The Loremaster: Garruk Wildspeaker and the Holy Grail

SPOILERS.

Seriously, if you want to read The Wildered Quest without having anything spoiled, go buy it and read it first. It's only like, R75 for the e-book. I'll wait here.

Ok, so, what the hell was up with the magical cauldron that mysteriously appeared to save Will and Garruk from downing, cured Garruk of his curse, and then vanished without a trace?

Eldraine is in great part based on the legends of Camelot, and the cauldron is Eldraine's version of the Holy Grail. The writer could have set it up better, cause it seemed to mostly come out of nowhere, aside from a couple of previous offhand mentions of it having gone missing and that knight sometimes quest to find it. They could have made it a chalice instead of a cauldron, so the connection was a bit more obvious. So why did they turn the grail, which is usually some form of a goblet or chalice, into a cauldron, and why is it black rather than white? There is a good reason for it, and it lies in the origins of the grail stories.

It would be understandable to think that the stories of the grail started in the Middle East, made their way west to England alongside Christianity, and were subsequently incorporated into the legends of King Arthur. But that's not what happened.

The French writer Chrétien de Troyes (often considered the first novelist) seemingly invented the Holy Grail, and the knightly quest to find it, for his romance Perceval ou le Conte du Graal. But while he was the first to use that name, he actually seems to have drawn on old Celtic legends about the inhuman Tuatha de Danann – who are basically high-fantasy style elves. The king of the Tuatha owned a magical cauldron that could restore the dead to life (which could be considered a form of necromancy, which is within the black part of the colour pie - though which can do it too). When Christianity came to England, many old stories and traditions were altered to fit within the new anti-pagan rules imposed by the emerging Christian clergy. Thus, the ancient inhuman king with powerful warriors became the Christian King Arthur and his noble knights, the magical cauldron became a chalice powered by the blood of Jesus, and the ancient wizard Merlin became...ok, for some reason Merlin survived mostly intact.

So, the cauldron is the grail. Attention is not drawn to it in the novel, but it is Will's selfless act to try and save Garruk from drowning that causes the Grail to appear to him. (Proving him to have a 'pure heart' or whatever you want to call it. ) If it hadn't appeared, he and Garruk would most likely have drowned. But whyis it necessary to invoke such a powerful artifact to cure Garruk? Why has nothing been able to fix him until now?

Garruk's curse stems from a story called The Hunter and the Veil that came out when I first started playing Magic. In the story Garruk realises that the necromancer Liliana Vess is trying to obtain an artifact called the Chain Veil, a powerful magical artifact from the plane of Shandalar. The Veil houses the souls of an entire race of incredibly evil ogre wizards called the Onnake, who were thankfully destroyed many years ago. They have never told us what sort of stuff the Onnake did that makes them so incredibly evil, but the story assures us that, yes, they are indeed incredibly evil, and it's a good thing they are all dead, otherwise they would be doing incredibly evil things of an unspecified nature.

Garruk intercepts Liliana on what he thinks is her way to the Onakke Catacombs where the veil is hidden, but unfortunately, it turns out that she is actually leaving the catacombs, having already obtained it. Garruk is more powerful than her, and almost defeats her, until she desperately draws on the Veil's power to unleash a corruptive curse on him. She escapes as the curse begins to drive Garruk slowly insane, whilst black mana spreads slowly and painfully through his veins.

Later it was revealed that this is not the first time the Veil's curse has been used on a planeswalker – Ob Nixilis was originally a human who tried to use the power of the Veil but was instead cursed by it. As Nixilis proceeded to then turn into a demon, it has been assumed that Garruk's curse is also slowly transforming him into one.

So far the curse has been treated as pretty much unstoppable. We don't know much about it aside from it's effects on Nixilis and Garruk. Nahiri's lithomancy was able to suppress it in Nixilis (leading Jace to embed a hedron in Garruk to similar effect), but not cure it. Not even the immensely powerful Avacyn, who was able to cure madness, heal mortal wounds and cure many of the dual-nature werewolves by merging their savage and human halves together into the wolfir, was able to heal him. Unfortunately, we don't have a full explanation of why it has been so stubbornly hard to cure, which is why it would have been nice to have more of an explanation of where the Cauldron came from, and what it's exact nature and powers are. All we know is that it was originally looked after by Lochthwain, the black court, but vanished, and though many knights undertake a quest to find it, none have succeeded...or ever returned.

At any rate, there are still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the Chain Veil and it's powers. Now that Bolas is dealt with, and Garruk is back to not-turning-into-a-crazed-demon, perhaps we can finally get some answers to those questions.

Hecuba's Harridyns

Grand Alliance: Order
Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine
Temple: Hagg Nar
Realm: Aqshy

Slaughter Queen Hecuba - Unlike most slaughter queens, who earn their rank by dint of their fearsome reputations, Hecuba has done nothing noteworthy. At least, nothing noteworthy that anyone save Morathi knows about. She eschews the normal flamboyant hairstyle of her kin, and has been given command of a rather eclectic group of lieutenants.

Shryke Queen Iryss - It is rare that a khineri is elevated to the priesthood of Khaine. Iryss is known for her speed, her multicoloured hair, and her ability to whip her witch aelves into a murderous frenzy.

Witch Queen Evanora Mawbane - Evanora earned her epithet after stabbing a Maw-Krusha in the nose. She has earned a reputation of surviving impossible odds to hold important objectives, swaying the outcome of many battles, and is believed to have the blessing of Khaine himself. And she's no slouch in fighting, having once taken out an entire squad of skeletons by herself. Unfortunately, she has so far outlived all of the slaughter queens she has served under.

Witch Queen Phariss - Until recently, Faryss lived on Chamon, but after the recent fall of her home temple, she has joined Hecuba's warband. She is said to have iron constitution and steely resolve.

Ophelia Blackblood and Veyra Nightshade - Little is known about the strange gorgon-sorceress Ophelia, and her constant companion, the shadowblade assassin Veyra. Ophelia is skilled at shadow and blood magic, having knowledge of the fearsome Mindrazor spell. Veyra wields a very unusual weapon for an assassin - a bladed goad-stave, traditionally used by the guardians of Bloodwrack Shrines.

The Loremaster: Tezzeret

Tezzeret was born in Tidehollow, on Esper, one of the shards of Alara. Unlike most planeswalkers, Tezzeret has no surname. In fact, he didn't even have a name until, as a boy, he stabbed a bully with a shiv - tezzeret being the local slang for an improvised weapon. Tezzeret is a highly-intelligent gifted artificer. However, he has a rather explosive temper, and when he loses it, people tend to end up dead.

When he was seven years old, his mother was killed, run over by a guildmaster's carriage. That was when Tezzeret decided that he would do anything he could to become a powerful mage, so no one could ever take something from him again. To that end he began stealing small amounts of the rare, expensive and highly-in-demand magical alloy etherium, a metal that only a group called the Seekers of Carmot knew the secret to making. He was helped in this endeavor by discovering he had a natural talent for rhabdomancy, the magical ability to locate metal. With the money he earned from this, he joined the Machinist Guild, and at the age of 19, amputated his right arm, replacing it with an artificial limb made of etherium filigree. The guild immediately elevated Tezzeret to master status.

Using his newfound status, Tezzeret joined the Vectis City Academy, and applied for entry into the Seekers. In order to gain entry, he had to best Silas Renn in a dual, which he was unable to do. The Seekers denied him entry. Tezzeret worked hard to get a second chance, but kept being passed over. Finally, he had enough and broke into the Seeker's vault to steal the Codex Etherium...only to find that the pages were blank. The Seekers didn't know how to make etherium. No one did.

Unfortunately, this time Tezzeret got caught. When the Seekers tried to kill him to cover up their lies, his spark ignited, and he planeswalked to the shard of Grixis. There he met Nicol Bolas - who offered him power if he would work for Bolas.

For some unknown reason, Nicol Bolas appears to actually care about Tezzeret. Most of his minions find themselves discarded and killed if they fail him, rebel against him, or just outlive their usefulness. But Bolas has spent great effort and considerable rescources to bring Tezzeret back in line when he strays (which has happened multiple times).

Tezzeret, for his part, deeply resents Nicol Bolas for his role in creating the Seekers, as he spent much of his life working to become one, only to find that their teachings were all lies. But, Nicol Bolas did promise him power, and has delivered on that promise.

Tezzeret was placed in charge of one of Bolas' organisations, the Inifinite Consortium, which exploited the power vacuum on Ravnica in the aftermath of the original Ravnica storyline. He repaid Bolas by assassinating everyone who knew the Consortium answered to Bolas, and taking it for himself. It worked, for many years Tezzeret operated with impunity - until Liliana, who was secretly working for Nicol Bolas, manipulated him into starting a war with Jace Beleren. The war ended with Jace erasing Tezzzeret's mind, cutting off his etherium arm, and leaving him in the hands of the nezumi on the plane of Kamigawa.

Bolas managed to retrive Tezzeret and spent months rebuilding his mind and body. He then sent Tezzeret to New Phyrexia to keep an eye on the Phyrexians, and sabotage their leadership structure. At some point after this, he was ordered to relocate to Kaladesh, where he infiltrated the government (known as the Consulate) and was eventually appointed Grand Consul. He used his power to seize control of a powerful artifact Bolas needed - the Planar Bridge - and despite the fact that Jace and the Gatewatch blew it up, Tezzeret escaped with the core, allowing him to rebuild the Bridge, and later, use it to transport another powerful artifact - the Immortal Sun.

Both artifacts seem to be of great importance to Bolas' decade-spanning plans, though exactly what he plans on doing with them is still unclear. One thing is for sure, when Bolas enacts his endgame, Tezzeret will be right there too.

The Loremaster: Ajani Goldmane

Ajani Goldmane was one of the first five planeswalker cards, printed in Lorwyn. We knew little about him, as the Lorwyn 5 didn't actually show up in the storyline of Lorwyn, but he was interesting in that he was a grizzled and battle-scarred leonin with abilities that didn't really fit that sort of image - mostly he was about healing and protection.

We didn't have to wait very long to get Ajani's origin, however. He was born on Alara, a plane that had long ago been split into five pieces called shards. Ajani was from Naya, a jungle covered shard linked to white, green and red mana. Due to being born an albino with white fur, Ajani was shunned by all the other leonin, aside from his brother Jazal. Not even his royal blood (Jazal was kha, or king, of the leonin) saved him from their derision.

The five shards of Alara were on a collision course with each other. When they collided, Alara would be reunited, but a nexus of powerful energy called 'the Maelstrom' would be formed. The ancient dragon-planeswalker Nicol Bolas was dying of old age, and, believing the nexus could restore him, enacted a plan to empower it. If the inhabitants of the shards went to war with each other, the excess energy of spells that they cast in battle would be gathered by the Maelstrom. there were a few obstacles to his goal - one was that Jazal was a rather moderate leader, unlikely to be drawn into a war. Furthermore, he may have convinced the elves and humans of Naya to remain neutral as well.

So Nicol Bolas had Jazal assassinated. His plan succeeded (Naya did later go to war), but he inadvertently made an enemy of Ajani, whose spark ignited due to the trauma of his brother's death. Planeswalking to another shard - Jund - Ajani met the planeswalker Sarkhan Vol, who explained to Ajani that he was a Planeswalker. Sarkhan (sounding very Sith) encouraged him to take hold of his anger and use it to track down his brother's killer. He also showed Ajani how to planeswalk back to Naya.

Whilst on the trail of Nicol Bolas, he was attacked by another leonin and severely injured. Planeswaking away, he found himself on another shard - Bant - where he was rescued and healed by a third planeswalker, the knight-errant Elspeth Tirel.

Eventually Ajani, with the help of a combined army of elves and leonin, managed to track down and confront Nicol Bolas. Bolas absorbed the Maelstrom Nexus, restoring his youth and much of his power. But he underestimated Ajani, who blindsided the elder dragon by absorbing the remeining energy of the Maelstrom and using it to create a reflection of Bolas that banished the dragon from Alara forever.

At some point after the events of Alara, Ajani joined an unofficial group of planeswalkers that also included Tamiyo, Elspeth and Narset. Dubbed the 'Story Circle' they travelled the multiverse collecting stories.

Elspeth was a rather broken soul, having been tourtured by Phyrexians when she was young (which would make her one of the oldest living planeswalkers). But Ajani felt he owed a debt to Elspeth for healing him. After failing to get her to return to Bant from a self-destructive sojourn on Dominara, he followed her to the plane of Theros. Though he helped her succeed on her quest to defeat the evil planeswalker/god Xenegos, he was unable to prevent her from being killed by the sun god Heliod. But this time Ajani's vengeance took a very different form. Donning Elspeth's iconic cloak, he traveled the length and breadth of Theros, telling all about the bravery of Elsepth, and about the betrayal of her supposed patron Heliod. The gods of Theros derive their power from their worshipers, and Ajani's tales have turned many away from following the sun god.

Eventually Ajani felt the story of Espeth had become widespread enough that it would continue to be told without him, and he left Theros, travelling to Kamigawa to tell Tamiyo of Elspeth's death, and giving us the awesome scene of Tamiyo's little children clambering all over Ajani demanding he tell them stories.

But Ajani had one more task to take care of - Elspeth had told him of the planeswalker Tezzeret's actions on New Phyrexia, so when Tamiyo told him of crimes committed by his followers on Kamigawa, Ajani decided to track down the renegade artificer and bring him to justice. Tracking Tezzeret to the plane of Kaladesh, Ajani fell in with the Gatwewatch - a group of planeswalkers consisting of Gideon, Jace, Liliana, Chandra and Nissa - and helped them defeat the oppressive Kaladeshi Consulate, but not before Tezzeret revealed he was working for Nicol Bolas, and made of with a powerful 'planar bridge', which would allow Bolas to transport objects between different planes.

Although the Gatewatch wished to confront Bolas immediately, Ajani was no fool, and admitted that while he had defeated Bolas in the past, the elder dragon had been caught off guard, and would not be defeated so easily again. Ajani left to find others to help fight the dragon. Meanwhile, the Gatewatch ignored him, and...well...lets say that ended badly for them...

Dungeoneering: Making a Memorable Villain

Originally published in issue 9 of 'The Scene Unseen' newsletter.

In my two-year Pathfinder campaign I made a lot of mistakes, but also had some unexpected successes.

The runaway success in my campaign was the character who ended up being the main villain, Lucretia. In the Adventure Path I was following, she was only a minor stumbling block on the way to bigger and better baddies, but she caught the attention of the party like nobody else had. Something about her grabbed their attention. What exactly was it? She managed to escape them during their first battle, but she was not the first villain to do that. There was an aboleth (a giant psychic fish monster) who escaped them on multiple occasions, but the level of animosity the players had towards him was far less than against Lucretia.

There was a point, earlier than their first meeting with Lucretia, in which I realised I had given the players too much treasure. A large part of that was to do with them coming up with a plan to sell a house in Sea Gate, the deed to which they had found. In a locked chest. After killing the owners. Who were, to be fair, rather evil. The AP didn't actually account for this possibility, and in hindsight, instead of letting them successfully sell it for a lot of gold, I should have had the city guard show up and chastise them for trying to con the good people of Sea Gate, and have them narrowly escape some prison time.

At any rate, things had gotten to the point that if villains were going to survive more than a single round against my player, they had to be a much higher level than them. But that put their damage output to dangerous levels. Whichever side got off a full attack first was going to straight up kill the other side. Which is not a great point to be at. So I had to somehow eliminate my player's most valuable items, to bring them back into line with where they should be. Someone suggested making them fight rust monsters, but I thought they were a bit too random, I wouldn't have much control over which items they destroyed.

Enter Lucretia. What if she had been plotting this whole time, planting cursed items in various places, including on her underlings that they had already killed, so that by the time she had to fight them, she could cause chaos by messing with the groups items? She was my fix for a trap that new GMs fall into, that of giving the players all the stuff they want. (At least, I hope it's not just me.)

The group fought Lucretia in a fort that had been taken over by giants. Despite her ambushing them just after they killed the leader of the giants, they still almost killed her. The only reason she survived was due to her messing with their stuff. The paladin's favourite weapon was a light-infused greathammer that dazzled anything it struck. Now it flared with light everytime he used it, temporarily blinding him and causing him to miss. The goblin's dexterity-boosting shirt (in my defense this was an actual item from the campaign, whoever thought this was balanced should be shot) entangled him, and had to be ripped in two for him to escape. Thr cleric's trident dealt extra damage...by drawing on the cleric's life force, injuring him every time he used it, not good for a squishy merfolk. And the sorcerer's fear-protecting ring started amplifying his fears instead of removing them. Only the cavalier escaped unscathed, mostly because he was a miser that refused to spend his gold on anything except mithral armour and weapons.

Then she realised she had 2 hit points left, summoned a wall of water, and ran away.

Lucretia had escaped and outwitted the group (barely) in their first major battle, which was bad enough, but she also permanently harmed and traumatised them by taking away their stuff. It's amazing how players can get attached to imaginary stuff. Strangely, though, the cavlier was just as bent on finding her and eliminating her, despite her not doing anything to him directly, and over the course of the campaign, reminded the rest of the group that they still had to deal with her. When I asked him why he was so keen on stopping her, he replied that it was due to her sister dropping a cathedral bell on him earlier in the campaign - despite the fact that Lucrecia had nothing to do with it.

So what is the point of all this? If you want your players to care about a villain, you have to make them somehow invested in bringing her (or him) down. Having them permanently harm the characters in some way worked for my group, but. But just as much, your players need to buy into the narrative (even if thier thinking is a little flawed, as in the case of the cavalier). You can have the best villain, but for some reason your players don't care. If this is the case, you may have to let go of your villain, despite how much you like them, and look to see if there is another enemy that is better suited to the group.

Dungeoneering: What are the Drow?

This is an updated version of an article originally published in issue 8 of 'The Scene Unseen' newsletter.

When Gary Gygax was developing the Dungeons & Dragons game in the 1970s, he wanted a powerful, distinctive race to be the rulers of the Underdark, a vast network of caverns deep below the surface of the world of Faerun, d&D's primary setting. He got the concept of dark elves from the Prose Edda, a work of norse literature written by Snorri Sturluson. The word drow however, comes from Shetland folklore, used for a used for a dwarf-like creature, and is related the the word trow, usually used for creatures we call trolls. This shows that in folklore a lot of these creatures are interchangeable. Indeed, the Edda makes no distinction between dark elves and what we would nowadays call dwarves. (It is hard for us to imagine such things in an age where fantasy is so heavily influenced by the works of Tolkien, in which dwarves and elves are races with vast differences between them.)

Gygax's drow are despicably evil elves, worshippers of Lolth, the demonic spider goddess. Their society is matriarchal, lead by the female priestesses of Lolth and the matrons of the great houses. They have dark purple skin and white hair. They are incredibly powerful, nearly all of them have spellcasting capability. They rule the underdark with an iron fist, enslaving most of the other races, and spend a lot of time plotting against other houses in an attempt to gain more political power.

Despite this, the most famous drow, Drizzt Do'Urden, was a kind-hearted ranger who had been exiled from the drow capital due to his beliefs. Drizzt's novels became so popular that everyone and their dog wanted to play as a good-aligned drow ranger, leading to the notion that Faerun must be filled with hundreds of good-aligned drow rebels, rather undermining the whole evil elven society thing. The other problem was that drow were not created to be used by players, and were inherently overpowered compared to other characters.

Drizzt's popularity has made drow a staple feature of D&D and most other fantasy worlds, though many give them other names.

The Warhammer Fantasy game, which came out in 1983 also had an army of evil elves. They were originally called the night elves, but later renamed dark elves. Their darkness was entirely in demenour, as they looked identical to the high-elves, with the same pale skin. Their clothing was darker, and their armour was adorned with spikes. They were the followers of the exiled elven prince Malekith, a rather nasty chap, and lived in the equivalent of North America – which seems like a strange choice, until you remember that Warhammer is made by a British company. Oddly, Marvel Comics has a dark elf named Malekith too, who is an enemy of the superhero Thor, and the two Malekiths seem to have been created completely independently.

In 2002, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos came out, and gleefully trampled all over traditional RPG tropes. After the orcs fled across the sea to new lands in order to escape persecution, they began building settlements, only to be attacked by a civilisation of mostly female purple-skinned elves. These night elves launched a campaign of guerilla warfare, appearing out of nowhere to slay orcs with arrows and throwing stars before melting back into the shadows. It was eventually revealed that these elves were not evil, and were merely trying to stop the orcs from cutting down the forest which was actually their home. They were nocturnal moon-worshippers, whose religion actually had a lot in common with the 'light' worshipped amongst humans. Inverting the normal stories even more, the night elves tuned out to be the original elves - the light-skinned high elf allies of the humans were a younger offshoot, descended from night elves exiled for practicing banned arcane magic. Of all the games featuring dark elves, Warcraft seems to be the only one where the vast majority of dark elves are inherently good.

In 2009, the Pathfinder RPG was launched, Based on the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons, it's drow are nearly identical to D&Ds, the only difference being the identity of the god they follow. Though they initially came into existence after a group of elves pledged their allegiance to the evil god Asmodeus, any elf that is evil enough will spontaneously turn into a drow. Conversely, a good drow will spontaneously transform into an elf. Though this does seem a bit odd, it means that there are no good drow in Pathfinder, thus maintaining their identity as a culture of evil creatures.

A couple of years ago, Warhammer Fantasy released a series of books named 'The End Times', in which it was revealed that Malekith was actually the true heir to the Phoenix Throne of the high elves. The books even gave him a partial redemption arc on his was to reclaiming said throne – though this mostly involved him deciding to not instantly murder anyone who disagreed with him, because that might upset some of his newfound allies. Malekith was one of the few characters to survive the End Times, becoming the god of Shadow in the new Warhammer universe crated after the destruction of the original. After this he renamed himself Malerion, which conveniently distances him from the Marvel Malekith. The former dark elf army has been split into a few factions that are actually now allied with the forces of Order, living primarily in the cities of Azyr and Anvilgard alongside their human and dwarven allies. Most prominent are the Daughters of Khaine. Whilst you may think that fanatical worshippers of the elven of of murder would not make great allies, in practice, they focus their efforts on killing demons and the undead, and are quite effective at it.

After Tolkein's novels heavily influenced the fantasy genre, elves, who were formerly depicted in folklore dangerous and capricious, became automatically aligned with good, and often their danger and inhumanity got played down in a lot of rpgs and strategy games. Dark elves bring those old traditions right back into the fantasy world, and in the case of Warcraft and Warhammer, have divorced both race from being aligned with good or evil. You can get good dark elves, and conversely, evil light elves, which is a lot more believable.

Dungeoneering: The Death Lord

Originally published in issue 4 of 'The Scene Unseen' newsletter.

It's been a long time since a goblin rogue, a merfolk cleric, a human knight and a dragonblood sorcerer first met, saved the small town of Stoneforge from a band of maurauding goblins, and learned that on Zendikar, everything is always out to kill you. I've been running the Pathfinders of Zendikar campaign for one and a half years now, and as it draws to a close, I find myself thinking of all the unexpected stuff has happened. Where once the continent of Tazeem was an untamed wilderness with only brief descriptions of notable places, a few characters from the card, and just three mentioned gods, it now has a fully fleshed out fortified town, three cities, and many interesting people and places.

At first I was very hesitant to add things to Zendikar that were not estabished lore. But in the case of gods, I had to, as the Pathfinder mechanics for clerics require their existance, and for them to each be tied to various domains and alignments.  Needing a lawful neutral god, I created the death god Vaasgoth, and built his identity in a way that facilitated playing a vampire from the non-evil Clan Kalastria. Vampires on Zendikar imitate many aspects of undeath without actually being undead, and can survive perfectly well on the blood of animals, allowing them to choose not to hunt down humans and the other races for nourishment (though many of them do anyway). It was not really necessary, as we later discovered that playing as a vampire is hard on your allies, as your connection to the negative energy of death makes it difficult for healers to heal you. At any rate, Vaasgoth existed as a story hook. He was intended to be misremembered tales about the planeswalker Sorin Markov, and thus, not actually exist. A minor role if there ever was one.

It might seem strange to have a non-evil god of death, but Pathfinder had already gone down this route with their own death goddess. Pharasma is true neutral, sends the spirits of the dead off to their eternal reward (or punishment) without bias, and is adamant that dead things should remain dead, viewing undeath as a perversion of the natural order. Her followers hunt down the undead even more fanatically than paladins do. Vaasgoth is similar, but shifted towards the legalistic side, with a focus on enforcing the laws of mortality, and requiring those who walk close to death (like vampires) to act nobly, lawfully and ethically, lest they find this privilege taken away from them.

Vaasgoth ended up being not only the patron of Clan Kalastria, but also of the near-extinct Clan Sorn, a house I created on the spur of the moment to save a player character from death, now a house reborn after the marriage of Dragor Sorn to Tyri Kalastria. Vaasgoth then branched out into other races, being linked to the death-revering (but ultimately useful) Mul Daya elves led by the shaman Mira Sarith. And of course, hovering quietly in the background the whole time was Stoneforge's resident mistrusted ogre, Victor Creed, who turned out to be a rather pleasant and knowledgeable High Inquisitor of Vaasgoth, and eventually granted my players a boon that makes it harder for them to die. (Because I'm so good at killing players I need to give them extra resilience to stop it happening so much.)

And so, like the gods of Terry Prachett's Discworld, Vaasgoth exists because people believe in him. It was a thing that just happened because it needed to, but it turns out, it does have precedence in Magic, as the gods of Theros were revealed to work this way, and there are some hints that Amonkhet operates similarly. It also, usefully, gives me reason to divorce the only lore-mentioned gods - the merfolk deities Emeria, Ula and Cosi - from their origins as warped memories of the Eldazi Titans. They were based on them at first, but now they exist separately.

Vaasgoth's presence has spread rapidly due to in-game events, such as House Sorn and Creed uniting to build a temple in Stoneforge. The town, now heavily fortified after multiple attacks by giants and dragons, already had one to Emeria - meaning that it now has temples to two different lawful gods, an interesting development. One that will probably come up if people visit Stoneforge in my sequel campaign.

There is something to be said for having all of the mythology in place from the beginning. On the other hand, I think it is nice that my players have had a significant effect on the world in a way not directly related to killing a bunch of bad guys. House Sorn would still be a minor footnote in history without their actions, and Creed would not have had to reveal his true nature, making people look at ogres in a new light. The temple to Vaasgoth exists because of them, and their infuence spreads way beyond even this. Should they survive the final battle, they may very well show up as powerful allies (or even enemies) in future campaigns.