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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 9681937" data-attributes="member: 6787503">I didn't realize there was a cleric subclass in SCAG so didn't think of including Arcana. I generally like to limit player options in my games to the books listed in the OP plus EEPC, but if a player wanted to use something from SCAG, I'd be fine with it.I included Knowledge in Varda's portfolio because she knows all the regions of Eä, so the multiplanar aspect of Arcane Abjuration also seems appropriate. It affects celestials, elementals, feys, and fiends.If I'm thinking of the same passage as you, it's from "A Knife in the Dark", the 11th chapter of Book I of the LotR, in which Frodo invokes the name of Elbereth and gains the courage to resist the attack of the Nazgûl, and the Witch-king, in turn, shrieks with pain before stabbing him in the shoulder with a morgul-knife. Gandalf later says that if Frodo hadn't resisted, the blade might have pierced his heart. I don't think AA is an exact match for what happens here because the Witch-king is an undead, a wraith, so wouldn't be affected by that ability. Turn Undead has basically the same turning effect as AA but targets undead, so it's much closer. It's part of the base class, though, so it isn't indicative of any particular domain.It's said (by Aragorn) the mention of Varda's name is "deadly" to the ringwraiths. if I was to guess why Varda in particular has this effect on them, I'd say it's an expression of themes of light and shadow, that she embodies the pure light of Eru which illuminates the undead-animating shadow of the Void. I'm reminded of this from the introductory paragraph of the Light Domain: "Clerics of a god of light are ... charged with ... burning away darkness." And also this from the Life Domain: "The gods of life promote vitality and health through ... driving away the forces of death and undeath."Or you might be thinking of the incident in the third chapter of Book I, "Three is Company", in which the singing of an Elven hymn to Elbereth (Varda) by a company of elves drives away a black rider who is searching for Frodo and his companions. This invocation of Varda's name is almost identical in effect to Turn Undead and probably closer to your intended usage of abjure. The range seems to be greater than the ability's 30 feet, but the event agrees with TU's dependence on the undead target seeing or (in this case) hearing the caster, the elves being apparently unaware of the ringwraith's presence. It's actually kind of cool to think of a company of elves travelling around and cleansing the countryside by turning undead they don't even know are there.</blockquote>

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