Immortality paths ================= When you start, you must petition your chosen sponsor at a particularly holy spot, usually giving a gift. An artifact is a hugely valuable gift, but not required. The sphere of the sponsor determines your (future) sphere. Obviously, turning up and asking, say, Alphaks to be your sponsor, may not be such a good idea. Having a sponsor that likes you is handy, but not required. And even if you are a priest of theirs, the deity may say no. To petition a deity, you don't have to offer anything, but deities tend to be more pleased if you do. Gifts are normally pretty expensive - 25,000gp or more. Gifts should be appropriate too, rather than just random treasure. There are 5 spheres of power: Energy, Thought, Time, Matter, and Entropy. Every immortal is in one of those spheres. The sphere matters quite a bit. For a start, immortals are best off making sure their own sphere is well looked after, as it helps them: Thought favors warior types. Time favors divine casters. Matter favors noone. Energy probably favors arcane casters. Entropy appears to favor noone. The spheres correspond roughly to elements and alignments: Matter - Law - Earth Energy - Chaos - Fire Time - Neutral - Water Thought - Good - Air Entropy - Evil To achieve immortality normally requires achieving a (long, hard) quest, the details of which vary by sphere. For Energy, it's the Path of the Paragon. You have to have some apprentices, make a new kind of magic or item, and be known as the best in the region - which normally means beating people up until they cry enough. The paragon also has to alter the land around their home, making it unique. For Thought, it's the Path of the Epic Hero. You have to have a famous weapon, one which becomes a legend in it's own right. You must live up to the ideals of the epic hero. You must quest for an artifact of the sphere of Entropy, and destroy it. You also have to complete a nearly impossible task, such as drive all dragons from the sky, or make a flying city, or something like that. Time is the Path of the Dynasty. You must have a land of at least 50,000 people under your rule. You must have a grandchild (or have adopted one) as your heir. You must quest for an artifact of time. You must protect your land throughout time. Matter is the Path of the Polymath. You are reincarnated in 4 different bodies, with 4 different skill sets. You must quest each time in each body. You must have a companion of one of each of the four core groups (arcane caster, warrior, divine caster, sneak) with you while doing this. The polymath is one of the "easiest", since it's standard adventuring. The individual quests are quite hard. The Pachydermions won't tell Tess about the path of Entropy, but Tess creeps around the library to research it. Unlike the other paths, Entropy has several choices: - The Path of the Dungeon Keeper requires that you build a dungeon and stock it with creatures to kill adventurers. - The Path of the Archvillain requires the destruction of a powerful artifact of Thought, train a successor, and complete some nearly impossible task - like making an item which will drain the lifeforce of an entire town. You need to defeat your successor when he rebels against you. - The Path of the Conqueror requires invading another realm and converting them. You must rule all sentient beings within 500 miles. You must ensure that the empire doesn't outlive you - by declaring no successor, or multiple successors, etc. - The Path of the Fiend is the betrayers path. You must gain the trust of a variety of people - fighters, mages, etc - then betray them one by one. Plus corrupt a large group or nation. The rest of the party have guessed (after some prompting) that Mylertendal of the city of Aasla appears to have taken the path of the paragon. She is a very powerful mage who lives in Aasla. 300 years ago she started a program of beautification in Aasla, which made shockwaves through Alphatian society which have never quite gone away. The entire city is covered with artwork, it's hard to throw a rock and not hit art (or an artist). Grey, who has made an exensive study of religion these days, worked out what he thinks the sphere of some deities are: - Matter: Garal, Diamond (leader of the Dragon deities, ruler of all lawful Dragons), Kagyar (Dwarves), Terra aka Gaea, The Great One (ruler of all Dragon kind) - Energy: Alphatia (Alphatia, art, magic), Razud (self-sufficiency, magic), Thor, Rathanos (fire, magic), Eiryndul (Alfeish elves), Tarastia (justice, revenge) - Time: Vanya (warfare), Petra, Ordana (forests), Khoronous (time), Protius aka Old Man of the Sea, Calithia Starbrow (Monthrothad elves, the sea) - Thought: Diulanna (willpower), Freyja, Odin, Asterius aka Apollo (trade, thieves), Koryis, Noumena (puzzles, tactics) - Entropy: Alphaks, Hel (reincarnation, undead), Thanatos (destruction of all life), Nyx (undead), Demogorgon, Orcus There are also (weak) alignment tendancies as well. What are the nominal alignment tendencies for the spheres? Entropy and Thought are clearly opposed, Entropy having tendencies to Evil, and Thought having tendencies to Good. The other spheres (Matter, Energy, and Time) seem neutral with respect to each other. Rafiel is patron of the Shadow Elves, but what sphere is he? Dave's initial guess is probably Energy, Matter or Time for Rafiel. After research in the library, Tess does not have any better idea of what sphere Rafiel might be. It is hard to say really: Time - maybe; Thought - possible; Energy - also possible; Matter - probably not; Entropy - well, some might think so. Tess is pretty sure that Rafiel is not Entropy. Tess decides that he should just trust that Rafiel will know whether Rafiel's path suits Tess or not. Note that this narrows it down to being most likely Energy or Time for Rafiel. Norse update from 20040922 session and later ============================================ Grey and Lani's petitions for quests for immortality have been done. Thora petitioned Freyja, and thus is taking the Path of the Epic Hero. Grey petitioned Vanya, and is taking the Path of the Dynasty. Lani presumably is taking the Path of the Paragon. A book fell off a bookshelf hitting Zim's head, opening to a page on the Sphere of Matter. Zim isn't intending to petition yet - he plans to do so after everyone else has finished their quests, since the Pathy of the Polymath won't take long. Safranna, Roland and Turia all haven't petitioned yet, and mostly haven't yet decided what sphere to try for yet, assuming they even do so. If Tess intends to petition Rafiel for immortality, that will mean this quest will be based on whatever Rafiel's sphere is. So Tess doesn't yet know what Tess would be doing for the quest. Tess can either directly ask Rafiel's sphere, or just assume "Rafiel will guide me". The Path of the Epic Hero may be best suited to Tess.