it's just disbanded by Sarenrae herself.
I believe this /is/ the place where the Asmodean Paladins popped up; the idea was that Asmodeus has helped write the contract with the celestials, and so had a more benevolent place in the local mythology.
I actually liked it a lot, but I know it drove some of the writing team crazy.
Distant Shores did include the faith trait Pact Servant, which did let you play a LG worshipper of Asmodeus, but the idea of a paladin follower of Asmodeus appeared in the Asmodeus article of Mother of Flies, the fifth book of the Council of Thieves AP, published in 2010.
Before my time, but it seemed like a flawed idea. Really diminished the Evil part of Asmodeus' Lawful Evil.

keftiu |
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I’m personally very fond of settings where gods are seen as multifaceted and their faiths very between regions and cultures, but it seems like the folks steering the Pathfinder ship prefer their gods as immutable monoliths - they are what they are, until they completely change.
It’s not my preference, but it’s how they seem to want it.

David knott 242 |
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For Asmodeus, I always liked the idea that he had champions who called themselves paladins -- but mechanically, of course, they were anything but that.