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letterbladeOkay, so some background: D&D is so totally my crack of the moment. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
heavenscalyx, only sortof your fault, I think you just triggered an old hobby-that-never-quite-had-a-chance-to-be-a-hobby-because-I-never-had-anyone-to-play-with.) It's not like I've been able to play. I've just been reading rules and chucking dice around my desk. Any edition. Any rulebook. I don't care. Been downloading left and right. Borrowed the 3.5 DM guide from the games section at work to read on shift. And I got my paws on a compiled PDF of twenty-six books from the second edition. (Downloading a collection of 3.0 and 3.5 books, but that might take a while. 'Cause I'm broke and Wizards of the Coast doesn't exactly need more money.)
Now, me being the grasshopper that I am, second edition, not first, was my original D&D stomping grounds and thus my system of nostalgia. I inherited a large stack of rulebooks from my brother (he later took them back), and played second edition rules, if memory serves, in a brief and basic yet highly entertaining campaign at a summer camp. Now the rulebook is annoying perky and the character classes aren't as interesting as first or third, but there was school-of-magic specialization so I GOT TO PLAY A NECROMANCER! Because, being the morbid little dork that I am, I'm immensely fond of them. The necromancer in question was more than a bit inspired by Sabriel and got her fifteen seconds of fame by chill-touching the living shit out of an ogre at the very end of the campaign, after our poor ranger (who had to do all the fighting for us) had run himself ragged. But that's neither here nor there.
So. One of the books in the PDF? "The Complete Book of Necromancers." So of course I sit down to browse through the thing cover-to-cover, spell listings and all. It's mostly designed to help DMs create kickass evil NPC villains, but dear lord it would be fun stuff to work with playing a gray or white necromancer PC.......but I digress, because that's not what this post is about.
From the section listing various death-worshipping priesthoods for NPC clerics, I quote (in part):
The Goddess of Murder
This evil deity embraces cold murder as the quintessential act of destruction, symbolic of the primordial chaos and the unpredictable forces of nature that oppose humanity. This deity is the patron of all unnatural and premediated killing, whether it is inflicted on others or upon oneself. She opposes order, creation, and all existence.
The male priests of this goddess, sometimes called Stranglers or Assassins, spread death around the world by murdering for their Dark Mother, the Queen of the Noose, our Maid of Despair. Her priests advance the religion into the heart of civilization, efficiently eliminating any who speak out against them. Assassination is their most sacred mission, a holy and meritorious enterprise undertaken in the service of their deity.
But that's just the background. Past the usual 29382938477 stats and spells, we get to:
All members of the priesthood are male, since the priest and goddess are joined in a symbolic marriage. Although the priests are thus forbidden from marrying mortal women, they are not required to be celibate. Indeed, most cults have temple prostitutes as proxies for the goddess during the seasonal ceremonial rituals and weekly orgies.
Mmmm, weekly orgies.
However, since worship of the opposite sex is a central tenet of their religion, Stranglers are generally forbidden from harming them. The male priest views himself as the son, husband, and father of all the women in the world.
Triple goddess, much?
To harm any of these relationships would damage his intimate link with the goddess, resulting in an immediate loss of all granted powers and highest level spells until the priest has suitably atoned for such an outrage (ritual suicide by strangulation is usually considered to be a suitable apology.) On rare occasions, the goddess may make exceptions to this rule, but only when specific women have offended her.
Mmm, divine bitchfights via submissive assassins. And I'm not even going to go into the satisfying symbolic cross-connections that are occuring between the listed clerical symbol of the noose and, ah, other openings.
But oh dear fucking god. It's everything I love about over-the-top necromancy and everything I love about those death-obsessed submissive men who keep haunting my brain (Bennington people, read: AKHAI!) and everything I love about unexpected goddess-worship ROLLED INTO ONE! I WANT ONE! The mind boggles! The rules systems explode! The DMs headdesk in despair!
And so do I, because I don't have an icon goth enough for this post. Mikage will have to do. And perhaps I should hit Photoshop, except I want to crash early as I'm trying to haul my sleep cycle back from the 4AM to 1PM rut I've been in--maybe back to a nice 1AM to 10AM, which keeps both me and the family much happier. Edit: GIP!
...........and no, I'm not sure I want to know what it says about my personality, Joharized or otherwise, that I am so fucking entertained by this.
heavenscalyx, only sortof your fault, I think you just triggered an old hobby-that-never-quite-had-a-chance-to-be-a-hobby-because-I-never-had-anyone-to-play-with.) It's not like I've been able to play. I've just been reading rules and chucking dice around my desk. Any edition. Any rulebook. I don't care. Been downloading left and right. Borrowed the 3.5 DM guide from the games section at work to read on shift. And I got my paws on a compiled PDF of twenty-six books from the second edition. (Downloading a collection of 3.0 and 3.5 books, but that might take a while. 'Cause I'm broke and Wizards of the Coast doesn't exactly need more money.)Now, me being the grasshopper that I am, second edition, not first, was my original D&D stomping grounds and thus my system of nostalgia. I inherited a large stack of rulebooks from my brother (he later took them back), and played second edition rules, if memory serves, in a brief and basic yet highly entertaining campaign at a summer camp. Now the rulebook is annoying perky and the character classes aren't as interesting as first or third, but there was school-of-magic specialization so I GOT TO PLAY A NECROMANCER! Because, being the morbid little dork that I am, I'm immensely fond of them. The necromancer in question was more than a bit inspired by Sabriel and got her fifteen seconds of fame by chill-touching the living shit out of an ogre at the very end of the campaign, after our poor ranger (who had to do all the fighting for us) had run himself ragged. But that's neither here nor there.
So. One of the books in the PDF? "The Complete Book of Necromancers." So of course I sit down to browse through the thing cover-to-cover, spell listings and all. It's mostly designed to help DMs create kickass evil NPC villains, but dear lord it would be fun stuff to work with playing a gray or white necromancer PC.......but I digress, because that's not what this post is about.
From the section listing various death-worshipping priesthoods for NPC clerics, I quote (in part):
The Goddess of Murder
This evil deity embraces cold murder as the quintessential act of destruction, symbolic of the primordial chaos and the unpredictable forces of nature that oppose humanity. This deity is the patron of all unnatural and premediated killing, whether it is inflicted on others or upon oneself. She opposes order, creation, and all existence.
The male priests of this goddess, sometimes called Stranglers or Assassins, spread death around the world by murdering for their Dark Mother, the Queen of the Noose, our Maid of Despair. Her priests advance the religion into the heart of civilization, efficiently eliminating any who speak out against them. Assassination is their most sacred mission, a holy and meritorious enterprise undertaken in the service of their deity.
But that's just the background. Past the usual 29382938477 stats and spells, we get to:
All members of the priesthood are male, since the priest and goddess are joined in a symbolic marriage. Although the priests are thus forbidden from marrying mortal women, they are not required to be celibate. Indeed, most cults have temple prostitutes as proxies for the goddess during the seasonal ceremonial rituals and weekly orgies.
Mmmm, weekly orgies.
However, since worship of the opposite sex is a central tenet of their religion, Stranglers are generally forbidden from harming them. The male priest views himself as the son, husband, and father of all the women in the world.
Triple goddess, much?
To harm any of these relationships would damage his intimate link with the goddess, resulting in an immediate loss of all granted powers and highest level spells until the priest has suitably atoned for such an outrage (ritual suicide by strangulation is usually considered to be a suitable apology.) On rare occasions, the goddess may make exceptions to this rule, but only when specific women have offended her.
Mmm, divine bitchfights via submissive assassins. And I'm not even going to go into the satisfying symbolic cross-connections that are occuring between the listed clerical symbol of the noose and, ah, other openings.
But oh dear fucking god. It's everything I love about over-the-top necromancy and everything I love about those death-obsessed submissive men who keep haunting my brain (Bennington people, read: AKHAI!) and everything I love about unexpected goddess-worship ROLLED INTO ONE! I WANT ONE! The mind boggles! The rules systems explode! The DMs headdesk in despair!
...........and no, I'm not sure I want to know what it says about my personality, Joharized or otherwise, that I am so fucking entertained by this.
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no subject
Date: Feb. 14th, 2006 06:28 am (UTC)(And you thought we had no fandoms in common! ;) )
no subject
Date: Feb. 14th, 2006 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Feb. 14th, 2006 08:08 pm (UTC)Plus in the rules I know, it's a human-only specialization. But perky hobbit zombies! XDD
......is that a stone die with alchemical symbols on it? o.O Dear lord, that's probably the geekiest cool thing I've ever seen.
no subject
Date: Feb. 14th, 2006 08:09 pm (UTC)...don't worry, I'll restrain myself for your campaign. XD
no subject
Date: Feb. 14th, 2006 08:50 pm (UTC)And this isn't just any stone die with alchemical symbols. It's an ancient Roman stone die with alchemical symbols. (Even geekier, whee!)
no subject
Date: Feb. 15th, 2006 04:49 am (UTC)