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New New Antioch

 
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xnithi



Joined: 25 Oct 2017
Posts: 57
Location: Texas, y'all

PostPosted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:23 am    Post subject: New New Antioch Reply with quote

TL;DR at the bottom.

Wasn't sure where to put this, but this area seemed good enough. This is not a plot, and may never be, as it would require a ton of work and planning by the imms. However, if and when the player-created cities thing gets implemented, which will be years from now, if ever, some variations of this "potential plot" may come into effect.

This is, of course, OOC information for most of you, though there are ways to make it IC. I'm confident that I won't have to expect suspicions or volunteers from characters based off of this informations, as the playerbase here is very good at seperating IC and OOC, but I figure a warning isn't bad, as long as I make it clear that I have no intent on patronizing or insulting others by making it.

However, using this information to nudge your characters into this (subplot? Character plot? Story arch? Potential plot?) could probably be done, given skill. Character concepts can definitely be made off of this, and I would love for this to expand to be more than a personal project, to one that touches and affects all sorts of characters, even as a continual 'could happen' or background concept. Feel free to use this for any character, rumors, follower or IC lore.

I'm mostly posting this because I will forget it all eventually if I don't have it recorded somewhere, but also because I just want to talk about it, and hope that others might be able to help the IC puppetmaster of this plan to come up with better ideas, since I imagine he would have better strategic plans than my vague mind could come up with. Also, it would be so cool if this plan could become lore, even if it never came to fruition, and players did and made things based off of it.

Yeah, I'm going to call this a "plan".




The Demon Lord Mmness

Power. That is what all demons hunger for. One could get philosophical. Why? What is the point? When you have all the power in existence, what is there left? However, questioning them would be stupid. Demons aren't known for their philosophical pondering.

Mmness is no exception. Rumoured to have once been a succubus, this shadowy Demon Lord seduced, assassinated and ate his way into power, eventually gaining power over an entire layer of the Abyss, part of the Plane of Shadow, and a unique (and masculine) form. Now, compared to most other demons, this made Mmness a great power to behold. He became Lord of Hedonism, Prince of Shadows, The Debauch, Sensual Sin, and The Subtle Corruptor (basically Grazt't, and Pathfinder's Nocticula and Socothbenoth, all in one). He was powerful.

To other Demon Lords, however, he was nothing. Just another young upstart who thought that getting his own layer made him a big man. He was generally ignored, as long as he didn't get in the way of any of the big Abyssal mover and shakers' ways.

The Material Plane

So, as a demon, he hungered for yet more power. But was wise enough not to try and claw his way up the ranks literally, as that would surely end with his demise. So, he took the more subtle route.

Every demon wanted to get their claws (or tentacles, or hands, or whatever) on the Material Plane. All those juicy mortals, with their Hatred and Morals and flesh... it would be like an all you could eat buffet for a Demon Lord, one that would make you stronger and stronger with every bite, until you became a God. And then ate the Gods.

However, most attempts by Demon Lords failed. And Mmness' theory was their greed. Of course, every demon wanted it all. Mmness was no exception. But, he hadn't gotten to his position by doing all or nothing, but by nibbling small bites into his enemies, until their was nothing left. So, too, was his plan for the Material Plane. Start small. Gain power. And by the time others realized what you were doing, it would be too late.

The Plan

So, his plan was a simple enough premise.

Step 1: Gain a small hold on the Material Plane.
Step 2: Fortify this hold and protect it.
Step 3: Grow this power carefully and subtly.
Step 4: Spread this power all over the Plane.
Step 5: Profit.

Step One

Part A, Forging Tools
Step One took centuries of planning, manipulations, and subtle pushes with what little power he could use to affect the Material Plane and its inhabitants. He started in the Wildlands of Danger, with the Ndjoze family of the Kambihi clan, of the Maalish Onyune tribe. The tribe was said to be descendants of Shadow Dragons, and was known for their magical prowess. The Kambihi clan, and the Ndjoze family in particular, were known to have the most powerful sorcerers in the region. The Ndjoze family were incredibly ambitious, striving to be the most powerful family in the tribe, and were willing to do anything to be so. Mmness took advantage of that.

Making a pact with the family matriarch at the time (named Serekaze), he was able to pour power into them, making each generation more powerful than the last. Unbeknownst to them, their power was fueled by the souls of their ancestors who had died in his service. The family became powerful, as they had wished, but was known for their black magics and dark dealings.

He used his bond with the family to whisper in their minds, pushing them into making one decision or another, and eventually led one of them, (A young sorceress named Ehandu) to experiment on enslaved orcs, forcing them to breed with summoned demons, and create the Tanarukk tribe of orcs. Though the tribe eventually gained freedom (that’s a story in and of itself), many clans of the Tanarukk tribe remained subservient to the Ndjoze family and the Kambihi clan in general. He also influenced the fiendish orcs’ shamans to ensure that the demonic blood stayed strong, summoning his demonic vassals to fortify their blood through breeding and pacts.

Why all this? Suffice to say, though manipulation of the family’s values and actions, he was able to engineer the birth of a particularly powerful tiefling from the family. He further manipulated the family into pushing her away, just as he had manipulated a particularly powerful orc from the strongest line of the tanarukk tribe into indulging in his less vicious emotions, earning him banishment from his clan for weakness. He brought these two together, and their historical bonds, as well as a shared understanding of being an outsider, lead to their love, marriage, and eventual creation of a single offspring.

Grazztliz was born so deeply infused with magical essence, from shadowy and demonic sources, it warped her form, and granted her the abilities of a warlock before she was even born. Though she was not the only pawn Mmness worked to create ((In case anyone else wants to use this for characters)), she was a particularly valuable piece for this portion of his Plan.

He continued to manipulate the other members of her blood, but he focused more of his attentions on her, remaining a constant voice in her head, whispering to her, molding her into his weapon. He caused pain in her life when he felt she needed it, and gave her fleeting moments of pleasure to shape her goals and motivation.

And then, he set her loose on the realm. Well, not ‘loose’, per se, as he remained her only “true friend”, hovering in her mind, but he pushed her into the region of Shadow, looking for opportunities through her eyes, and pushing her to them.

Part B, Grabbing Hold

Now that he finished crafting a pawn, he needed to set her into action. Any location would do, but one difficult to access, and with potential allies nearby, would be perfect. So, he guided her to Antioch. Well, New Antioch, one might say. In the mountains, surrounded by vicious monsters and darkness, reasonably close to Muileann and Tonovi, able to pincer Shadow if needed if ties were made to Tharis. Maybe not the perfect location, but certainly one of several viable options, and this one was well suited for aiming his pawn at. After all, they discriminated against half-orcs, with or without fiendish heritage. Though normally used to such aggression, he had timed Grazztliz’ debut into adventurer society to coincide with her entrance into adulthood. That awkward age, couple with positive experience from the more open-minded adventurers led her to start to believe that she could stop living life as a monster. Antioch, however, trampled on that dream, reminding her at just the right time that yes, she was a monster, simply because she was born like that.

Enraged, she didn’t question the whispering voice in her head to crush the town, kill their king, and rule the city as she saw fit. He filled her head with “noble” thoughts, of a town where any sentient being could walk without fear (That such places already existed, he encouraged her to forget), where dwarves and drow could play dice, and humans drank with shades. He let her think of a town of beauty and joy, devoted to bringing happiness to those whose lives gave them little reason for joy. A city of freedom, a town of equality, a town of pleasure. He let her think herself as doing good, bringing to fruition a dream of peace and happiness, and destroying bigotry and racism. He let her think that.

She would build brothels, an arena, drug dens, a bathhouse, bars and taverns galore, a theatre, a bazaar, and so on. All the things that brought people pleasure. And not realize that she was building a nest of hedonism, her naivete preventing her from seeing the corruption and darkness filling the hearts of her citizens. This “New New Antioch” would be soaked in depravity, perversion, corruption and violence. And the darkness would eat away at the very fabric of the plane, wearing in thin with corruption, until it rips. And when it did, he would be waiting.

Step Two… Step Three, Profit

From there, If he succeeded, the rest would be easy. Protect the Rip, hide it, and utilize it sparingly. He would send demons through it, pretending to be city guards and the city’s militia. Well, not so much pretending, but they did not exist to protect the citizens, but the Rip. Once secure, he could send succubi, incubi and others to infiltrate potential ally cities, such as Muileann, Tonovi, Juran, Tharis, and others. Even before then, his other pawns may be working on drawing those cities to him, or weakening cities that might stand against him. Slowly, he’d drag them into depravity and, if possible, start a few cults to him. That would be nice. Slowly start opening more Rips, sending in more demons, growing strength. Then, when Shadow is subtly his, he could start spreading to the islands, and the Empire, until the entire Plane had his minions crawling on it, like ants on rotting fruit.

Ideally, he would never feel the need to make a violent takeover, make the land aware that it is his, or otherwise give anyone a reason to target him. His pawns and cults would know him by different names, worship different aspects, and not know who he really is, or his plans. For, adventurers were annoying and would indubitably get in his way. The more false leads for them to squash, the easier it would be for his plans to continue unmolested. The world would not even know it was his, but it would be.

[All information in here is subject to change due to suggestions and lore adjustments to fit Shadowgate better]

For anyone interested, I used Oviherero as the basis for the names for the tribes and people. It is a Bantu language used by the Himba tribe in Nabmbia. To simplify, I used a surprisingly obscure African language when I probably should have just used Swahili. But, I find the Himba tribe interesting (I blame the book Binti), so I did it anyways. Almost all words were dropped to their root forms, and/or modified slightly, to fit my tastes. Translations: Ndjoze(nightmare), Kambihi(cat), Onyune(pleasure), Serekaze(queen), Ehandu(naughtiness). Mmness was just made up, I thought the sound matched his themes.

Please feel free to use this information for your own characters and goals! Though I came up with Mmness, I don’t see him as “mine”, so do what you like with him, just like I would not be able to tell you how you could or could not use Grazt’t. I will be making a description and/or art of him, though. He can likely shapeshift, though, and probably does, so that no particular pawn knows his true form.




TL;DR
The Demon Lord Mmness brought about Grazztliz (and potentially others)’s birth in order to have a pawn to turn Antioch into a den of corruption, which would wear away at reality, allowing small Rips for his minions to enter the Material Plane through. He wants to spread corruption amongst the cities of the plane until all of it is currupted, and he can use the plane to power himself, and eventually achieve godhood, and perhaps eat the other gods.
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"[Aiden poses clinging to the ceiling like a gecko].
With a slight shimmer, Aiden is revealed to view.
Night screeches
Aiden drops down and lands on his feet lightly.
Night speaks softly: Why!?
Aiden smiles at Night."
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