NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 9470294" data-attributes="member: 6801228">None of this is an ad hoc ergo propter hoc. None of it. We aren't saying that the narrative exists because of the mechanics, or that the mechanics exist because of the narrative. That sort of information flow in a single direction doesn't even make sense in this context. What we are saying is that the narrative can be whatever you want it to be. I mean, I've made these examples a few times, but I think you aren't quite grasping them. The classical warlock story is the story of Dr. Faust, we both agree with that. Or the story of Robert Johnson. In both these cases, the Devil or Fiend comes to someone and offers them skill and power in exchange for their soul. - One of the first warlocks I made was Natalie Dumein, a peasant girl who was married into a noble family, so that she qualified to be sacrificed to a demon to continue that noble family's power. She fought back, accidentally freed the demon, who after slaughtering the family forced her into service in exchange for him not slaughtering the rest of her village. This is not a Robert Johnson or Dr. Faust story. - Another favorite warlock of mine was Corvin. Corvin found a dying, sealed demon, who offered him a deal for power. However, instead of taking the deal, Corvin devoured the Demon and became his own patron, planning on making a cult to empower himself to a full acension into Demon Prince status. This is not a Robert Johnson or Dr. Faust story. - A great warlock I played was Syreth. On a post-apocalyptic Earth, with magic killing everyone around him, the man who would become Syreth was offered a deal by the Fey. Become the Fiance to a Fey Lady, marry her, and bring the Fey into this new world. His pact was a marriage contract, and his personality and identity were slowly being overwritten to become the Fey Lord of the Crossroads. This is the closest I've gotten to a Dr. Faust or Robert Johnson story, but isn't quite there. Notably, "becoming a Fey Lord" isn't a Warlock ability or mechanic, yet it fit perfectly with that character.- My most recent warlock was Endymion Lynhart, who was a Celestial Warlock. He had been a theif, and tried to steal a tome from a temple to a Giant Goddess. He was struck dead, but she found him cute and amusing, so she offered him a deal. She'd bring him back from the dead, and he would do as she said. He agreed. This is again, not a Dr. Faust or Robert Johnson story, in fact, raising the dead, post-homous deals, and being an undead are not part of the Warlock story traditionally speaking. But being a Reborn Warlock, I felt it all flowed together quite nicely. Yes, the root origin mythos is important. But we can play Robert Johnson who made a deal with the Devil at the Crossroads with the 2024 rules. The narrative of that deal still works, even if we don't have Fiendish Vigor as an ability at level 1. Those abilities can inform the narrative, but also.... you can alter them. I could tell a Paladin story, and use the Celestial Warlock to tell it. Because the two aspects have an intentional gap in them. And that gap exists, because all of those characters I've played as Warlocks? None of them were Dr. Faust making a deal for knowledge and magic in exchange for his soul. In fact, I have rarely if ever done the "and in exchange I get your soul" because I find that doesn't have enough narrative impact on the story.</blockquote>

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