ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] Various inquiries concerning eladrin, fey, tieflings, skyseers, and technology

[Lylandra]

I am not certain I quite follow you. Do you mean to say that calling in a favor from the Unseen Court is not actually any more costly than doing so with Flint or Risur?

Maybe asking a fey for a favor has a more random component to how exactly they'll help you. So, for example, if you'd want a nymph to lure a Kell guild member from the Nettles to Cloudwood to interrogate him, maybe she'll find interest in his girlfriend or squad as well and you have do deal with more than one charmed captive. Or the nixie you'd like to get an invisibility potion from wants you to dance the hokey-pokey in front of Lee's Barbershop (because she likes that old man and wants to cheer him up).

A good DM won't use the fey prestige requests as secret means to punish his players, but as means to put some life into the fey society and maybe hook you up on some sidequest.

For Prestige in general: I don't know how the other groups handle this mechanic, but we usually use it only as rule of thumb for what's appropriate to ask for. For example, we're in adventure 5 now (no spoilers!) and desperately need more officers in Flint. So we do some calculation, describe our case and circumstance and then get an answer on how soon we can expect help.

 

[EarthSeraphEdna]

The Spirit Medium's speak with spirit requires a dead person. Unfinished business requires someone to have died during the exact same encounter. This is an adventure path wherein it is strictly a no-no for PCs to go around killing people. The PCs are expected to leave people alive. How, then, are the Spirit Medium's starting powers supposed to be useful?
Since the Spirit Medium is a psionic theme, it would probably work better if it could be applied to creatures knocked unconscious as a result of being reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. Speak with spirit could be mind-probing, and unfinished business could call up a fragment of the unconscious creature's mind.

 

[EarthSeraphEdna]

If most nations speak Common, then why is it that Ber, Crisillyir, and Danor seem to have their own regional dialects based on real-world romance languages?

 

[Lylandra]

If most nations speak Common, then why is it that Ber, Crisillyir, and Danor seem to have their own regional dialects based on real-world romance languages?

This is by no means official, but my/our own interpretation:
Common is something like Latin, a universal language of Lanjyr. I'd consider "high common" (or maybe original common) to be pretty accentless. However, languages evolve over time and 500 years are a HUGE timespan in terms of language development.

So, Crisillyir was once a pretty big nation and everyone spoke original common. Then the Malice happened and the nation got torn into two: Danor and Crisillyir. Now french and italian are pretty close in terms of grammar and vocabulary as they both originated from latin. So having original common develop into one french and one italian accentuated version doesn't seem so far off.

Ber is a bit trickier. Almost every tribe has its own language or dialect I guess. The nation was ruled by the Dragon Tyrants until 200 years ago, so until then they'd most likely have learned the language of their rulers (draconic) but not common. My guess is that common became common when Ber (or what would become Ber) came into closer contact with the language of the Crisillyiri via the Clergy. They realized that this language was pretty universal so Berans who'd consider themselves educated (or who wanted an easier time in trade negotiations) might have had an interest in learning the language. Still, common is a foreign language for the Berans, so they have a strong accent (maybe like English in India?)

Drakr has its own language in dwarven. Giving them a slavic accent (languages that don't have much in common with latin) suits them well.

Risur is pretty clear. The commonfolk speak primordial and more educated Risuri speak common with a primordial accent. That this "accent free" English common is set to Risur is most certainly to make getting into the setting less of an obstacle. I always imagine Risuri to speak Latin with an english (or whatever your own language is) accent when they speak common. As Primordial is the Language of the Fey Titans and very close to Sylvan which is "Olde English"

 

[Andrew Moreton]

It would be much more implausible for Common not to have regional accents. Let's take the RW example of English. People in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, the USA and Canada all speak english as their first language , despite the fact that in the modern world they have the ability to hear the correct pronunciation of the English language they all except the British get it wrong on a national basis.
Then if we look at Britain more closely their are distinct Welsh, Scottish , English and Irish (Northern) accents, then if you break down England the London, Liverpool and Newcastle accents are almost incomprehensible to each other.

 

[EarthSeraphEdna]

What is the incentive for a non-eladrin to join the Vekeshi mystics? Why would a human born within the last two or three decades even remotely care about the death of some foreign goddess of a different species, which took place five centuries ago?

 

[RangerWickett]

They throw wicked cool parties, and you get to stick it to bad guys. The 'remember the death of Srasama' is just foundational. It's evolved from there, and has a lot more focus on enacting vengeance on people the society thinks are harming others, not just avenging the fall of eladrin culture.

 

[EarthSeraphEdna]

In that case, why do the Vekeshi mystics have such a strong positive relationship with the fey? What lies beyond the surface of a "bored rich kid with edgy political ideologies" club, such that the Unseen Court genuinely respects and supports the Vekeshi?

Also, the player's guide says, "While many eladrin could not be stopped from their self-destruction, Vekesh convinced some of his people that a tale that goes from defeat to revenge to death is a shameful tragedy. Revenge distracts one from one’s grief, but is ultimately valueless. Instead, he said, a tale of defeat, resilience, and renewal is the best way to thwart their enemies’ goals. The proper form of retribution, then, is to endure, rebuild from weakness, and prosper into strength." With that in mind, why is the default theme power about directly lashing out against an enemy for raw damage?

 

[gideonpepys]

Why do I get the feeling that you are RangerWickett's sworn enemy, and you've finally tracked him down?

Also, the player's guide says, "While many eladrin could not be stopped from their self-destruction, Vekesh convinced some of his people that a tale that goes from defeat to revenge to death is a shameful tragedy. Revenge distracts one from one’s grief, but is ultimately valueless. Instead, he said, a tale of defeat, resilience, and renewal is the best way to thwart their enemies’ goals. The proper form of retribution, then, is to endure, rebuild from weakness, and prosper into strength." With that in mind, why is the default theme power about directly lashing out against an enemy for raw damage?

Inconsistencies like this only serve to make it more realistic. Ever wondered, for example, why - despite the fact that Jesus is supposed to have said "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven" and advocated a simple life - the religious right and the GOP are obsessed with wealth, and 'prosperity theology' is increasingly popular throughout the world? Folks don't listen to their prophets, they do what they bloody well like!

Honestly, if I thought there were this many holes in a campaign setting (holes I couldn't live with or couldn't, y'now, fill with my own imagination) I'd have stopped reading it at page 3 and picked up another.

 

[Lylandra]

In that case, why do the Vekeshi mystics have such a strong positive relationship with the fey? What lies beyond the surface of a "bored rich kid with edgy political ideologies" club, such that the Unseen Court genuinely respects and supports the Vekeshi?

Also, the player's guide says, "While many eladrin could not be stopped from their self-destruction, Vekesh convinced some of his people that a tale that goes from defeat to revenge to death is a shameful tragedy. Revenge distracts one from one’s grief, but is ultimately valueless. Instead, he said, a tale of defeat, resilience, and renewal is the best way to thwart their enemies’ goals. The proper form of retribution, then, is to endure, rebuild from weakness, and prosper into strength." With that in mind, why is the default theme power about directly lashing out against an enemy for raw damage?

Okay, so maybe I can help again because we've discussed this in our group as well and it kind of made sense to us. (One major point again is the huge timespan and cultural difference between what happened in Elfaivar and the present time)

So first, Eladrin are Fey and if we understood this correctly, they are/were allied with other Fey of the Dreaming. Heck, modern Enclaves are partially in the Dreaming where the Unseen Court lives and rules. Vekeshi mystics originated in Elfaivar and they were avengers who originally swore to rescue Eladrin women from captivity (aka "undo one of the biggest wrongs ever done to our culture"). I guess the cult spread from there as Eladrin traveled the world to save their kin and return them so they could live in the true spirit of Vekesh. Just think about the following: there is no "living, enduring, prospering" victory if your people die out because evilbad persons think your women are trophies. Someone needs to get their hands dirty so the Enclaves (who do live in the spirit of Vekesh) may have a chance to survive.

Now the theme of "Avenging big wrongs that cannot be made right by official means" some time later meant more than just saving Eladrin women to people who joined the Vekeshi out of their own sense of justice. Which means that each Vekeshi group in each major hub may or may not have its own, unique focus, depending on legal state, degree of corruption, morale compass of its leaders etc.

(our Flinter cell in our campaign is pretty tame for example as Risur has a functioning legal system and because its leaders are no "bored rich kids" but people who are connected to ye olden ways and in more than one way affiliated with the local Fey. Hence the +1 Prestige.)

The whole Srasama/punishment ability is in my opinion a direct remnant of the rites of the Goddess who had nothing to do with Vekesh and his philosophy.
Just like you'll see christmas trees in catholic churches even if they originated from local winter solstice rites.