Blood of Azrai

[Tripp Elliott]

I'm gonna jump into the discussion discussing the Taint of Azrai.

I'm not going to argue how a DM(or Player) should view having a
Bloodline of Azrai, what I'm going to discuss is this stuff about
acquiring Azrai's bloodline by doing various things.

Ok, Let's say my bloodline is that of,oh, let's pick Reynir[because I
like wolves]. Ok, for some reason or another, I do a horrible, and
despicable act, who knows, maybe I killed my parents and raped the
horses. Alright, I'm blooded, so my folks probably were too. For
simplicity sake, let's say the were both Reynir as well. Now, why the
heck should I get, or even have it possible to get, an Azrai bloodline
out of this[assuming all of the horses were unblooded]? There's no
Azrai related blood within 100 miles of our farm[at the East end of
Albiele], so where woulde it come from? Frankly, I see no reason for
Azrai to enter into this at all. Now, surely it was an evil act and
all, and standard Alignment penalties will derive from it[unless I was a
hideously evil person already], but it shouldn't do anything to my
Reynir bloodline except maybe raise it's Strength for the Bloodtheft
itself.

Now, Bloodtheft IS NOT an evil practice in, and of, itself. What is
evil is going around just offing folks for the sake of it, but if you're
a goodguy Paladin, and you happen to kill a horribly evil blooded
individual by heart piercing, or even a good person by accident, then
there shouldn't even be any alignment penalties.

Now, the only time that this taint of Azrai stuff needs to come in is:

1) The character already has an Azrai Bloodline
2) The victim has an Azrai Bloodline
3) Maybe some artifact in the area[bloodstones?] have Azrai's power in
them.
4) Investiture of some sort involving an Azrai blooded individual

Apart from those, I just don't see it. Now, as to how you figure the
bloodline change, that's up to you.

As a final note, let me remind everyone, that nobody out there is
arguing that especially good acts will bring about an Bloodline of
Anduiras spontaneously, so why should Azrai's be any different. As far
as I'm concerned, Azrai's bloodline acts exactly like all of the others,
and before anyone goes pointing to the physical manifestations of it, or
something like that, just remember that BE introduces the Blood Ability
that causes that, which is only associated with Azrai[I think it is
Bloodform], so even that is just a Blood Ability.

Ok, that's enough from me for now, and, as usual, let me say that all of
this is just my own, humble, opinion. So, most of you can disregard it,
however those of you for whom I DM, hahaha, you have to live by it,
muhaahahahahaha[unless you can convince me why I'm wrong].

Thanx for listening,

Tripp

[James Ruhland]

>
> Ok, Let's say my bloodline is that of,oh, let's pick Reynir[because I
> like wolves]. Ok, for some reason or another, I do a horrible, and
> despicable act, who knows, maybe I killed my parents and raped the
> horses. Alright, I'm blooded, so my folks probably were too. For
> simplicity sake, let's say the were both Reynir as well. Now, why the
> heck should I get, or even have it possible to get, an Azrai bloodline
> out of this[assuming all of the horses were unblooded]?
>
I probably missed something (I got about 40 e-mails from this newsletter
today, and some I just skimmed), so I appologize if I did. I don't recall
anyone arguing that you can pick up the blood taint of Azrai if you don't
have it already just by being evil. Heck, their are plenty of wicked dudes
(NPCs etc) in the game, I'll bet not even near a majority have an Azrai
bloodline. The q. is what happens to thouse dudes who *do* have the blood
of Azrai, or "contract" it in some fashion (I.E. the way you can get it in
Legends of the Hero Kings; btw, someone mentioned that this system makes it
too easy--IMO, this one was a one shot, but is a good starting point, at
least when dealing with bloodtheft involving Awensheglien; note that a
large number of the Awenshegs seem to have become such through a method
simmilar to this. Think twice before practicing bloodtheft against
them--yes it is tempting, 'cause they usually have attractive
bloodlines--but if you don't do it, you have nothing to worry about...)
Where was I? Oh, yah; I agree that you can't get Azrai's blood just by
being evil.

>
>
> As a final note, let me remind everyone, that nobody out there is
> arguing that especially good acts will bring about an Bloodline of
> Anduiras spontaneously, so why should Azrai's be any different.
>
a good point but 1) an official product descibes such an eventuallity (as
I've already referred to), while none make any reference to picking up
"good" bloodlines spontaniously (the insidiousness of evil and all that;
while the "good" powers obey the rules, the bad ones subvert 'em) 2) If you
look in Blood Enemies: Abominations of Cerilia, you'll see that a good
number of the (lesser, more recient) Awens. got the "curse" through an act
of bloodtheft against another Awensheg. Perhaps that's the only way this
"conversion" of bloodlines can happen. I don't see you getting it just by
gutting some random person who happens to have an Azrai bloodline, but the
As break all the normal molds anyhow...

[Mark A Vandermeulen]

On Wed, 29 Oct 1997, Tripp Elliott wrote:

> I'm gonna jump into the discussion discussing the Taint of Azrai.
>
> Ok, Let's say my bloodline is that of,oh, let's pick Reynir[because I
> like wolves]. Ok, for some reason or another, I do a horrible, and
> despicable act, who knows, maybe I killed my parents and raped the
> horses. Alright, I'm blooded, so my folks probably were too. For
> simplicity sake, let's say the were both Reynir as well. Now, why the
> heck should I get, or even have it possible to get, an Azrai bloodline
> out of this[assuming all of the horses were unblooded]? There's no
> Azrai related blood within 100 miles of our farm[at the East end of
> Albiele], so where woulde it come from? Frankly, I see no reason for
> Azrai to enter into this at all. Now, surely it was an evil act and
> all, and standard Alignment penalties will derive from it[unless I was a
> hideously evil person already], but it shouldn't do anything to my
> Reynir bloodline except maybe raise it's Strength for the Bloodtheft
> itself.

I certainly see your point, and I agree that you have a completely valid
way of interpreting the rules, but my justification for my own
interpretation is three-fold. First, I simply needed some mechanic to keep
my players from becoming blood-crazed homicidal maniacs, and the
possibililty that they would become gibbering monsters seemed to work the
best. Second, in this world, Azrai became so incredibly powerful that it
took ALL the other gods to kill him. My belief is that this is because he
discovered and took over the Shadow World, which is intimately associated
with Cerilia (or rather Aebrynnis). I believe that opening ones-self to
evil opens one up to the shadow-world influences, and in this way the
taint of Azrai "leaks" into the person's bloodline, potentially changing
it if not opposed. Azrai was a lot more powerful than the other gods, and
yet his scions are no more common that those of the other Old Gods: my
interpretation of this is that a large chunk of his "god-stuff" lies
hidden somewhere in the shadow-world, keeping it tained and dark. Third, a
number of awnsheighlein bear traits that seem to have some from
derivaitons of other gods. As examples, the Sphynx and the Lamia both
exhibit affinities for cats, which is the animal associated with the
bloodline of Brenna, not with Azrai (who is associated with snakes). I've
taken this to mean that they were both once humans with Brenna's bloodline
who were subsequently "taken over" by the taint of Azrai. Finally, it is
simply my own personal preferance to role-play in a world where good is
hard, but rewarding, and evil is "easy" and seductive. My personal agenda,
if you will.

>
> Now, Bloodtheft IS NOT an evil practice in, and of, itself. What is
> evil is going around just offing folks for the sake of it, but if you're
> a goodguy Paladin, and you happen to kill a horribly evil blooded
> individual by heart piercing, or even a good person by accident, then
> there shouldn't even be any alignment penalties.

I would have to disagree strongly. At least to a lawful-good character,
accidentally killing a good person IS an evil act, and worthy of some
gut-wrenching guilt if nothing else. If not enough to actually turn the
god away from a paladin, it is at least enough to require a Quest to atone
for it. In my Cerilia, however, the guilt is not all that one acquires
from such an act: the evil itself becomes a tangible force which needs to
be overcome.

> As a final note, let me remind everyone, that nobody out there is
> arguing that especially good acts will bring about an Bloodline of
> Anduiras spontaneously, so why should Azrai's be any different. As far
> as I'm concerned, Azrai's bloodline acts exactly like all of the others,
> and before anyone goes pointing to the physical manifestations of it, or
> something like that, just remember that BE introduces the Blood Ability
> that causes that, which is only associated with Azrai[I think it is
> Bloodform], so even that is just a Blood Ability.
>

True enough (although I considered it briefly). But, Anduiras was nowhere
near as powerful as Azrai in those last days before Deismaar, and the
taint of Azrai profoundly affects the Shadow World, which is intimately
associated with the regular plane (as they say of things spiritual, it
"flows through all things" like an invisible tide).

It really all comes down to role-playing bias and prefrences, IMHO. In
your formulation, Cerilia is much more high fantasy themed, while in my
formulation, it is more like a "world of darkness" in a medieval setting
(without actually being Vampire: the Dark Ages. Brrrr. :p )

Mark VanderMeulen
vander+@pitt.edu

[Tripp Elliott]

James Ruhland wrote:
>
> >
> > Ok, Let's say my bloodline is that of,oh, let's pick Reynir[because I
> > like wolves]. Ok, for some reason or another, I do a horrible, and
> > despicable act, who knows, maybe I killed my parents and raped the
> > horses. Alright, I'm blooded, so my folks probably were too. For
> > simplicity sake, let's say the were both Reynir as well. Now, why the
> > heck should I get, or even have it possible to get, an Azrai bloodline
> > out of this[assuming all of the horses were unblooded]?
> >
> I probably missed something (I got about 40 e-mails from this newsletter
> today, and some I just skimmed), so I appologize if I did. I don't recall
> anyone arguing that you can pick up the blood taint of Azrai if you don't
> have it already just by being evil. Heck, their are plenty of wicked dudes
> (NPCs etc) in the game, I'll bet not even near a majority have an Azrai
> bloodline. The q. is what happens to thouse dudes who *do* have the blood
> of Azrai, or "contract" it in some fashion (I.E. the way you can get it in
> Legends of the Hero Kings; btw, someone mentioned that this system makes it
> too easy--IMO, this one was a one shot, but is a good starting point, at
> least when dealing with bloodtheft involving Awensheglien; note that a
> large number of the Awenshegs seem to have become such through a method
> simmilar to this. Think twice before practicing bloodtheft against
> them--yes it is tempting, 'cause they usually have attractive
> bloodlines--but if you don't do it, you have nothing to worry about...)
> Where was I? Oh, yah; I agree that you can't get Azrai's blood just by
> being evil.

I'm glad that somebody agrees with me. Sometimes it can be a lonely
place on the soapbox, hahaha. Actually, if you go back and read some
old posts by folks, several are making an argument that especially evil
acts should give the taint, so i was just trying to refute that idea.

> > As a final note, let me remind everyone, that nobody out there is
> > arguing that especially good acts will bring about an Bloodline of
> > Anduiras spontaneously, so why should Azrai's be any different.
> >
> a good point but 1) an official product descibes such an eventuallity (as
> I've already referred to), while none make any reference to picking up
> "good" bloodlines spontaniously (the insidiousness of evil and all that;
> while the "good" powers obey the rules, the bad ones subvert 'em) 2) If you
> look in Blood Enemies: Abominations of Cerilia, you'll see that a good
> number of the (lesser, more recient) Awens. got the "curse" through an act
> of bloodtheft against another Awensheg. Perhaps that's the only way this
> "conversion" of bloodlines can happen. I don't see you getting it just by
> gutting some random person who happens to have an Azrai bloodline, but the
> As break all the normal molds anyhow...

I would argue that if it is possible to pick up an Azrai related
bloodline through usurpation, then it should be just as easy to gain any
other bloodline. If I have a tainted Reynir Bloodline[Remember, I like
wolves] with a strength of 5, and I happen to off somebody with a Great
Bloodline of Anduiras with a Strength of 70, then it ought to be fairly
like that the Anduiras Bloodline will overwhelm my feeble Reynir one.

Ok, that's my 2GB for this subject.

Tripp