Help me tweak my 1,000 year cataclysm

[xjermx]

I'm asking for a little help in the form of ideas. A hundred brains are better than one, right?

I have a little homebrew points-of-light style gameworld. Without giving you the boring details about it, one element is that a great civilization rose and was then destroyed. It is almost 1,000 years later, and my players are going to slowly come to realize that the world is headed for the next rinse cycle. I plan on them fighting off the world-eater thing, and then having an opporunity to actually fix the problem, so that this will not happen again in 1,000 years.

Here is where I need your ideas. My original plan called for some great archmage living in the great civilization to be somehow so traumatized that he cursed the entire world to being destroyed every 1,000 years. But I've been completely unable to come up with anything remotely reasonable, what would cause a super powerful person to just one day smite the whole world. I've tried the love angle, the betrayed angle, etc. Lews Kinslayer Therin keeps coming to mind....

So, any ideas? What person or thing laid down this 1,000 year curse, and why? And what do the players need to do to have that person or thing undo the curse (since of course killing it won't fix the problem).

 

[Andor]

I'm asking for a little help in the form of ideas. A hundred brains are better than one, right?

I have a little homebrew points-of-light style gameworld. Without giving you the boring details about it, one element is that a great civilization rose and was then destroyed. It is almost 1,000 years later, and my players are going to slowly come to realize that the world is headed for the next rinse cycle. I plan on them fighting off the world-eater thing, and then having an opporunity to actually fix the problem, so that this will not happen again in 1,000 years.

Here is where I need your ideas. My original plan called for some great archmage living in the great civilization to be somehow so traumatized that he cursed the entire world to being destroyed every 1,000 years. But I've been completely unable to come up with anything remotely reasonable, what would cause a super powerful person to just one day smite the whole world. I've tried the love angle, the betrayed angle, etc. Lews Kinslayer Therin keeps coming to mind....

So, any ideas? What person or thing laid down this 1,000 year curse, and why? And what do the players need to do to have that person or thing undo the curse (since of course killing it won't fix the problem).

I'm not entirely clear what you're asking. Are you looking for something that tries to destroy the world every thousand years, a reason it's only once every thousand years,or a motivation?

From last to first:

The goal to destroy the world is madness, you need something to drive them mad. Love lost, betrayal and the like are the classic reasons as you've mentioned. Tragic unfairness. For example suppose the archmage's daughter, through no fault of her own becomes the vessel by which some great evil is trying to enter the world. To save everyone she is literally sacrificed for the good of all, but the archmage decides that any world that could do this to his innocent daughter doesn't deserve saving and pronounces his curse.

Alternately it can simply be a perspective thing. Perhaps the world as the PCs know it is a prison laid over some greater truth, and the attempt to destroy the world is simply an effort to return things to their higher state. But the PCs labor in ignorance to stop Neo from waking the world.

Why it's only once every 1000 years usually boils down to astronomy. Like in Nightfall every so often the sky goes black or the world passes through the madness inducing tail of the comet, or the Mage trapped in the synchronoclastic infidibulum comes back into phase with the world.

As for what's trying to destroy the world it could be a sorrow stricken Wizard seeking vengance against a world that dares to feel joy while he grieves, the impersonal forces of nature, a demon lord who seeks to destroy the worshippers who give power to his foes the Gods, or an ancient God trying to free his love from our reality which forms her prison.

 

[Vayden]

Huh - I actually did a very similar thing for my last 3.5 campaign. I set up a city built around a powerful magical artifact (providing limitless fresh water in the desert) - the mages who built the artifact eons ago had to bargain with an evil god to get the power for it, and said evil god slipped in a clause in the contract where he would get to send a world-eater every 3,000 years (in my campaign, the tarrasque). So that's one option - your arch-mage didn't mean to create the world-eater - he was tricked into it by a dark power he was striking a deal with.

 

[xjermx]

I'm not entirely clear what you're asking. Are you looking for something that tries to destroy the world every thousand years, a reason it's only once every thousand years,or a motivation?

From last to first:

The goal to destroy the world is madness, you need something to drive them mad. Love lost, betrayal and the like are the classic reasons as you've mentioned. Tragic unfairness. For example suppose the archmage's daughter, through no fault of her own becomes the vessel by which some great evil is trying to enter the world. To save everyone she is literally sacrificed for the good of all, but the archmage decides that any world that could do this to his innocent daughter doesn't deserve saving and pronounces his curse.

Alternately it can simply be a perspective thing. Perhaps the world as the PCs know it is a prison laid over some greater truth, and the attempt to destroy the world is simply an effort to return things to their higher state. But the PCs labor in ignorance to stop Neo from waking the world.

Why it's only once every 1000 years usually boils down to astronomy. Like in Nightfall every so often the sky goes black or the world passes through the madness inducing tail of the comet, or the Mage trapped in the synchronoclastic infidibulum comes back into phase with the world.

As for what's trying to destroy the world it could be a sorrow stricken Wizard seeking vengance against a world that dares to feel joy while he grieves, the impersonal forces of nature, a demon lord who seeks to destroy the worshippers who give power to his foes the Gods, or an ancient God trying to free his love from our reality which forms her prison.

My question is: Who laid down the curse, and why?

Your comments are helpful, thanks.

I'm looking for a story that goes something like this:

About 1,000 years ago, the land was home to a vast and advanced civilization. Feats of magic and science were produced that had never been seen or imagined before. It was a golden age. Until the twin daughters of the Archmage Zebulon were killed. Murdered by the son of the great Scientist Ben Valesh. His son, Tek, was said to be mad, and was locked safely away in the estate of Ben Valesh, and no one was made to answer for the brutal deaths. So maddened with the loss of his only family, Zebulon called down a horrible curse upon the world. Every 1,000 years the world would be purged and cleansed. As Zebulon spoke his terrible curse, the world was plunged into shadow, and The Dying began. The cities were emptied as most fell dead in their tracks, then rose again to eat the flesh of the few still living. In other places, the boundaries tore, and through those tears, legions of demons poured through, consuming all that they touched. That was nearly 1,000 years ago. Soon, it will begin again, and The Dying will happen. Unless it can be stopped.

I have nefarious plans about the specifics of the world eaters, which the characters will have to fight (triple threat: Orcus, Tarrasque and an ancient red dragon. not all at once, mind you).

What I'm trying to come up with though, is a story much like the one above. I need a person to lay the curse, a reason that he/she/it laid it, and then an idea about how it can be fixed. I plan for the heroes to figure out a way to have the curse lifted- in my story above, I can imagine a couple of ways that it might be done, perhaps the players tracking down the ghosts of Zebulon's daughters, and having them plead with him (now a Lich or whatever) to end the curse. Or perhaps they could soften Zebulon's heart by showing him the warmth of life and love (think the scenes from A Christmas Carol).

 

[Stoat]

The method: Every thousand years, the world changes. Mountains rise out of the plains. Seas dry up. Rivers are diverted. Continents tear apart and reform. All of these changes, however, happen smoothly, over the course of a year or two. Fire doesn't rain down from the sky. The earth doesn't crack open. On the other hand, the disruption in trade, travel and communication caused by the dramatic changes causes political unrest, instability, etc. A kingdom protected by a high mountain range may suddenly find itself exposed to attack. A trade empire centered on an inland sea may find itself on the edge of a desert.

The reason: An extraordinarily powerful Titan grows bored with the shape of creation. It may be necessary to defeat the Titan in open combat. It may be necessary to imprison the Titan, or seal it away fro the world. It may be possible to persuade the Titan to leave the world alone.

 

[Quartz]

How about the archmage caused a comet to pass by every thousand years? As the world passes through the tail of the comet, change ensue, because the comet is the prison of the mad (?) god of change. Or maybe the comet's proximity to the world causes interplanar gates to open, including gates to the Far Realms?

To prevent the change, all the characters have to do is divert the comet. Or they could release the deity who might no longer be mad.

 

[thundershot]

Galactus must feed.....




Chris

 

[Andor]

Well, real tragedy tends to come from misunderstanding. So perhaps in your scenario the Daughters had summoned some meta-magical demon whose influence was spread by any magical contact so normal magical countermeasures only spread the beasts influence faster. The son of Ben Valash saw what was happening and realized that a non-magical way to fight the demon was the only way to defeat it. He contacted his father (Ironically by magic mirror) and together they came up with a plan to trap the demon. The meta-demon couldn't move or long survive without a host, so if the son killed the girls the creature would have no choice but to possess the son or perish. However Valash laid a powerful post-hypnotic suggestion on his son, and as soon as he had killed the girls he immediately traveled to his fathers castle and into a chamber prepared to kill him too far away from any other living thing from the demon to escape. But Valash couldn't tell Zebulon this for fear that his powerful magic might have revived the demon if he attempted to divine the truth of the matter.

As for the cyclical nature of the bad thing I'd suggest some apocolyptic spell engine that only operates during the right stellar alignment. And that time is drawing near and soon the tower of tears will again vomit horror forth into the world.

So when the heros eventually reach the tower the will find the ghost of Zebulon as a powerless spectre bound by his hatred. The tower is too powerful to be destroyed but if they can find the truth and convince Zebulons spirit to forgive his ancient nemesis it can tell them how to break the spell. And of course the truth is buried in the ruins of Ben Valash's lab, now the lair of an ancient red dragon with a taste for experimentation and vivisection. And when the do break the tower they release the Tarrasque who was powering the engine.

And of course they might eventually find out Orcus was behind the whole thing and go kick his furry ass.

 

[Zaruthustran]

I'm a fan of twists, so I think you should have the PCs set up as the big heroes who are charged with preventing this big tragedy. They fight for 20 levels in figuring out the movers and shakers and fight their way to the end, only to discover that there was a very good reason for the 1,000 year purge.

Then they have to scramble to destroy the world quickly enough to prevent the *real* calamity from occuring. >

What's the real calamity/really good reason for the 1,000 year purge? Maybe a far realm monstrosity needs to be appeased. Sure, civilization is destroyed, but humanity gets to continue.

Or maybe civilization has to fall, or else all of humanity's dead (ancestors who are now in a paradisical afterlife) will be cast back to earth as horrible undead. Destroying the world is the only way to guarantee the continued rest of the honored dead, and ensure that current (and future!) generations will have a heaven to go to.