- Location
- ?????????
Well that would a fun realization for the Seven and their champions. Now I kinda want to go even further east some more. Later though. Much later.
Last edited:
A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
-
- Tags
- a song of ice and fire a sword without a hilt d&d 3.5 dungeons & dragons 100% high octane dragon fuel ave corvidae battle action dragon diplomacy best sister bureaucromancy delicious soul-stuff dragon dreams come true dragon ta'veren greatest uncle hubris is a coward's word in defiance of gods and men mammon's folly mutually assured mage's disjunction qm murderhobo top tier coatl
Well that would a fun realization for the Seven and their champions. Now I kinda want to go even further east some more. Later though. Much later.
- Location
- florida
The faceless and the red god are the two biggest exceptions I can think of, but the 7 kind of made to live virtuously their central theme.
I think the moon singers would be freedom? The weeping goddesses kindness.
Which are virtues, but they focus on doing good works, rather than living your life a certain way.
Hell if the 7 promise an eternal afterlife to go with the Rakshasa eternal earthly existence...
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
...Might be wrong here, but are you talking about that "all cool gods of ours are actually (aspects of) one and the same"-thing?
Because that'd be an asshole move to do to them.
Like, a huge one.
:/
I'd actively act against letting that particular heresy spread, if it ever makes big enough to appear on-screen.
Interlude in beta.
- Location
- florida
For serious this time, anyone come up with any non evil pragmatic meritocracies in DnD/asoiaf? @Azel @DragonParadox maybe a skill/knowledge roll?
I have to be missing one.
Cause the only one I thought of will be... Well it would be a really funny bomb to drop at our next meeting. Though I'd rather see a more solid example.
I have to be missing one.
Cause the only one I thought of will be... Well it would be a really funny bomb to drop at our next meeting. Though I'd rather see a more solid example.
Interlude CDLXXXI: On New Wings Arising
On New Wings Arising
Twentieth Day of the Ninth Month 293 AC
Azema entered the freshly opened university dining hall humming happily, and not just because she could smell her one of her favorite meals—steamed veal with a side of carrots with cumin and olive oil. Of course there was no real reason for her to wait upon the university cooks for anything, she had the coin to ensure that she ate practically anything that struck her fancy, so long as it was not willfully obscure, but she had come here to enjoy the company of great artists and thinkers more than to indulge the senses. That she could have the latter too was a happy accident.
"Ah... master Ryland, I am pleased to have caught you," the Alu Demon smiled cheerfully at the small greying painter, careful to moderate the expression so as not to make him stutter and blush as he would at any hint that someone may be flirting with him. "Your work at yesterday's oils exposition was marvelous. A breath of fresh air among all the dragons, battle scenes, and mythical re-imaginings."
"I would say the entire event was marvelous, my lady," the painter replied with what Azema had come to realize was that most uncommon of virtues, genuine humility. "The best exposition I have been at in years, though of course that sort of excitement can have its troubles, too."
"Troubles?" the woman on his left, Thea of Volon Therys, the Academy's foremost grammatician asked. "What do you mean?" It was clear she wanted to offer sympathy but did not know quite how to do it.
"No... you misunderstand. It was the young lady, Lynesse I think was her name. It was her first time showing a painting in such a public setting and she was quite overcome with emotion," Ryland replied, trying to busy himself with his plate again to end the conversation.
"What sort of emotion?" Azema asked instantly. The girl's painting had been quite well received. Surely she had not been expecting it to be the centerpiece of the event?
"I'm... er, not entirely sure," the painter said a touch instinctively. "I only caught a glimpse of her really, but..."
Azema sighed and shook her head, resolving to look into the matter after lunch.
***
Lady Lynesse Hightower said all the right words and smiled to the expected degree, but sitting or standing she looked like she was being fitted with a dress and wary of the seamstress' needles. A mask, and a brittle one at that. It would have been so easy to break seemingly by accident, but Azema decided to take a more direct approach for once. "Is something the matter with the academy or the exposition? Was someone unkind about your work?"
"No, it's not..." The young woman cut herself off, unable to meet Azema's eyes. For a moment she looked to all the world more like she was twelve than twenty. "They were too kind." After only a moment's pause she rushed on. "That is such a stupid thing to complain about, forget I said anything."
"You are too beautiful..." The words spoken long ago by a half-forgotten voice floated to the fore of the Alu Demon's mind. She knew how compliments could become poison.
"It's not stupid. Tell me." The last came out as more of a command than she had intended.
It seemed to be the right approach, though, since Lynesse answered at once even as her mask of false cheer collapsed into anxiety and strain that seemed to lessen even so slightly as she spoke. "People would come up to me and congratulate me on the painting, they would ask a few questions about the composition or the hues, and then they would start talking about Oldtown... about the Hightower... One even asked specifically about Baelor. It was like the only part of the canvas they really cared about was the one with the name 'Hightower' on it. I can't... I'm sorry, my lady, but I can't do this anymore. I'm detracting from the works of better artists..."
"Bullshit," Azema cut her off before she could dig herself any deeper into doubt and self-loathing. As she had hoped the crude expression startled Lynesse out of her self-deprecating spiral. "I think your landscapes are wonderfully evocative, you do more with the interplay of wood and vale, earth and sky than many manage filling their canvas with scores of fripperies and distractions. I assure you I would have thought that four years ago, too, before I even knew what House Hightower was."
"Before you knew of House Hightower?" the girl asked, bewildered. "But how?"
And there goes your cover, oh great inquisitor, Azema told herself, annoyed at the slip. Yet instead of the usual lie to stitch together the gap she found herself saying. "I was actually born a lot farther afield than I led you to believe." She remembered the Dragon's words. This was a place she could walk openly. Perhaps I could step towards that now and in so doing keep Lynesse from abandoning her passion. It was the sort of hope she had not indulged in a long time indeed, the sort that cut deeper than steel when the world betrayed it.
Azema trusted it anyway. She willed the transformation of her ribbon to fade, her wings to unfurl behind her and horns to spring from her brow. "How do the stories go? I was born a long time ago in a land far away..." She tried to smile, but it was a wan thing.
"W-why are you telling me this?" the young woman stuttered.
At least she was not running away screaming, the Alu Demon thought. "Because I wanted you to know your work moved me after living a dozen lifetimes and more seeing beauty used only as a tool, as a weapon. What you did was born of the soul's desire to create, to speak the truths of your heart, and it would be a pity for you to stop."
"Thank you..." The voice was faint, though the gratitude in it was real just the same.
"After a few years here you might travel to the city of the Djinn or the Shaitan," Azema offered. "I can assure you no one would notice you for the wrong reasons there."
"No... that's alright," Lady Lynesse said with new determination. "I'll stay... I'll stay and paint."
Azema becomes Chaotic Neutral
OOC: This has been a long time coming, years of sauntering vaguely upwards until we got to the point of not only being less sadistic, but able to trust enough to show genuine kindness.
Last edited:
Well ASOIAF has a distinct scarcity of anything truly good and most D&D settings have a warped sense of what morality even is so I would not trust of the states it calls good. Maybe something in Eberon? That is saner than FR at least.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And the Illuminati are a front for the good aligned forces. You see, because GOOD doesn't get shit done, they need someone to dirty their hands on good's behalf ...
- Location
- Castle
D´aaaawww Azema got a friend and is now Chaotic Neutral.
Otoh, Oh fuck Azema is now chaotic neutral.
Otoh, Oh fuck Azema is now chaotic neutral.
- Location
- Argentina
*Girly scream*
I'm so fucking happy.
Now we will be able to shove it into Lucan's face. Try to detect evil. I dare you.
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
For real though, good for her.
I suppose that it couldn't have gone another way with the influences we've been exposing her to.
I'm glad to see SD become more educated in more than just magic, too.
Great chapter, @DragonParadox (...and @Azel?)
Shwaggy
Weapon of Math Instruction
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- he/him/his
This was wonderful, and I really like how her shift wasn't due to some cataclysmic event, or ridiculously high diplomacy roll, but instead the culmination of small things, reinforcing each other and building up over time until the right trigger sets off a realization that you're not who you used to be anymore. Bravo, DP.
She would still detect as evil, she is after all still a demon. That said what was done here transcends shoving it in anyone's face.
- Location
- florida
Well poop. @Azel got anything for me? Who's got good DnD lore here...
I mean she might when she finds out, but...
Eh. I'm happy for her.
the alignment change isn't as big a deal to me as her taking the chance and being rewarded was.
I also thought Yss changed her to a native outsider?
- Location
- Germany
That's not the same as stopping to be a Demon. Had he changed that, she would now have a lot more scales and no particular need for shoes anymore.
- Location
- Philippines
Not really. More like, your Seven sucks. Mine has a giant Snake and a horde of unruly ghosts in it
egoo
Totally Not Creating Problems Where None Existed
- Location
- Russia
Eeeh, I'm largely partial to making an unofficial pantheon from most useful gods, but trying to push this sort of narrative...Not really. More like, your Seven sucks. Mine has a giant Snake and a horde of unruly ghosts in it
Well, Seven themselves are a great example why that's a bad idea in the long run.
People already swear by Snake, Tree and Sea.
Getting Storm, Moon and... erm, Tears (Weeping Lady)?.. in that number would be more than enough for me.
Trying to connect them together narratively... eh.
At most, I'd take them all getting Divine Contract'ed (with Yss' help) to Imperial Dream like a huge battery for them to draw upon.
lockingbane
If you're crazy and you know it clap your hands!
- Location
- Waxahachie tx
Glad to see one of our resident demons has finally moved beyond her hellish origins.
- Location
- Germany
She is the only Demon and comes from the Abyss.
The other ladies you probably think of are Devils and actually do come from Hell.