Hestavar: The Bright City

[Nahat Anoj]

The devil-talking-to-angel illustration shows a weakness on the current D&D cosmology: now that angels can be of any alignment, such a pairing isn't automatically jarring as it would be in other mythologies, since that can easily be an Evil angel.

I was wondering the other day if Asmodeus had angels who served him ...

It also makes me wonder if there are good devils out there. I like thinking about Asmodeus' rebellion and putting a Demon: the Fallen riff on it where the rebels started out with the best of intentions but their time in hell broke them. But not all of them were irredeemable.

Unfortunately DDI is down right now so I can't read the Hestavar article.

 

[Hellzon]

The devil/angel picture reminded me of the common Sigil blurb - that it is a place where a Deva and a Pit Fiend can sit down for a game of cards. Of course, in 4E it's more Chaos vs Law than Evil vs Good in the angel/devil relation.

 

[Nikosandros]

It's a nice article, but I would have liked some kind of map of the city.

 

[arscott]

And yeah, nice to see an Erynies in one of the illustrations.

I'm a little bit disappointed to see it looking like that. In the interest of returning monsters to their mythological Roots, I'd very much like to see the Erynies become an Angel, rather than the poor-man's-succubus that it was before.

 

[catsclaw227]

The devil-talking-to-angel illustration shows a weakness on the current D&D cosmology: now that angels can be of any alignment, such a pairing isn't automatically jarring as it would be in other mythologies, since that can easily be an Evil angel.

Though in this case, the image is contextual to a section of the article that starts on the same page.

The most open force of evil in the city is the embassy of the Nine Hells, led by the male (or seemingly male) succubus, Naberius Sain. Seen as a necessary evil by the angelic bureaucracy, the succubus allows Hestavar to work diplomacy with Asmodeus and his ilk, which is preferred to war. Many (rightly) assume that Naberius Sain is the master of diabolical plots in Hestavar. To the angels of Whitebell Bastion, he is the chief person of interest related to the Obsidian Dagger murders, but if he is the murderer, the canny succubus has evaded all but mere suspicion. By all outward appearances he is a careful diplomat with a laundry list of alibis who, despite his infernal nature, has been an ally to the Bright City and keeps the devils under his command under strict and lawful control. But succubi are wily adversaries, and Sain is one of the most powerful of his kind, as well as a favorite of Glaysa, so it surprises no one that he has evaded any proof of wrongdoing.

Maybe the angel is investigating and Sain is using his charisma to debunk another attempt at determining guilt.

Hmmmm.... sounds like a neat plot-hook to me!

 

[Shroomy]

Unlike the majority of 3.5e planar materials (notable exceptions being the Fiendish Codexes and some of the materials appearing in the Dragon and Dungeon), I'm really finding the 4e materials, especially Dragon articles like this one, the one on Sunderheart, Mithrendain, and Auril's FR domain, inspiring. I'm now thinking about creating a 4e planar hopping campaign using these articles, as well as the MotP (perhaps I will wait for the DMG II and its description of Sigil).

 

[Scribble]

Has anyone figured out any kind of pattern to how they price out mounts in 4e?

I'm thinking at some point someone is going to want to buy one of those racing drakes.

 

[The Little Raven]

The devil-talking-to-angel illustration shows a weakness on the current D&D cosmology: now that angels can be of any alignment, such a pairing isn't automatically jarring as it would be in other mythologies, since that can easily be an Evil angel.

It's still jarring, but not because of the previous edition "OMG A GOOD GUY TALKING TO A BAD GUY," sense but in the "A servant of a god's will is talking to the servants of THE BETRAYER" sense. Devils = angels that betrayed what they believed in... even if I was an evil god, I'd find it off-putting (to say the least) for one of my servants to be talking to a guy that aided in deicide against his own creator.