I'm curently in Endless Night with my group. The group has one elf, a druid that is true neutral.
But from when they first entered Zyrn he has been acting more like drow than like an elf. Under explanation of blending in his character has acepted the ways of betrayal, lie, murder and such. The funny thing is, he isnt doing it on purpose. He just figures he wants to blend in.But we know the truth right :) Elfs can morph into drow if they become too evil. Now I ask you is it possible to morph him into drow later in the campain? How long does the proces last? What are your opinions on the whole thing?
There's a sidebar in Memory in Darkness explaining why what you're thinking isn't a good idea.
Consider that it's one of the greatest secrets of the elves. In the AP, 2 elves transform. No elves have transformed anywhere else in Pathfinder canon. Ever. Consider that, for all purposes, this is a transformation that's happened to less than 10 elves since the Earthfall.
Not only would the elf have to do something so incredibly evil, so mind-shatteringly ungood that he would probably get kicked out of the party, but it's just not at all a constructive event for the middle of a game centered around defeating the drow and their interests.
Allevrah Azrinae transforms because she's become fanatically obsessed with the demon lord Abraxas to the point where she's willing to resurrect ancient magic and make pacts with aboleths in order to hit the planet with a comet so large it would completely obliterate an entire race of sentient creatures as well as collapse several populated regions of the world and utterly annihilate anyone who lived in those sections of the Inner Sea, and she doesn't even think that's a bad thing. The Varisians and Chelaxians and Nirmathians she's sacrificing aren't even the main goal-- she's going to kill all of them just for a single shot at the drow, and they're just acceptable casualties. She has just pitched, for all intents and purposes, the Final Solution to the Winter Council. When Auramesties stands up and says no, an argument erupts and she immediately succumbs to rage and hatred and kills him without as much as a blink. Before anyone can even recover, she pulls the seal spike in order to kill everyone else in the tower to cover up her killing and then runs.
That is the kind of evil we're talking about. Worshipping the demon lords, sacrificing yourself to them, fervently planning the annihilation of thousands of innocent lives and millions of enemy noncombatants in a vain attempt to "solve" their problem forever, and what if a few hundred miles of land are turned to ash and collapsed into the darklands? Then she goes straight to the killing of a friend without even a thought of guilt, regret or indecision.
If you transform into a drow, you should be the most evil person at the table. Unquestionably. Your character should be a monster. Like Allevrah "The Final Solution" Azrinae.
It'll probably also get you into an argument with the player about motives and how he's been playing his character. I know I would be pissed if you hit me with that transformation if I was the player in question and I was legitimately acting evil to blend in, especially with the other examples in the text.
There's a sidebar in Memory in Darkness explaining why what you're thinking isn't a good idea.
Consider that it's one of the greatest secrets of the elves. In the AP, 2 elves transform. No elves have transformed anywhere else in Pathfinder canon. Ever. Consider that, for all purposes, this is a transformation that's happened to less than 10 elves since the Earthfall.
Not only would the elf have to do something so incredibly evil, so mind-shatteringly ungood that he would probably get kicked out of the party, but it's just not at all a constructive event for the middle of a game centered around defeating the drow and their interests.
Allevrah Azrinae transforms because she's become fanatically obsessed with the demon lord Abraxas to the point where she's willing to resurrect ancient magic and make pacts with aboleths in order to hit the planet with a comet so large it would completely obliterate an entire race of sentient creatures as well as collapse several populated regions of the world and utterly annihilate anyone who lived in those sections of the Inner Sea, and she doesn't even think that's a bad thing. The Varisians and Chelaxians and Nirmathians she's sacrificing aren't even the main goal-- she's going to kill all of them just for a single shot at the drow, and they're just acceptable casualties. She has just pitched, for all intents and purposes, the Final...
You're 99% right. Note that, as far as I can tell, Allevrah did not begin worshiping Abraxas until after her transformation into a drow (at which point even Nethys abandoned her). Technically, she should have about 15 levels in ex-cleric. But I'm nit picking.
Now JanosAudren, If you want to turn a PC into a drow, proceed with EXTREME caution. Aside from the obscene level of evil the PC needs to display, consider the long-term effects on the campaign (such as how the elves at Kyonin will react)
I actually DID turn one of the PC's into a drow, my girlfriend's elf sorceress, after another friend accidentally blabbed to her that elf-drow transformation was possible. She was hooked, and harassed me until I agreed that it was possible BUT would require her to do some pretty nasty stuff. She agreed.
Cue lengthly discussion on personal experience:
I set up the storyline that she grew up in an isolated part of the Celwynvian forest. Since she had sorcerer powers (draconic bloodline), she was trained by her elvish 'grandfather' Rin'Shale (who was in fact her great great great great grandfather) and was actually a gold dragon in disguise. He taught her magic as she grew up, and the nature of drow, and she then she set off for Riddleport.
Right up until 'Memory of Darkness' she did small evil deeds, nothing major, always subtle and never against the party. When they reached Thorn's End, I created a complex plot where Rin'Shale had been a member of the Winter Council, but had been betrayed in a skirmish against the demons of Treerazor, when the other members discovered he was actually a dragon and not an elf. Assumed dead, Rin'Shale fled the scene.
Hialin took an interest in the young sorceress and asked for her assistance during the Winter Council meeting (in which he would take the Spike from the wall if the COuncil 'were not agreeable') she agreed. During the meeting (I had PC's roleplay each member) it came out that the council betrayed Rin'Shale, and Hialin masterminded the betrayal. Furious, Hialin went for the spike and the sorceress had to make a split second decision: Either abandon Hialin and give up any chance of becoming a drow, or aid Hialin and betray her own grandfather and everything he had taught her.
They both turned into a drow simultaneously and all hell broke loose as the demons broke in. Afterwards, she was heavily interrogated by the nobles of Kyonin, and only allowed to proceed with the mission to Orv because Rin'Shale himself personally pleaded mercy to the queen (without his granddaughters knowledge).
I'm not sure what to do with her when she returned to Kyonin just yet.
I guess my point is that if you have it REALLY planned out well it is feasible to have an elf PC change to a drow. I don't think it's a reversible process either (although I would imagine a wish or miracle spell would suffice).
I see your point Ice Titan! As I dont yet have the last two chapters i didnt have insight into the sidebars or the plot itself.
Then I wont do it, but i guess it will be nice to see expresion on my players face when he learns thats how drow became who they are :)
Thanks for the respones!
Second Darkness is arguably the worst and best AP in terms of plot. It's all very well written, very very subtle and infused into the campaign as a whole, but it's almost all poorly presented, scrambled around between all of the books and completely beyond the players to the point where none of it matters until the final book. Everything that happens in every Adventure Background section to date is, of course, the background, but almost none of the Adventure Backgrounds in Second Darkness are actually interactable. Which is to say, four of them completely deal with things that have passed and the PCs have no hand in, one successfully deals with the subject material, and one of them tells you a depressing story about a man who loved a girlbirdhead.
Other APs tell you what happened to shape the adventure in each module. Second Darkness tells you Allevrah's story three times over six books.
I realized this about 2D when I got to the end of #4, where a villain shares information with the PCs, and realized I didn't even know what information to share with them.
Note that, as far as I can tell, Allevrah did not begin worshiping Abraxas until after her transformation into a drow (at which point even Nethys abandoned her). Technically, she should have about 15 levels in ex-cleric. But I'm nit picking.
No, she started worshipping him to get the secrets on how to fill out the rune magic even before she went to the Winter Council with her plans.
I think.