William Thurese

[Thelandrin]

Discussion thread for William Thurese.

This chap is decidedly creepy. What prompted the creation of this man?

[Elton Robb]

Discussion thread for William Thurese.

This chap is decidedly creepy. What prompted the creation of this man?

Uhm . . . well, Ken and I talked about a rabblerouser in Medoere. However, the usual "Preach the Religion of Business" didn't appeal to me unless he was a motivational speaker that taught people how to get rich. Celestial Jewel of Saramie sends out it's evangelists to do this very thing: they are necessarily charismatic and the ideas they preach aren't necessarily bad.

So, I decided that he needed a twist. He's an Azraist at his very core, but he works as an evangelist for the Celestial Jewel. He's not of the blood, but he wants to gather followers. So, I decided that having him tainted and suffering slight insanity (Ala Call of Cthulhu RPG) would eventually make for a major villain. His plan is to acquire all the lost texts devoted to the God of Pride. He's trying to set up something like Christian Science. It looks good on the outside, but as you dig deeper, the doctrines get wierder and wierder until you find yourself worshipping Azrai.

[Thelandrin]

Christian Science is not the same as Scientology and most definitely does not require any sort of hidden worship, diabolic or otherwise. Please do not bring real-world religious debate into this.

[kgauck]

Azrai does seem to be influenced by Milton's description of sin.


Hogarth depicting Milton's Satan, SIn, and Death from Milton's Paradise Lost

Sin is in the middle. Death and Satan on both sides. Sin was described as attractive when you first behold her, tempting, drawing you in, its not until you are too close to escape that you realize she is a terrible monster, being all snakes from the waist down. In a sense, Milton has described all sin in terms of temptation and trickery, rather than an attraction to actual evil.

While the D&D cosmology does hold forth the notion that characters are attracted to evil, the description of Azrai remains profoundly Miltonic. The Pride of Satan, the Temptation of Sin, all appear in Azrai in a way familiar to readers of Paradise Lost.

This image is Hogarth, Blake also produced a very familiar work on this subject.


Blake depicting the same scene

[Elton Robb]

Okay, if you don't want a real life religion as an inspiration; how about a fictional example? The Fellowship of the Guardian in Ultima 7. In Britannia in Ultima 7, the Guardian (which was the sum of all the total evil of the Avatar) established a religious movement. It has all the appearances of being a good religion. But as you got deeper, you gave up more and more control over your life to the Guardian.

I thought that William Thurese should be Cerilia's Batlin.