Idea board

Don Incognito · Mar 18, 2009

I've been doing some thinking, and I believe that the best way to add Devas and Goliaths to the Isles is to introduce a new Far Land.

For some reason, the picture in PHB2 of Devas in their race section conjures up an image in my mind; a deva sitting upon a lavish, mounted throne being carried by four goliath pallbearers. The idea is that the devas are somewhere between a noble caste and living gods in this land, and the goliaths are subserviant to them. The devas teach that with humility, obedience and "purity of mind", goliaths can be reborn as devas in another lifetime (whether or not this is true is up in the air). The devas are haughty and proud, viewing all non-deva races as "lesser". The PCs would be those rebelling against the system, fleeing to foreign lands to escape the endless cycle of oppression.

I have more ideas on how to fully flesh this out, but I'm having trouble putting them into words.

Initial thoughts, anyone?

garyh · Mar 18, 2009

Initial response - nice idea, Don I!

CaBaNa · Mar 18, 2009

Don Incognito said:
I've been doing some thinking, and I believe that the best way to add Devas and Goliaths to the Isles is to introduce a new Far Land.

For some reason, the picture in PHB2 of Devas in their race section conjures up an image in my mind; a deva sitting upon a lavish, mounted throne being carried by four goliath pallbearers. The idea is that the devas are somewhere between a noble caste and living gods in this land, and the goliaths are subserviant to them. The devas teach that with humility, obedience and "purity of mind", goliaths can be reborn as devas in another lifetime (whether or not this is true is up in the air). The devas are haughty and proud, viewing all non-deva races as "lesser". The PCs would be those rebelling against the system, fleeing to foreign lands to escape the endless cycle of oppression.

I have more ideas on how to fully flesh this out, but I'm having trouble putting them into words.

Initial thoughts, anyone?

I like this, adding that some Goliaths could wander in from other far lands, Valley of Bone seems a really nice fit...

With your idea Don I. the Deva's could even truly believe they are doing good for the Goliaths! That will keep continuity of their supposedly good natural alignment.

Lord Sessadore · Mar 18, 2009

That sounds neat, Don; I like it. I also like the idea of goliaths from the Valley of Bone, and I think it'd be good to have at least one alternate origin for Devas.

What I was thinking was that some Devas are 'born' fully grown (as the fluff in PHB2) in random places, with a mandate from whichever god they are a servant of. Since the Greek pantheon (I'm going to use the Greek names because I don't remember all of our names for them

) is quite diverse, that doesn't have to mean divine classes only - Primal would match well with Artemis and possibly Poseidon; Martial matches fairly well with Ares, Athena, Apollo (especially archers), and possibly Zeus. Arcane would be a little trickier, but doable. Perhaps Hermes (I could definitely see a deva incarnation of Palindrome being Hermes-related

), or ... I guess it could be nearly any of them, depending how you flavour the character. Interestingly, Hekate would make a very good traditional arcane patron - I believe she was associated with sorcery in ancient Greece. I'm just not sure whether devas fit with our imagining of Hekate

Atanatotatos · Mar 18, 2009

Uhmm... Apollo/Phoebus/Apoli seems a more fitting deity for the "light" aspect of devas.
For their "darker" sides... Zagreus/Dyonisus was also a god of rebirth.
Hekates has more of a "creepy" feeling.

Lord Sessadore · Mar 18, 2009

Atanatotatos said:
Uhmm... Apollo/Phoebus/Apoli seems a more fitting deity for the "light" aspect of devas.
For their "darker" sides... Zagreus/Dyonisus was also a god of rebirth.
Hekates has more of a "creepy" feeling.

Well, Apollo was also the patron god of archery in ancient Greece. Not saying that has to be the case in L4W, I was just thinking of who could be the patron of a martial deva. Apollo would also work great as patron for a bard - he was the patron of the lyre as well.

I agree that our Hekate has a creepy feeling, and the ancient version probably did, too. I do think she was associated with sorcery/witchcraft ... But yeah, I don't really see where devas fit with Hekate. Tieflings more likely, haha.

SeaPainter · Mar 18, 2009

Considering the re-emergence of so many of the "old" (and nasty) gods & goddesses... perhaps it would make sense for the reigning divinity to start sending representatives (the devas) to get things under control... or even for the upstarts to send out an advance party.

Ozymandias79 · Mar 18, 2009

don't fotget that evil Devas reincarnates into rakhasas and that would "fit" Hekate

KenHood · Mar 18, 2009

Lord Sessadore said:
(I'm going to use the Greek names because I don't remember all of our names for them )

Just say you're using the 'Isle of O' names for the gods. They're exactly the same as the Greek names...

Hermes is a good choice for an arcane patron. (Here.)

Here's a little on the Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy. Apollonian and Dionysian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From what I've read of deva, they don't fit the Dionysian type. Perhaps in the Deva-Goliath culture, the Goliath are the Dionysian half--rugged, feral, ecstatic. The Deva--as the Apollonian type--perceives themselves as taming that chaos.

Dunamin · Mar 20, 2009

A form of L4W news media would be awesome! I wholeheartedly recommend calling it “the Screamer” in honor of Graf's brainchild.

How about adopting some general guidelines, such as:

Adventuring parties are encouraged to post a quick news flash after they've concluded an encounter or other solid part of an adventure to give a brief summary. (I’d like to hear about that solo battle in the Echoes game!)
Every week/month/whatever we get a "Tavern Travesties" column that talks about what’s going on in the Hanged Man (competitions, new adventure openings, new arrivals).
When an adventure concludes, the DM is encouraged to post a little recap with highlights.
New proposals that have been opened, are being discussed, or have been approved/rejected.
Etc…

covaithe said:
"Did you hear about Woe Chinua? I hear he went upstairs with three of the barmaids from the Bull and Horn, and it was them who left walking funny in the morning!"

“Oh Woe, can we touch your spear?”

“Alright ladies, but you need to handle it gently.”

“Gods, are you sure it’s not a longspear?”

“Seems more like a greatspear to me!”