Next up: the ambiguous icons in Lingusia's Age of Strife. There are more of these than heroic icons....hmmmm....
The Lich King – Laikhanamen (Ambiguous– TN)
The Lich
King was once the greatest wizard of the realm but fell to the passions of the
Unseelie Queen centuries ago, such that he was driven to seek out immortality
that he would be “alive” for the time of her mortal return to the world. That
time is now, and the Lich King is as much a pawn to the Unseelie Queen as he is
an agent of his own necromantic self interest in the current era. The lich king
has little interest in the current field of politics, but craves power and the
expansion of his personal empire of undeath.
If you serve the Lich King: you are
either obsessed with death or the darker passions of the soul and admire the
Lich King for what he offers….or you are a poduct of necromancy, doomed to obey
him forever more.
The High Druid – Zama (Ambiguous TN)
Zama was an
elder druid who became hierophant during the last great war against the
Crusader a century earlier. The war devastated his homeland in the Niras
Forest, and motivated the druids of Niras to grow wary of outsiders and the
threats they pose. Today, Zama’s influence as grand hierophant of his order is
to create a sense of seclusion and remoteness in the forestlands of his
dominion, and he relies on his agents to insure that any threat to the
wellspring of the forest, which is the very embodiment of the god Niras’s
spirit, be protected from outsiders.
If you serve the High Druid: you are a
druid yourself, or a simple elf, gnome or other denizen of the Niras Forest,
who has felt the calling of the High Druid or the spirit of the woods and felt
a need to protect the land from those who would ravage it. You might be a
ranger or other agent of the Knights of Kom’Huandyr, a dedicated order of
rangers in the woods who seek to defend the realm of the empire and
specifically the province of Niras which encompasses all of the woods from
outside invaders.
The Unseelie Queen – Corrigan (Ambiguous – CN)
Corrigan was
believed to be destined for resurrection by her elite cabal of unseelie elven
knights, but it was in fact the schemes of her paramour, the Lich King, that
allowed her to be reborn. Corrigan walks the land again, a dangerous threat as
she weaves her enchantments to lure dark elves and vile feykin into her web of
control. She is barred from entry into the heart of the Weirding by the Court
of Titania, and her unseelie agents are left deep in the mirelands and the
briars of the outer Arboreal darkness, where the feywild touches the
shadowfell.
If you serve the Unseelie Queen: you
felt the call and your fey blood could not resist. If you are no fey, then you
are attracted to what she stands for, the liberation of the spirit from the
rules of the world. The unseelie queen is a mysterious force in the age of
strife but she stands against both order and chaos.
The Elf Queen – Mithrielle (Ambiguous – NG)
Mithrielle
rules Sylvias in the south and seeks to make her empire strong against the many
forces of evil and chaos in the world. She is half-sister to the empress
Phyxillus, but feels an unreasonable level of rivalry for her successful
half-sister in the north. Under Mithrielle the elves have attained great power,
but their enmity toward other lesser races is at an all time high. Actions in
the name of the Elf Queen are to secure of the elven empire and its many
outlying tribes and cities in the world, even at the expense of the lesser
races.
If you serve the Elf Queen: you stand
not only against the enemies of the elvish kingdom, but against those who would
seek to destroy the venerable lineage of the world itself in the name of power.
You are likely either a selenic knight in the elven courts, a preservationist
working in secret in foreign lands against the enemies of elvenkind, or a
huntsman knight on the frontiers of Sylvias defending the outlying cities and
tribes of all elves, both silver and wood.
The great
gold wyrm of this era is Drakon Shaikor, the most powerful of the gold dragons
of the eastern clans. His influence is deep among dragonkind, and many say he
has the ear of the Council of Wyrms itself, a secret society of the eldest
dragons in the world who still remain free of the controlling machinations of
the Wyrmlords. As may be expected, Shaikor and his allies revere Bahamut first
and foremost.
If you serve the Great Gold Wyrm:
dragons alone do not serve the Great Gold Wyrm. Wizened sages, sorcerers who
envy the gold’s power, dragonborn who wish to ally themselves with the agents
of Bahamut and others will readily offer fealty to the Great Gold Wyrm.
The Prince of Shadows – Wormie Vellsoth
(Ambiguous – CG)
The
enigmatic guild master of the Black Lotus gang and avatar of the the god Hermes
is the undisputed shadow prince of the Age of Strife era. Wormie as his friends
call him (because his enemies are all dead, as he says) is a wood elf of
roughly two centuries in age who has become the master of secret lore and
information in the land, and his agents are tasked with gathering such esoteric
knowledge to greater purpose. Despite his nature as a thief and grafter, Wormie
uses his agents to further the interests of the pantheons of order and death
over chaos; there is no profit in chaos.
If you serve the Prince of Shadows: you
are one of the thieves, burglars, scoundrels and grifters of the world with a
heart of gold, looking to your local thieve’s guild or possibly even THE
thieve’s guild of the Prince of Shadows himself, the legendary Black Lotus
Guild. From there you have earned enough trust and cred to find your services
as a gatherer of information and protector of the civilized world to be useful
to your liege.
The Assassin - Celiobantes Astiriate (Ambiguous – NE)
In many ways
Celiobantes Astiriate is like Wormie, though the two are unrelated. Clawing his
way up through the ranks of the Fire Knives, Celiobantes is a master of
assassins and chief high priest of the assassin god Haro. Like the Black Lotus,
the Fire Knives still commit to a dedication to order, albeit through murder as
a tool of conflict resolution. The Fire Knives are usually regarded as agents
of chaos by most…and they have been known to side with cultists of chaos, which
their dark god is ostensibly one of, but true scholars of Haro know that the
god considers himself above the petty cliques of the pantheons.
If you serve the Assassin: a few
independent operators exist who worship Haro, but universally if you serve the
Assassin then you belong to the Fire Knives. The Fire Knives are expansive,
with tendrils stretching across two continents and even into the Planar Realms,
conducting murder in the name of their vile god. So if you hold this icon as
your liege, then you must of necessity be proficient at murder most foul.
Next: the villaonous icons at last!
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