Of Gods and Blood

[Arsulon]

Hey everybody,

This may seem like a real newbie question but I don't own all of the BR books and might be missing the answer for that reason. Are there any rules to account for bloodline progression beyond the "great" category? Clearly if you keep absorbing bloodlines you begin to warp into an Ersheg or an Awnsheg, but how do you quantify this with the rules? I don't have Blood Enemies yet: are the rules in that book or elswhere? Likewise, the BR mythos seems to suggest the continued absorbtion of blood would lead to godhood. Is this the case, or was the reconstitution of the Cerilian pantheon at Deismaar an act of will on the part of the dying gods (i.e. they chose their sucessors, much as a regent designates an heir)?

I'd been wondering about these issues for a while but was reminded of them by some comments in Gav's post on deities and planar phenomenon. Many of you have given the cosmology and cosmogony of BR a great deal of thought so I welcome ANY opinions on the matter.

[DanMcSorley]

On Thu, 29 May 2003, Arsulon wrote:
> This may seem like a real newbie question but I don`t own all of the BR
> books and might be missing the answer for that reason. Are there any
> rules to account for bloodline progression beyond the "great"
> category? Clearly if you keep absorbing bloodlines you begin to warp
> into an Ersheg or an Awnsheg, but how do you quantify this with the
> rules? I don`t have Blood Enemies yet: are the rules in that book or
> elswhere?

There aren`t any rules on this really, beyond a note that True bloodlines
are greater than Great ones, and there aren`t many around anymore. Blood
Enemies provides the bloodform and bloodtrait blood abilities, which
transform one into an awnshegh or ershegh, respectively. It isn`t
necessarily true that you must become an awnshegh or ershegh if you have a
true bloodline- the Roeles never did, as a counterexample. I`d say all of
Azrai`s scions would fall prey to this, but other derivations don`t have
to.

In 3e, I might treat powerful True blooded creatures as quasi-deities,
Divine Rank 0, as detailed in Deities and Demigods. Many of the blood
abilities are similar to weak Salient divine abilities, and those could
work as true bloodline abilities. For instance, the Divine Aura blood
ability is available as major and great, and at a true level would behave
like a weaker version of the Divine Aura characteristic of gods. The
Great ability of Regeneration might become Divine Fast Healing as a true
blood ability.

> Likewise, the BR mythos seems to suggest the continued absorbtion of
> blood would lead to godhood. Is this the case, or was the
> reconstitution of the Cerilian pantheon at Deismaar an act of will on
> the part of the dying gods (i.e. they chose their sucessors, much as a
> regent designates an heir)?

This is open to interpretation. None of the scions have risen to godhood
since then, that we know of, so it is possible that this was a one-time
event. On the otherhand, some of the awnshegh believe it is possible,
notably the Serpent and possibly the Sphinx, and it seems to be working
for the Serpent.
--
Daniel McSorley

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[irdeggman]

Originally posted by Arsulon


Hey everybody,

This may seem like a real newbie question but I don't own all of the BR books and might be missing the answer for that reason. Are there any rules to account for bloodline progression beyond the "great" category? Clearly if you keep absorbing bloodlines you begin to warp into an Ersheg or an Awnsheg, but how do you quantify this with the rules? I don't have Blood Enemies yet: are the rules in that book or elswhere? Likewise, the BR mythos seems to suggest the continued absorbtion of blood would lead to godhood. Is this the case, or was the reconstitution of the Cerilian pantheon at Deismaar an act of will on the part of the dying gods (i.e. they chose their sucessors, much as a regent designates an heir)?

I'd been wondering about these issues for a while but was reminded of them by some comments in Gav's post on deities and planar phenomenon. Many of you have given the cosmology and cosmogony of BR a great deal of thought so I welcome ANY opinions on the matter.

This is from the 2nd ed version - The Book of Regency (was a free pdf download from Wizards a while ago, but was never "published") - pg 17

"Note: No bloodline can be increased in strength more than once per generation. . .

Special Note: Under no circumstances can a great bloodline be increased to true."

There were never really any "set in stone" rules for the transformation this was always left up to the DM and role-playing. I would hate to try to quantify a "this is exactly how it happens" rule for 3rd ed because of the very reason it was left vague in the the "original" rules. The nature of the transformation should really be left up to the DM (with some input from the player) since it is always unique.

In Chap 9 of the playtest document a rough guide was put out to give some "guidelines" and helpful info for the DM to use. This needs to be redone to reflect what is changing in 3.5 (creature types are being restructured for one) and some of the various discussion on this topic. In any case the final product will probably still remain somewhat vague so that DMs have more flexability in this matter.:)

[Mark_Aurel]

In 3e, I might treat powerful True blooded creatures as quasi-deities,
Divine Rank 0, as detailed in Deities and Demigods. Many of the blood
abilities are similar to weak Salient divine abilities, and those could
work as true bloodline abilities.

The Gorgon was treated like this in the playtest draft; this is how I'd handle other true scions as well. Regarding the salient divine abilities, I also agree.