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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Information" data-source="post: 181481" data-attributes="member: 2402">Well, what I am arguing is that the dualistic pre-cosmogony (of Jazirian and Ahriman) of the Guide to Hell is a poor concept for a system like the Great Wheel, which assumes that all alignments are balanced. While the cause (the dualistic struggle) may be irrelevant to the future state of the effect (all Outer Planes, each balancing each other), it is not irrelevant to the initial state of the effect (again, the balanced Great Wheel), which the Guide to Hell suggests grew out of this struggle between Overpowers of Law.Worse yet, we have a Lawful Evil power (Greater Deity in 2nd Ed.), who exists at the nexus between Neutral Evil and Lawful Neutral, and yet represents both a negation of faith and devotion to the deities and a potential negation of the cosmos as a whole, which would "be remade" in Asmodeus's liking. What is the basis of these concepts? one may ask. Simply because Asmodeus bears similarities with the Devil of Christian mythology. The use of Hell and devils no doubt adds to this assumption.Somehow, Pramas (or whoever deserves the "blaim" for the concept) thinks that this is compatible with a multiplanar cosmology with balanced alignments and numerous deities of equal power. It isn't. Its just as absurd as positing Ragnorak for ALL the planes of existence simply because the designer (of a Guide to Asgard?) likes the Asgardian deities and thinks that their real-world destruction myth should be applied to co-existent pantheons and planes of a balanced distribution!The Great Wheel, traditionally, was a system of co-existent pantheons with their myths relatively balanced. Ragnorak may be a possible future state of affairs, but only for the Norse deities!Ultimately, the Jazirian/Ahriman works best in a cosmology with not so tight a balance of alignments as the Great Wheel. I like Asmodeus, but my campaign presumes multiple evil deities (indeed, multiple co-existent pantheons). In such a state of affairs, the notion of an Adversary, except in INDIVIDUAL pantheons within their INDIVIDUAL contexts, becomes and remains absurd.</blockquote>

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