So I was looking to start a planar campaign with Pathfinder and wanted to use Mythic Adventures for it, and this led me to conjure up a "mythic" story line for the overarching plot. Basically I've come up with a possible background story for the Lady of Pain and Sigil. Now I know that many die-hard Planescape fans would consider this hubris, but I wanted to see if anybody else could help me flesh this story out with cool ideas.
A few areas I'd like you to consider:
Aoskar, Lord of Portals
The factions and belief
Also, alternate ideas for some of the elements contained in the background would be appreciated as well.
I basically took what was in the Planescape setting, the D&D mythology, and the Ptolus campaign setting cosmology to try and infer what Monte Cook was thinking when he wrote these bad boys up.
This is what I came up with (let me know what you think!):
THE GALCHUTT AND THE FAR REALM
Eons ago, while the planes were still young, the Galchutt—or the Outer Gods—invaded the Multiverse through the Rift of Chaos, nearly bringing about the powers’ destruction. Led by the titanic, insane entity Tharizdun, an amorphous mass of nuclear chaos, the Galchutt decimated the Outer Planes from their portal in the Outlands. So great was their assault that the Lower Planes were irreparably changed forever, their inhabitants permanently twisted and evil. As one deific realm fell after another, it seemed only a matter of time before the Galchutt’s war would succeed.
But putting aside their differences, a coalition of deities banded together, striking at the Rift itself. Gods perished as the Galchutt fell, and the tide of battle turned against the divine alliance. All seemed lost. And then, the twin sister of the serpent Jazirian, one of the greater powers of law whose name has been forgotten in time, realized that to permanently seal the Rift, she would need to sacrifice her divinity, abandoning her worshippers forever.
Without hesitation she acted. The goddess snaked her body around the opening and devoured her own tail, creating a sigil that warded the Rift shut. She poured out her divinity as the Galchutt tore at her exposed and unprotected flesh. As she cried out in pain, the Rift closed, and the way to the Far Realm was closed permanently.
The Galchutt were defeated. Those that were trapped in the Outer Planes were either destroyed or fled into the deepest recesses of the Multiverse, to remain hidden for eons.
But when the smoke from the battle had cleared, the powers soon realized that Jazirian’s sister was not dead. While her body had petrified into a circular torus of stone just above the Outlands--the physical manifestation of the divine “plug” she created--her consciousness still lingered. She had survived her ordeal. And even more surprising, the enormous inter-dimensional energies that allowed passage between the Multiverse and the Far Realm were not ended—they were merely diverted. Now, they channeled through the goddess herself, an intricate web of dimensional pathways crisscrossing the planes instead of bridging the void to the Far Realm.
Some of the evil gods lusted after her newfound power. They quickly tried to take it. But the Lady revealed another shocking revelation—despite the loss of her worshippers the goddess’s power was beyond any of them now. All the stolen power of the Rift was hers to command. She easily defended herself, slaying several deities before the rest got the hint and fled. Yet despite her new form, the wounds of the Galchutt were forever embedded in the Lady’s essence. She languished in eternal pain. And furthermore she was trapped in the Outlands, bound to the site of the Rift, her former realm in Celestia a faraway dream.
And then something happened. The Outlands itself rejected her, thrusting the Lady’s petrified body far into the air away from it such was the evil that lay beyond the Far Realm’s sealed gate. This spire held the Lady’s torus-like form above it, utterly alone and in pain. A deep melancholy filled the Lady’s heart. She watched from afar as her precious nagas went mad due to her sudden departure, many turning toward evil. Now fearful (and in some cases, envious) of her power, the other gods turned away from the Lady, speaking with her only to find a way to steal what she possessed. The only being who still treated her with friendship in any capacity was her brother, Jazirian himself.
Seeing her loneliness, he gifted her with the dabus, a race of benevolent, displaced creatures native to the Lower Planes that had been so thoroughly ravaged by the Galchutt. They happily accepted her as their patron. But they were only companions, not worshippers, for if she allowed them to siphon any of her divinity, the seal to the Far Realm would begin to crack, and the Galchutt might once again break through.
As the centuries passed explorers discovered the vast, inter-connected web of portals throughout the Multiverse, and eventually some of these travelers discovered the Lady’s torus. But they did not recognize her for what she was. Instead they saw a hub of trade, a place to settle, a city to build and profit from. And so the City of Doors was founded, and pilgrims from all over the cosmos, brought by fantastic tales of the floating city and its mysterious portals, came to Sigil.
Here and there, sightings occurred of the Lady’s avatar, which the serpent goddess created to interact with the dabus who were now her friends. And the city dwellers gave her a name:
Our Serenity, the Lady of Pain.
P.S. The reason I came up with all this was so that I could have a crazy epic storyline where the PC's basically need to stop the Rift of Chaos from being opened again. I was basically going to replace Lathuraz the Mercurial with Vuulthoom, a Star-Spawn of Cthulhu, who would be released during the Third Door adventure of "Doors to the Unknown." Vuulthoom would be seeking a way to re-open the Rift and release Tharizdun.
P.P.S. Maybe he would awaken Cthulhu first...
As near as I can tell, likely THE authority on all things Planar is afroakuma, whose lair can be found on the GitP forums, currently here:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?372289-afroakuma-s-Planar-And -Other-Oddities-Questions-Thread-5!
Just don't ask him anything Pathfinder-specific, he doesn't do Golarion.
How does this Lady square with Nalinivati who is the patron goddess of both Naga and Nagaji kind?
I wonder if being in constant pain makes her a romantic target of Zon Kuthon?
prototype00
How does this Lady square with Nalinivati who is the patron goddess of both Naga and Nagaji kind?
I wonder if being in constant pain makes her a romantic target of Zon Kuthon?
prototype00
Thanks, nice suggestions. I'll look them up and see!
As near as I can tell, likely THE authority on all things Planar is afroakuma, whose lair can be found on the GitP forums, currently here:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?372289-afroakuma-s-Planar-And -Other-Oddities-Questions-Thread-5!
Just don't ask him anything Pathfinder-specific, he doesn't do Golarion.
Okay, thanks for that. Did you personally think the storyline sounded rivoting? A nice mix of the canon mythology and Monte Cook's ideas (i.e. would you be excited about this as a player)?
Appreciate the feedback, guys!