There is something I'd like to see happen in my campaign, but I'm not sure how to handle it. Additionally, I don't know how to make this short. My apologies, but I hope this will be worth it. *My players, stay out 
*
First off it's a Forgotten Realms campaign. The thing in question involves my wife's character, which has a rather odd background. Her character notion began as short stories that she had written about the previous Forgotten Realms campaign. Those stories were based many years later, involving the PC's of the original campaign and their children. When we started a new FR campaign, she couldn't think of a character that really interested her. She did mention one thing though: she would love to play one of the grown children of the previous campaign that she had written about. But, since the current campaign would take place in the "standard" time of FR, the character hadn't even been born yet... she didn't see how it would be possible. There was one way I mentioned, and it was bound to be interesting.
The character's name is Nydia, she was the daughter of my old character (a mulhorandi wizard who dabbled in chronomancy) and her own character (an amnish rogue). Nydia was a young sorceress who tried hard to impress her parents, especially her rather strict and dour father. She was developing a new spell in the hopes of impressing him. She was testing it out with her mother when the spell went awry. Nydia accidentally killed her mother.
No priestly or arcane magics could bring her mother back, she seemed vanished from existence itself. No soul seemed left, no trace of who she was. Nydia's father tried all he could, all the vast magics at his disposal to bring his wife back, but they failed. Finally, her father decided that chronomancy was the only way. He knew that the goddess of magic, Mystra, forbid and controlled it's use... but there are always darker powers that will help hide such things.
He spent months researching and looking for the spell, finally he found what he needed among the ancient ruins of a lost empire: a spell that would allow someone to travel back in time. He scribed the spell unto a scroll and began getting his affairs in order. He knew the risk he was taking in this venture.
When Nydia found out about her father's plan, she did not think it right that he should risk all to make up for her mistake. So she stole his scroll and cast the spell herself. She would go back in time to save her mother.
Something had gone wrong though, she had lost most of her sorcery, and she had gone too far back, many years before her mother's death. She was in the "current" realms time of course, and she was merely 1st level, perfect for the new campaign.
She's done all she can to hide from any clerics of Mystra and her temples. That was until a grave injury left Nydia comatose and the party took her to the nearest temple they found... a temple of Mystra.
The player was expecting Nydia to be killed, or at the very least rejected and denied help. But they let her in, they healed her, and she had a dream that the goddess herself visited her (I don't believe that the player has realized this though).
Quite some time after that incident she finds out about a chronomantic organization that might be able to help her achieve some of her goals. After contacting them, she finds out they are a group sanctioned by the goddess herself and seem to know quite a bit about her.
This is where the campaign is currently. This group of chronomancers can help her change time, to save her mother and to make things right. She knows that to join them means giving up much of her freedom, becoming one of them and sharing in their responsibilities given to them by Mystra. They will give her the power to change time though, to make things right...
A number of things happened that the player does not know to this day. In allowing a chronomancer in the campaign I knew I could be opening a massive bees nest of problems. I gave it much thought and came up with a system for it. I would follow the time-travel model used in the Dragonlance series.
Time is a river. An individual time traveling is nothing but a pebble thrown into in the river. A pebble cannot change the course of the river. One can travel in time, but not change major events. What happened to Nydia's mother was a major event. She is doomed to her fate, as is Nydia as well.
Also unknown to Nydia is that Mystra has direct knowledge of chronomancy magics she was wielding that fateful day she used her father's scroll. Nydia's accidental miscasting of the spell that brought her to the wrong time was no accident at all, it was the goddesses will. Time is a river, a pebble cannot change things... but sometimes people don't realize what things really happened to begin with.
It was Nydia herself who, without his knowledge, delivers the chronomancy spell to her father. It was Nydia herself who snatched her mother away a moment before the spell killed her. It was all done with the assistance of this group of chronomancers and Mystra herself.
Nydia joins them, forfeiting her own normal life to become one of them. For they are the only ones able to change time (though only in miniscule ways, in ways that do not change the river's course). So Nydia's mother does die, as far as this world is concerned, fate is satisfied and the skein of time is unchanged. But she is snatched away the very moment before her death, by Nydia the chronomancer, to another world with no connection to the realms. A world with no gods, a world separate from the rest of the multiverse.
This world is Athas, the world of Dark Sun. A campaign I had ran before the FR ones was set in a version of Athas and this plot has allowed me to connect the two campaigns. In that game, they have met Nydia's mother herself...
Anyway, now that all that is said and done, we get to the issue at hand. One of the things I wanted to explore with this plotline, in relation to this character, is that sometimes those we fear are our enemies can be our friends and that the gods can be kind and good. That's something that neither my wife nor her characters have much faith in.
I myself am an atheist, but I can understand faith. I can understand the comfort it gives and the spiritual wellbeing it can bring. My wife is a hard-core atheist; she has very negative feelings towards religion... as if it has harmed her personally. Religion to her, is the enemy. She thinks all of them are a waste of time. I think she is too harsh, dismissing too much. It has value, it does serve a good, and (for the most part) it does intend the best.
She plays her character much in line with her own beliefs... in the realms the "existence" of the gods can't be denied, but she sees them as selfish forces that merely use mortals for their own end. I'd like to see her consider some new ideas on it though. I don't expect her to find religion (nor would I want her to), but I think it would be good for her to explore the issue somewhat. To try to put yourself in their shoes, to try to understand. That was the single most ambitious thing in this plotline (and in my DM'ng career). I don't give it much hope of success though.
Anyway, for those who don't think this is an insane goal (and it may be), I'd like to hear some advice on how to handle it. I'd love to see her character at least respect Mystra. I'm not sure how to set the stage for such a thing. I know you can't force it, but you can try to bring the right things together and hope for the best. I'm not sure how to do that though and would love to hear some advice on it.
Thanks for reading this rather long post, I appreciate it very much.
-Arravis
*First off it's a Forgotten Realms campaign. The thing in question involves my wife's character, which has a rather odd background. Her character notion began as short stories that she had written about the previous Forgotten Realms campaign. Those stories were based many years later, involving the PC's of the original campaign and their children. When we started a new FR campaign, she couldn't think of a character that really interested her. She did mention one thing though: she would love to play one of the grown children of the previous campaign that she had written about. But, since the current campaign would take place in the "standard" time of FR, the character hadn't even been born yet... she didn't see how it would be possible. There was one way I mentioned, and it was bound to be interesting.
The character's name is Nydia, she was the daughter of my old character (a mulhorandi wizard who dabbled in chronomancy) and her own character (an amnish rogue). Nydia was a young sorceress who tried hard to impress her parents, especially her rather strict and dour father. She was developing a new spell in the hopes of impressing him. She was testing it out with her mother when the spell went awry. Nydia accidentally killed her mother.
No priestly or arcane magics could bring her mother back, she seemed vanished from existence itself. No soul seemed left, no trace of who she was. Nydia's father tried all he could, all the vast magics at his disposal to bring his wife back, but they failed. Finally, her father decided that chronomancy was the only way. He knew that the goddess of magic, Mystra, forbid and controlled it's use... but there are always darker powers that will help hide such things.
He spent months researching and looking for the spell, finally he found what he needed among the ancient ruins of a lost empire: a spell that would allow someone to travel back in time. He scribed the spell unto a scroll and began getting his affairs in order. He knew the risk he was taking in this venture.
When Nydia found out about her father's plan, she did not think it right that he should risk all to make up for her mistake. So she stole his scroll and cast the spell herself. She would go back in time to save her mother.
Something had gone wrong though, she had lost most of her sorcery, and she had gone too far back, many years before her mother's death. She was in the "current" realms time of course, and she was merely 1st level, perfect for the new campaign.
She's done all she can to hide from any clerics of Mystra and her temples. That was until a grave injury left Nydia comatose and the party took her to the nearest temple they found... a temple of Mystra.
The player was expecting Nydia to be killed, or at the very least rejected and denied help. But they let her in, they healed her, and she had a dream that the goddess herself visited her (I don't believe that the player has realized this though).
Quite some time after that incident she finds out about a chronomantic organization that might be able to help her achieve some of her goals. After contacting them, she finds out they are a group sanctioned by the goddess herself and seem to know quite a bit about her.
This is where the campaign is currently. This group of chronomancers can help her change time, to save her mother and to make things right. She knows that to join them means giving up much of her freedom, becoming one of them and sharing in their responsibilities given to them by Mystra. They will give her the power to change time though, to make things right...
A number of things happened that the player does not know to this day. In allowing a chronomancer in the campaign I knew I could be opening a massive bees nest of problems. I gave it much thought and came up with a system for it. I would follow the time-travel model used in the Dragonlance series.
Time is a river. An individual time traveling is nothing but a pebble thrown into in the river. A pebble cannot change the course of the river. One can travel in time, but not change major events. What happened to Nydia's mother was a major event. She is doomed to her fate, as is Nydia as well.
Also unknown to Nydia is that Mystra has direct knowledge of chronomancy magics she was wielding that fateful day she used her father's scroll. Nydia's accidental miscasting of the spell that brought her to the wrong time was no accident at all, it was the goddesses will. Time is a river, a pebble cannot change things... but sometimes people don't realize what things really happened to begin with.
It was Nydia herself who, without his knowledge, delivers the chronomancy spell to her father. It was Nydia herself who snatched her mother away a moment before the spell killed her. It was all done with the assistance of this group of chronomancers and Mystra herself.
Nydia joins them, forfeiting her own normal life to become one of them. For they are the only ones able to change time (though only in miniscule ways, in ways that do not change the river's course). So Nydia's mother does die, as far as this world is concerned, fate is satisfied and the skein of time is unchanged. But she is snatched away the very moment before her death, by Nydia the chronomancer, to another world with no connection to the realms. A world with no gods, a world separate from the rest of the multiverse.
This world is Athas, the world of Dark Sun. A campaign I had ran before the FR ones was set in a version of Athas and this plot has allowed me to connect the two campaigns. In that game, they have met Nydia's mother herself...
Anyway, now that all that is said and done, we get to the issue at hand. One of the things I wanted to explore with this plotline, in relation to this character, is that sometimes those we fear are our enemies can be our friends and that the gods can be kind and good. That's something that neither my wife nor her characters have much faith in.
I myself am an atheist, but I can understand faith. I can understand the comfort it gives and the spiritual wellbeing it can bring. My wife is a hard-core atheist; she has very negative feelings towards religion... as if it has harmed her personally. Religion to her, is the enemy. She thinks all of them are a waste of time. I think she is too harsh, dismissing too much. It has value, it does serve a good, and (for the most part) it does intend the best.
She plays her character much in line with her own beliefs... in the realms the "existence" of the gods can't be denied, but she sees them as selfish forces that merely use mortals for their own end. I'd like to see her consider some new ideas on it though. I don't expect her to find religion (nor would I want her to), but I think it would be good for her to explore the issue somewhat. To try to put yourself in their shoes, to try to understand. That was the single most ambitious thing in this plotline (and in my DM'ng career). I don't give it much hope of success though.
Anyway, for those who don't think this is an insane goal (and it may be), I'd like to hear some advice on how to handle it. I'd love to see her character at least respect Mystra. I'm not sure how to set the stage for such a thing. I know you can't force it, but you can try to bring the right things together and hope for the best. I'm not sure how to do that though and would love to hear some advice on it.
Thanks for reading this rather long post, I appreciate it very much.
-Arravis
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