Results 1 to 10 of 13

Hybrid View

  1. #1
    Moo! Are you happy now? Arjan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Woerden, Netherlands
    Posts
    10,373
    Downloads
    48
    Uploads
    1

    Flight from the Shadow - What happened?

    We all know that The Flight from the Shadow was the beginning of the migration to Cerilia and was due to growing power of Azrai.

    That is all there is we know, but i can imagine this has been something REALLY big at the time causing that many people to flee.

    So what do you think could have happened?
    how was this growing power manifested?
    what made it so bad that everyone started to "run away"

    was this some sort of Army of the Dead ala Game of Thrones or (a) really bad government(s) that got so widespread corrupted that people fled (like you see sometimes happening in the real world, like for example right now in a latin american country)
    Or perhaps the veil with the shadow world was already starting to rip there?

    i'd like to hear your thoughts and ideas on this matter.
    Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.

  2. #2
    Special Guest (Donor)
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    southwest Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    563
    Downloads
    140
    Uploads
    1
    This is an interesting question. I'll have to give it some thought, but i see two possibilities. "Flight" could mean one of two things.

    The flight could be the result of a single massive event: a collosal war, major famine or other natural disaster. This results in the majority of the population leaving en masse in a short period of time. But that doesn't seem very Azrai-like to me. It's too overt, too blunt.

    But flight could mean a gradual migration over many of years, suggesting a slow but steady growing threat.

    Perhaps regimes slowly becoming more cruel and oppressive as Azrai corrupted Aduria's leaders to his ends. So at first a few people flee to colonies, and more and more do so as things continually get worse.

    Or maybe Azrai slowly broke down the walls to the Shadow World, slowly consuming regions with undead and shadow horrors. Or better yet, maybe he caused the Seeming to leak into Aduria, changing reality as he saw fit. That would certainly cause myself to up and emigrate... heh.

    There is nothing canon about Aduria afaik, so if the barriers to the Shadow World did break down, did they recover when Azrai went to Cerilia, or do those cracks still exist?

    Perhaps it was a precursor of what happened in Cerilia pre-Deismaar, when Azrai used his abilities to slowly corrupt the Vos and the Elves to his banner. But in Arduria, unlike Deismaar, the gods did not make a stand to repel him. Perhaps even the gods were deceived at that point.

    Or maybe it was all of these and more- i would not expect Azrai to attack on only one front.


    -Fizz
    Last edited by Fizz; 05-24-2019 at 08:47 PM.

  3. #3
    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    London, England
    Posts
    2,476
    Downloads
    30
    Uploads
    2
    But that said, given that Raesene was seduced by the shadow I would have expected something different to corruption of the leaders - particularly as if the population had run from a corrupting leadership then Deismaar should have had some southern armies involved.

    So I lean more towards Azrai influencing the climate to cause corp failures, perhaps the crack in the veil between the shadow world sort of thing.

  4. #4
    Special Guest (Donor)
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    southwest Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    563
    Downloads
    140
    Uploads
    1
    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewTall View Post
    But that said, given that Raesene was seduced by the shadow I would have expected something different to corruption of the leaders - particularly as if the population had run from a corrupting leadership then Deismaar should have had some southern armies involved.

    So I lean more towards Azrai influencing the climate to cause corp failures, perhaps the crack in the veil between the shadow world sort of thing.
    I think a key consideration to this is how many fled. Do the original tribes still have members in Aduria, or was it an emigration of the entire populous?

    If the former (the old tribes still exist there), then i could see famines and the like, but with a few being able to hold out. If the latter (literally everyone fled), then i think it would take something far more unnatural.

    My understanding is that there are no tribes still in Aduria, so let's say everyone migrated. What gets entire civilizations to move?

    If Azrai opened connections to the Shadow World and perhaps even used the Seeming, that would surely cause a massive flight of everyone. Famines, earthquakes, war: these are all things common folk can understand, and even cope with. But when reality itself is not stable, that should send pretty much everyone running.

    Of course, if that was the case, why didn't Azrai do that in Cerilia?


    -Fizz

  5. #5
    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    London, England
    Posts
    2,476
    Downloads
    30
    Uploads
    2
    Aduria is much more fun if it has at least some population remaining, though I wouldn't expect a lot given that Cerilia started to colonise it!

    I would suspect that a fair amount of Aduria's population is monstrous, perhaps Azrai encouraged unpleasant creatures to migrate from the shadow world (there's no reason why halfllings should be the only race driven out of one world into the other) or used the shadow world to corrupt some of the tribes into monsters.

    But as you say, people don't move without good reason, so to get mass migration you need a major motivator - climate change, religious drive to the holy land, driven out by war - whatever it was it was something that the tribes didn't think that they could fight.

    I think that I took the view that Aduria was much more primitive than Cerilia in my homebrew, and that the tribes learned magic from the sidhe and ironworking from the karamhul after coming to cerilia which would have made a significant difference in their ability to fight the shadow come Deismaar, but I can't recall any canon that led me to that perception.

    If Azrai had legions from Aduria it would explain in part why Deismaar was such a tough battle, the 'subverted rebels' approach always seemed inadequate to me.

  6. #6
    Site Moderator Magian's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Thief River Falls, MN
    Posts
    497
    Downloads
    219
    Uploads
    19
    I don't have it fully worked out and perhaps it is unusable, but I had ideas of a higher category of beings involved using Azrai's curiosity for more knowledge and what he awakened to lure him into what he became and the real importance of Cerilia.

    It was an imbalance of a cosmic darkness encroaching upon the mortal plane that could be felt approaching, yet diviners and word of mouth traveled giving warning as well. There were ancient empires that were very successful at magic that decided to expand after gaining new powers revealed to them by Azrai's folly and his unlocking of forbidden secrets. It was too powerful to control and mortals sensed a warp in their perceptions of reality. That motivated them to leave as the land itself became poisoned. Armies marched and expanded into their lands. Armies of monsters with darkness that followed them. And then Deismaar the great sundering happened which changed everything from what was into what never should have been.
    One law, One court, One allied people, One coin, and one tax, is what I shall bring to Cerilia.

  7. #7
    Moo! Are you happy now? Arjan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Woerden, Netherlands
    Posts
    10,373
    Downloads
    48
    Uploads
    1
    Quote Originally Posted by Fizz View Post
    Or maybe Azrai slowly broke down the walls to the Shadow World, slowly consuming regions with undead and shadow horrors. Or better yet, maybe he caused the Seeming to leak into Aduria, changing reality as he saw fit. That would certainly cause myself to up and emigrate... heh.
    -Fizz
    i thought about that as well, the opening of the veil letting all terror out and eventually the whole of Aduria was swallowed by the shadow. and the rifts were closed with the "Death" of azrai and the sacrifice of the old gods. azrai being "banished" to the shadowworld (hence the cold rider) and is looking for a way to come back..
    but that would mean Aduria is filled with shadowworld beings there got stuck there when the rifts were closed
    Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.

  8. #8
    Site Moderator Magian's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Thief River Falls, MN
    Posts
    497
    Downloads
    219
    Uploads
    19
    I haven't read anything about the shadow world recently. Perhaps my memory and imagination over the years have changed things. I was under the impression that before Deismaar there was no shadow world only the faerie world. It was the home of the halflings and elves had some ties to it maybe something to do with the higher magic and how time works in their realms as well as their undying nature. I like to think that it is either something they are guarding, or is coveted by some powers elsewhere. This is the motivation of the higher category of beings in my outlook to corrupt Azrai to drive the humans to the elven lands to weaken them and the hold on Cerilia. It is how I explain how history happened in a sort of secret knowledge chronicle.

    So the event of Deismaar is what shattered the faerie world and opened a rift or something when the local deities were destroyed. Which is precisely what the corrupting powers wanted to happen to gain a foothold in Cerilia. Thus the faerie world became the shadow world. The source of the shadow is elsewhere and not native to the world. It is an invasion on a cosmic level like some elder of the Lovecraftian mythos farted or something and the corruption of two worlds is the result. I use that wording to try to illustrate the level of a power involved showing a scale beyond even imperial unification a grand goal of many players. But all that is meaningless to the PCs I suppose.

    The point for me is that Azrai was a key to unlock this world through his pride and pursuit of knowledge as he was easily manipulated. I add a bit more to his ethos and those of his followers by giving him some secrets that he discovered that are motivations for the things they do as heroes in their own view. But that is neither here nor there. So, to me it is the secrets he found that are the key to undo much of the damage. Like maybe a shadow of his early self is somewhere out there that works fix some things, maybe bit by bit. I mean I view him as a complicated being for sure, so bits of him are everywhere. Perhaps the corrupted are trying to do something similar but to the opposite end. But, maybe that is just too much focus on Azrai.
    One law, One court, One allied people, One coin, and one tax, is what I shall bring to Cerilia.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. The Flight from the Shadow
    By Sorontar in forum Main
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 07-01-2010, 05:38 AM
  2. Flight from Shadow
    By Sorontar in forum Main
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 06-16-2008, 06:24 AM
  3. Flight from the Shadow
    By Sorontar in forum Main
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 05-13-2008, 02:24 AM
  4. 0 Ma - Flight From The Shadow
    By Arjan in forum The Royal Library
    Replies: 19
    Last Post: 09-04-2004, 12:12 AM
  5. What happened?
    By The Olesens in forum MPGN Mailinglist archive 1996-1999
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 07-27-1998, 01:56 PM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
BIRTHRIGHT, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, the BIRTHRIGHT logo, and the D&D logo are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used by permission. ©2002-2010 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.