| Tinalles |
My Kingmaker (now concluded) was so heavily modified it barely qualified as Kingmaker any more. My player did Book 1, the Rushlight Festival, and Book 6. The rest was a homebrew adventure, and in all honesty by the time we did the Rushlight Festival and Book 6, those were merely episodes on the way to the resolution of the campaign's main plot, which we need not go into here.
In working with Nyrissa, I needed to understand more about what drove her. How did she become the cruel creature that she is? What I came up with is, essentially, a short story about Ranalc and Nyrissa's romance, told from Count Ranalc's point of view. I thought I would post that here, in the hopes that perhaps some other GM might find it useful.
The entire thing is predicated on that notion that in the distant past, before the gods abandoned the First World, Ranalc was Lawful Good. When they left, that shook him to the core. He became Lawful Neutral, seeking ever to reclaim the goodness that once came so easily to him.
And this is the story of how he finally lost all faith in order, and bitterly embraced a Chaotic Neutral nihilism. Spoilered for length.
I am Ranalc, a noble creature who loves the darkness. I was created in the long-ago by the Betrayers, the ones who left us -- those beings that the mortals of the Second World call "gods". I loved my creators, and offered them praise and obedience. For time out of mind, all was well.
Then they left us. They abandoned our world, the First World, and went off to make a whole new world to replace ours, to supplant it. This was the First Betrayal.
They did not destroy us. Oh no. That would have been a mercy. No, they left us to continue without guidance, without care, without any path in life or hope of death, for our souls do not migrate for judgement on death as those of the Second World do. No, they condemned us to eternal life devoid of purpose. This was the Second Betrayal.
We lived. We adapted. And we, the Eldest of our kind, stepped forward to fill the gaping emptiness that the Betrayers left. If they would not give us purpose, we would make our own. If they would not guide our people, our races, then we we would do it ourselves.
Time passed. Slowly, we established some kind of life for ourselves. I myself worked with darkness and nobility. Daring midnight raids for the beauty of daring! Noble self-sacrifice, for the beauty of martyrdom! I strove to ennoble my fellow fey, to give them reasons to work together, reasons to live and love.
But always I was lonely. The other Eldest did not share my aims. They took refuge instead in other things. Magdh and Shyka in prophecy and foreknowledge, the workings of time. The Green Mother in endless, mindless pursuit of pleasure and intrigue. The Lost Prince and Imbrex in depression and detachment. The Lantern King in a constant stream of ridiculous pranks, and Ragadahn in equally constant destruction. And Ng, well, who can say what Ng is up to? Certainly Ng says nothing about it.
Alone among the Eldest, I felt that we should work towards more than salving our wounds. I felt we needed some goal, some purpose to hold us together. I wanted to do good! To help our people to do good. That was what we lost most when the Betrayers left us -- a sense of good.
And so I worked tirelessly to recapture that goal. A mode of life that respected our hugely varying needs and desires, and balanced them against one another so that no one got too little, and no one too much.
It was rough going, I'll admit. And so, when I found her, my sweet Nyrissa, I felt that finally I had the strength it would take to see it through. She understood! She saw what I was trying to do, she saw how I wanted to make us all better. Freedom is wonderful if it is used for the betterment of all. She helped me. Between us we could have made it work.
And so I gave her power. I taught her secrets, and showed her the hidden ways. She grew and blossomed, my sweet night flower, into a greater and more noble being, a true partner. And so I gave her my heart. All of it. I loved her so, so much. And she loved me in return.
But ... something went wrong. Nyrissa perished in an accident -- and, in the manner of our kind, she returned to life the next day. Afterwards, she was listless. Tired. She spoke of the futility of going ever onward to nowhere. Though we lived in a paradise of riotous unending life, she spoke of it as hollow. Empty. Paradoxically barren for all of its fruitfulness, because there was no purpose or end.
Though I believed her spirits would recover in time, her words struck deep. And so, I betrayed my people: I went to the gods to beg them to aid us, a thing that no other among the fey had attempted in the ages since it became clear that the Abandonment was real and permanent. This was the Third Betrayal, and I committed it gladly for love of Nyrissa.
Specifically, I went to Pharasma, the arbiter of birth and death. I traveled to her realm under my own power, and requested an audience of the Lady of Graves. It was granted, and I made my case:
"O Pharasma, Grey Lady, I have come to beg of you a boon for the people of the First World. Long ago, you and the other gods abandoned us and turned your attention to the Second World. Ever since, we have been trapped in an endless cycle -- condemned ever to birth, never to death, and between those to an unending existence devoid of meaning or purpose. I do not ask you to take us back, or to make us equal with the children of the Second World. I do not ask to join the great migration of souls that governs their lives. I ask only that you complete your abandonment: as you have already withdrawn the blessings of death, I request that you likewise withdraw the blessings of birth. When we perish, let us not be reborn. Let us end. Since you seem to have no interest in collecting or judging our souls, let them simply dissipate instead. You are the goddess of Fate -- give us fates once again, I beg of thee."
Pharasma gazed at me dispassionately as I spoke, and when I was done she shook her head slowly. "This cannot be. Withdrawing birth from the people of the First World is the same as granting them death, and that has been forbidden."
"But why?" I cried. "What does it profit thee to leave my people in this hellish state?"
She merely gazed at me, and offered no answer.
"Fine! Keep your secrets if you must," I spat at her, "But know that this refusal to aid my people makes mockery of your vaunted neutrality. I name you evil, Lady of Graves, for claiming neutrality while blatantly favoring the children of the Second World over those of the First." And I turned to storm out of her chamber.
But she was there. Mere inches from my face, without having moved. Her eyes were blacker than anything else I've ever seen. I could neither blink nor tear my gaze from hers. I saw tiny purple spirals rotating in the depths of her eyes.
"I give you a prophecy, Ranalc," she said. "Three times shall you stand before me. This is the first. The second was decreed by the Tapestry at the Beginning, and shall be your end. You alone among your people shall break the cycle of reincarnation and die -- but judgment you shall not have until the third time you come before me. Thus do I prophecy."
It seemed to me that the spirals in her eyes grew larger and larger as she spoke, until I could see nothing but the spirals rotating lazily in space, and hear the sound of her voice echoing within my mind. And then I blinked and found myself back in the First World, in my own throne chamber.
I did not know whether to rejoice or curse. I had a death coming! A real death. It meant that I had a limited time to accomplish my goals -- that one day I would be done, and no longer have to endure. But -- I had also learned there would be no mercy for my fellow fey. I would escape, but leave them trapped. And, whether it came soon or late, I would die the death and leave my Nyrissa mourning me for the rest of eternity and unable to die herself.
I threw myself into my work once again, exhorting my fellow fey to use their freedom to do good. Nyrissa's spirits improved -- perhaps she picked up on the new enthusiasm I brought to everything I did know that my end might come at any time. I never told her about what I had done, or what Pharasma told me. She would learn in due course -- why force her to start mourning before I even died? But we loved one another more than ever before. It was a sweet time.
Sweet -- but short. I do not know how it came to pass, but the other Eldest learned of what I had done. At first I suspected Ng may have found out -- secrets are his meat and drink. But if so, why would he tell the others? He never gives up a secret he has learned. No, it must have been one of the others. I don't know who, or how, but once it was out, they raised the Tane against me, naming me traitor for having consorted with Betrayers.
The Tane were creatures designed as weapons of war, feared even in a world where death had no hold. I fought them. They came one at a time, crying their purpose aloud for all to hear: "Count Ranalc has betrayed the First World, and must be punished!" I fought them -- the Jub-Jub bird, several thrasfyr, a Sard -- and won. It was only when they sent the Jabberwock that I knew my time had come. As the Jabberwock whiffled and burbled its way through the grounds, I told Nyrissa "This foe is beyond us. You have stayed at my side through all the others, but now it would perhaps be better if you left."
She looked at me in puzzlement. "Why ever so? The worst it can do is kill us. Surely, the pain will be unpleasant, and it is always so disruptive to form a new body -- but then why would I leave you to suffer that alone? I love you, Ranalc. Do not ask me to leave."
And so I let her stay. And we fought -- and perished. But only I died. Nyrissa awoke in a new body the next morning to find that I was gone, truly gone, for when the Jabberwock slew me that day, my soul fled the First World and joined the river of souls flowing to Pharasma's domain. I remember standing in line there, an awkward petitioner like any other, waiting for a few moments of the Grey Lady's time to discover my fate. I do not know if it was short or long, but in time I reached Pharasma's chamber.
"This is the second time you have come before me," she said. "And as foretold, you have died in truth."
Before anything further could be said, there was a great alarm. One of Pharasma's greater psychopomps rushed in and whispered something in her ear.
"If you will excuse me, Ranalc, it seems there has been an incursion of daemons. I must deal with that. When I return you will be standing before me for the third time, and then I shall pass judgement." And so saying, she left.
I stood in Pharasma's throne room, wondering what my fate would be, when there was a sudden sound of combat behind me. Turning, I found my beloved Nyrissa standing there, blade bloodied. Behind her I could see a swathe of destruction: fleeing petitioners, psychopomps struggling against entwining plants, or lying still in pools of blood. She held her sword, Briar, and her breast heaved with exertion. "Ranalc!" she cried, striding forward. "I have come for you."
"Nyrissa!" I exclaimed as she flung herself into my arms. "But, I have died. What ..."
"No time!" she said. "I released a bunch of daemons as a distraction, but they won't last for long." And with that she kissed me -- the Kiss of the First World. Life surged into me, and when I opened my eyes we were once again standing in the First World.
"Terrible man!" she said to me. "Did you really think I'd be content to go through the rest of eternity without you?"
"I wasn't given much choice in the matter," I told her. "The Lady of Graves decreed that my death was written in the Tapestry when I went to beg for her aid for the First World." And I told her the whole story of the encounter. "I fear no good can come of this -- Pharasma prophesied that I would stand before her three times, and as yet I have faced her only twice."
"Let her come," said Nyrissa. "I have you by my side, and that is all I care for."
I believe it was that night our daughter Yanamari was conceived. We kept moving, and it was nearly a year before Pharasma caught up with us. But in the end, she did. She emerged from the Boneyard to personally lead a host of psychopomps against us. They killed none, but none could oppose them. In short order, we were brought to ground. Nyrissa and I were both taken captive, as was our daughter Yanamari, then a babe of 3 months.
"Well, Ranalc," Pharasma said, "I did not expect this."
"Grey B%%!+," Nyrissa snarled, "Your kind abandoned the First World ages ago. By what right do you harass us? By what right did you steal Ranalc's soul?"
Pharasma turned her black gaze on Nyrissa. "By the same right that grants me dominion over life and death: fate. It was written in the Tapestry that Ranalc would die the death. That has been fixed and set since before even the First World was created. His appointed time came, and he died."
Then she frowned -- a truly terrifying expression on a face so known for its blank dispassion. "You, little green one, have undone the threads of fate. Ranalc's time came -- yet here he stands, alive and breathing once more. And the father of this infant, at that."
Nyrissa merely spat at Pharasma's feet. "I care not for your 'fate'. We were written out of your fate ages ago. You have neither the right nor ability to judge us. You ..." then she suddenly stopped as Pharasma made a short cutting motion with her hand, leaving Nyrissa voiceless.
"Pharasma," I said in fear, "Please, she speaks in passion. Let her go."
Pharasma turned her gaze on me. "Passion -- yes. It was passion that drove her to snatch you from my domain. Love that led her to upend the dictates of fate. This I cannot overlook." Reaching out, she took Briar from Nyrissa. "Nyrissa, it was love that led you to defy my law. Love that cheated Ranalc of his original destiny. Love that led to the creation of this babe, whose birth was neither appointed nor foreseen." And so saying, she plunged Briar into Nyrissa's heart.
I cried out. Nyrissa did not fall, though her eyes went wide with the shock. Then Pharasma withdrew the blade. No wound marred Nyrissa's chest. "Love," Pharasma said, "Is too powerful a thing to allow you. Thus, I have taken it from you. Go now. You are exiled from the First World."
Nyrissa nodded her head, diffident. All the passion that had stirred her before was gone. "Wait! Nyrissa," I called to her. "Take me with you."
But she merely looked at me coldly, turned her back, and vanished into the forest.
"As for you, Ranalc," Pharasma said, turning to me. "You were motivated by nothing worse than attempting to aid your people. You sought to free them of what you saw as an intolerable situation. But still you have offended against the dictates of fate. You knew that you were doomed to die; yet you went with Nyrissa when she came. And you fathered this child on her. Now you stand before me for the third time, and as I prophecied, I pass judgement: the death that you sought will never be yours. You shall live forevermore, being reborn in the manner of your kind forevermore. Death relinquishes its claim on you. But I prophecy that you shall not long be permitted to live in the First World."
My heart shriveled in my chest as she spoke. I had come so close to breaking free of that cycle. And now I was right back there once again -- only I would be alone, with neither friend nor lover.
"As for this one," Pharasma said, turning her gaze to my daughter Yanamari. "She is an innocent in all of this. Yet her existence is nonetheless an affront to the ordained order of life and death -- daughter to a father who was dead before siring her, yet not. No pattern was woven for her in the Tapestry, and as I did not arrange for her birth, neither is it my right to stand in judgement of her end. She will always be apart from the cycle of souls. But I shall see to it that she is cared for."
And so Pharasma departed, taking Yanamari with her, and leaving me alone in the forest. I wandered grief stricken for some time; but soon the other Eldest found me, and offered me a choice: depart the First World forever, or be killed over and over, each day a new horror.
And so I left and took up residence on the Plane of Shadows.
May they all rot.
That gave me a better notion of how to play Nyrissa: cruel not because she enjoys cruelty, but because in her lack of love -- her complete and total absence of empathy -- she has no comprehension of cruelty or kindness.
I got a lot more mileage out of this story than just understanding Nyrissa's mindset better; I also used it to set up a different way to retrieve Briar, which led to one of the best sessions I've ever done. I hope it proves useful to someone else.