Dark Jack

The Prophecy

Oh, I've never actually played D&D either. I'm mainly familiar with it through its wiki (which I occasionally browsed for a while some time ago for some unfathomable reason) and the Neverwinter Nights-series.
I know that both Danish and Norwegian folklore have devils (plural) in them that are somewhat similar, though Danish folklore does occasionally have some very odd ways of labeling things. Nearly every creature in it is called either "troll" or "witch", with rarer mentions of dragons (such as in the legend of Beowulf) and devils. The labels don't mean much, though, since the descriptions vary so wildly that one can't really say what any of them are supposed to be. A witch can just as easily be a human as a completely inhuman monster, and trolls can be everything from humanlike forms to serpents. Going further back in time, our folklore instead starts to feature a lot of giants, jotun, lindworms and, to a much greater extent than relatively recent folklore, heroes. The only "dragon" we originally had was Nidhogg (which pretty much doubled as the Norse version of Hell, as it ate the worst criminals); the rest were lindworms, which were every bit as formidable as any dragon I've ever read about (perhaps even more so, as some lindworms are stated to be unable to die, spurring the Christian saviors (oh yes) to built churches on top of them and hallow the ground around them in order to weaken and imprison them). There were a lot of other old Norse creatures of myth and legend, of course (such as draugr, which the world was reminded of recently), but none appear as often as those.

The Prophecy

Eh, I guess the significance of the word "devil" can vary quite a bit. I mean yes, generally in religions of Earth "devil" is used about the primary force of "evil" or "sin" or whatever negative attribute is assigned to it, but even then I don't think I've ever perceived any "devil" as being at the same level as the god or gods of the affiliated religion, except by people worshiping the devil specifically. Usually the devil is created by the god(s) in question, and/or is reduced to a subversive role with little to no power beyond what it can exercise through the corruption of mortals. So while "devil" does usually describe a counterpart to a supposedly "good" deity (though I'd say that the "unsullied goodness" of the gods of real-world religions is at least as questionable as that of the gods in The Prophecy), I would in no way put the two as equals. The only case where a god and devil are equals that I can think of would be in Slavic mythology, and it's not even called the devil in that, so that's ultimately not even applicable. Eh...
And that is even just in regards to religions. Folklore from different parts of the world - I know that this is the case at least in Scandinavian folklore - "devil" is often used about relatively minor disruptive creatures that aren't even necessarily evil, but just mischievous. And if we delve into popular fictional universes - which is perhaps just as relevant, considering that's what the planes is - Dungeons & Dragons makes a point of demons and devils being equal in power, but engaged in eternal war with one another for dominion of (insert name of whatever name that realm/those realms was here), where the main difference between the two was (if I recall correctly) that demons represented "chaotic evil" and devils "lawful evil".

On a side note, because this got me thinking about it, I guess that if one had to assign that kind of alignment to the demonic factions of The Prophecy, Kreshtaat and the Death Clan would be "chaotic evil", and the Grand Master and the Infernal Empire would be "lawful evil".

The Prophecy

Original devils, devils whose nature embodies being a fully evil devil the most - archdevils? (As by nigh the definition of arch- as a prefix.)

Shienvien

Eh, to be honest I'm not even exactly sure what you suggest "archdevil" would denote. For starters, Prophecy devils are not all deities - in fact the vast majority of them are just the kind usually classified as greater demons - and not all evil deities are devils (with some instances of this being quite obvious, such as with Kreshtaat, who is, by Prophecy-definition, a demon). If "archdevil" were to denote devil deities, then, I would probably have to call the demon-deities "archdemon", which would also be the common name for all of them, since "demon" is the wider of the two terms. And somehow, especially archdemon, but to an extent also archdevil, at least makes me associate them more with archangels than with gods, which would still make them sound as "less".
I think that if I was making the Prophecy-universe today - because I'm quite beyond being willing to change it - my personal way of handling it would be to simply forgo distinction between the two opposites and refer to all of them - good and evil - as "gods".

The Prophecy

Ah, sanctification is also a thing in the Prophecy. While a blessing is like a "lightweight" invocation of the protection of a deity on that particular item - one that may cause discomfort for those directly related to other deities or even hurt them somewhat - and is usually very temporary, sanctification is sort of the heavier version of a blessing. Not only does it usually take a lot longer to sanctify something than to bless it, and it requires much more elaborate rituals to make it so, but sanctification is often permanent or near-permanent, and can only be removed through desecration of the sanctified item or area. The effect of sanctification is also much stronger than that of a blessing, though it won't affect as wide a variety of things (it can't disrupt energy, for instance, and won't particularly affect vampires beyond making them slightly uncomfortable), but will outright prevent other deities from acting against that which is sanctified at all. Places of worship are often sanctified, which also why Rilon needed Thaler to steal the White Rose for him, since he is literally incapable of acting within the Cathedral of Reina himself. Demonspawn are also somewhat affected by sanctification, as long as it is not in Himyth's name, since they possess the blood of a deity; for them, entering a sanctified area is not only nauseating and slightly painful, but weakens their powers and hinders their movement.
Objects that contain the energy of deities are not actually referred to as blessed in the Prophecy. Rather, an object containing the energy of a god is "divine", and an object with the energy of a demon lord is (you guessed it) "infernal". The term "cursed" is indeed used about harmful enchantments, usually caused by mortal magic, and "damned" is (as one might naturally assume) the opposite of "blessed", and can also be caused by gods and demon lords alike. In other words, it is that a deity decides to invoke their disapproval of a thing, which ironically also makes it difficult for other deities to affect the damned object. The main difference is that, whereas a blessed object will be under implied protection of a deity, a damned object will be rendered significantly more fragile and vulnerable.
It was actually my original idea to name the demon lords "devils", but it didn't end up that way because the term "devil" came to mean something else; a distinction not usually made by mortals, but is considered moderately significant in the Underworld. "Demon", to them, is basically the vast majority of demons, which is those created from dead spirits. "Devils" are the demons created by Ismyel in the Dawn of Time, the first of their kind and those whose definition of "evil" is derived directly from that of Ismyel, and as such represent the very worst of their kind. So yeah, demonic deities ended up being demon lords.

And yeah, the post is much better now. Sensing the nature of a spell, though? They can to an extent, yes... They can sense a lot about a spell just by how it feels (though comprehension of what they sense may not be instant, mind you; the ability to analyze what one senses, and doing so quickly, is something that needs to be learned), and in this case a sniffer would certainly be able to tell that it was a mind-affecting spell being cast... but not whether it was harmful or not. The energy-signature of the spell quite simply doesn't reflect that.

The Prophecy

Uh...

1) Since this spell is practically instantaneous, as well as... "homing?" I guess is the correct adjective? I am wondering if it's at all avoidable physically. Naturally, I assume the average human (or even skilled human) would be unable to dodge it, but since Morgan is a vampire/sniffer, the combination might give him the reaction time/speed to avoid the magic. This of course, is assuming that he was able to recover quickly enough to realize that he was being attacked by I'on and not focusing solely on the masked sister.

Rhaevnn Xeno

Though I wasn't familiar with the properties of that spell (meaning how fast it was moving and how effectively it was tracking), it could - in theory - be dodged. In theory, anything direction-based can be avoided, which includes manifestations as projectiles, though obviously there may be cases where movement is so stupidly fast or artificial intelligence is so single-minded that it isn't practically doable.
Actually, now that we're on the subject, it's quite unusual for a mind-affecting spell to be direction-based. Such spells are usually target-based, which effectively renders them unavoidable to the target.

2) Would Morgan be able to sense I'on's particular use of magic. It's true that Morgan would have already sensed a build up of his sigils and such, but can a sniffer realize the exact time magic is dispelled from its user? Or would the sniffer have to be quite skilled in his craft to realize such an occurrence is happening?

Rhaevnn Xeno

Yes, he would notice that the spell was being invoked; a sniffer's innate sense of magical energy is so keen that I'd say that any sniffer, no matter how inexperienced, would be aware of magic being cast near them. Sensing magic is what sniffers do, and no one does it better than them.

1) Do vampires have souls?

Mercinus3

Yes, they do. As Shien said, Prophecy-vampires are not undead (which is also correctly stated to be a moot point, since undead have souls (or at least magical energy, in the case of reanimated dead), too).

2) Do Banes count as blessed weapons or are they just magic-imbued ones?

Mercinus3

Bane weapons are not blessed, no (and ironically, in the Prophecy, a thing can be "blessed" by gods and demon lords alike; the property here actually describes a certain kind of ownership of the blessed object or area to the deity bestowing this blessing, which can in some cases cause the implied presence of said deity to disrupt adjacent unstable energy-structures, but more importantly renders the blessed thing very difficult to interact with to other deities (on that note, vampires are, in fact, unaffected by blessings from Rilon, just as demonspawn are unaffected by blessings from Himyth)). Bane weapons are made by fusing weapons with Stones of the Doom Mage, which are in turn made (primarily) through black magic, so their nature is (primarily) the result of mortal magic.
Now that I think about it, it occurs to me that I never mentioned that Banes are cold to the touch... and the areas near them in the immediate vicinity of the inserted Stone(s) is very cold.

1.) Can he preform a simpler spell similar to the AoE one mentioned rather than preforming 2.

yoshua171

I'd say Shien's answer was pretty adequate, so I'll leave it at that.

The Prophecy

Eh, as much as I want to accommodate I'on being a skilled mage and everything, casting two spells with so many words - several of which are long and/or pretty to pronounce right, and even more with difficult-to-weave runes associated with them - within a period of, what, three seconds or thereabout... it seems inhuman, to say the least, and even more so that neither of them blew up in his face in the attempt. It's quite simply just too much in too little time.

Also, in the magic of The Prophecy, "more words" does not equal "more powerful", or even necessarily "more effective". Power - which is to say the amplitude of the effect conjured - is controlled purely by the amount of energy poured into the spell in arcane magic. What spells with longer incantation gain isn't that, but rather complexity and, in many cases, a sort of expanded "artificial intelligence". More words in a spell supplies the magic with more elaborate instructions, allowing them to manifest as effects much more advanced. Whereas the fireball-spell (Purthev cowath thagir meethal dregoth. "Summon [a] powerful explosive ball [of] fire.") just gives the instructions "be a ball of fire and explode", for instance, bonds of the land (Thoph smaiwe gohn grumert sonedth, tuagar eren meethal caihl menrirl, lemesatheli dweneth lemesatheli, dweneth sonedth meethal xarthliir caihl menrirl, kohrx harteor dweneth, lemesatheli brega, jhoon cowath. "Summon [the] hardness of stone, small [and] flat spheres [with] holes [of] air, copy [and] lock [these together and] copy [again], lock [together] strongly [with a] cylinder penetrated [by] air, alternately open [or] locked, copy all, [put it in] my power.") not only creates a much more complicated form (in this case, shackles) but also supplies it with a set of instructions on how exactly to act after being invoked. So, eh... the point I'm trying to make is that "longer spell = more likely to work" is not always true. Yeah.

Also, just in case this wasn't clear (I think I told Ashgan about it a long time ago, but I'll go again), spells can't be made up on the spot, nor can one just slap an extra word or ten on a spell they know to change it. A spell has a certain incantation, and if that incantation is used, it will be conjured; any variation from that incantation, and it won't work (in fact it is, once again, liable to blow up in your face for trying).

The Prophecy

Zerul City, the Drunken Dove

The blue haired deo'iel was surprised when Morgan rushed up to her just before she would have passed through the doorway, but she was completely terrified when he pushed her away from it, her face and soul both shamelessly portraying the depth of her horror, as through the hand forcing her aside had instead been a white-hot poker on her skin. Even that might not have been a very good analogy, though, for she felt no pain - and even if she did, the name Himyth had given her had made her quite accustomed to such - but only a sharp and all-consuming fear the like of which she could not imagine being caused by anything else.
"No!" she exclaimed, her voice betraying her panic as much as everything else about her as she looked around frantically, disoriented and dazed by how unexpected this situation was and how scared it had made her. Her eyes were intermittently flashing white from their center, but her power was not fully activating. She was not listening to a word Morgan said, because she knew - with extreme certainty - that unless she located her sister right now, chances were that nothing he said would even matter. Oh no, no, please no! "Reina's mercy! Don't -"

A short ways down the hallway beyond the door, Morgan's rebellious monologue had made the other deo'iel slow her limping stride some and had her half-turn, looking over her shoulder to keep an eye on her sister, and the sight of her blue-haired sibling being roughly shoved aside, and of someone placing himself between the sisters, made her turn around entirely and face back towards the common room. For about a second, the masked sister just stared back down the hallway, trying to process what had just happened and what the current situation was. Her sister was much weaker than her, she knew; she was faster and nimbler, certainly, and had the ability to render anything relying on demonic power almost completely impotent, but she was greatly lacking in brute strength. The masked sister was the "muscle" of their partnership, the one doing most of the fighting; her body - grotesquely mutated as it was under her clothes - was difficult to move properly, but she did not fight with her body. She did not have to move to fight. She did not have to lift a finger.
Watching someone else bullying her beloved sister, the only person in the planes she cared about, the only one she loved, was enough to light a spark of rage in her heart that sent torrents of demon-blood rushing through her veins, but the fact that he went to separate them was what made her lose her calm. She needed her sister by her side, always, until the end. Her sister could not be put in danger. I have to protect her. She has to live, and I will destroy anything that tries to get in the way of that.
Her eyes shone with brown light, much clearer than before, and the building shook for just a second. Morgan was unbelievably lucky to have decided to take a step backward from the blue-haired deo'iel, because in the next instant the floor was rapidly slammed upward where he had just been standing, the floorboards shattering from the sheer force so that wooden splinters flew everywhere. The broken floor gave way to what appeared to be a cylindrical pillar that appeared to have been formed from hundreds, if not more, of smaller bits of rock and stone of the sort one would expect to find in the soil, with ordinary dirt filling the space between them. The pillar ascended incredibly fast and would probably still at least stagger Morgan, if not knock him off his feet entirely, and only stopped when it slammed against the ceiling with enough force that it would have continued upward unimpeded, had she not willed it to stop. Had Morgan not moved, he would either have been upstairs by then and in a very bad shape or, more likely, would simply have been crushed against the ceiling.
"Don't touch her!" she cried hoarsely, ignoring the frightened shouting and screaming from the common room, where the patrons and innkeeper were starting to flee for their lives. The building continued to tremble slightly, and across from them the pillar of soil was reshaping itself into a three-inch thick wall; not one that blocked the door, but simply one that separated Morgan from the blue-haired sister.

The Prophecy

Unless someone else in the Drunken Dove-scene is going to intervene instantly - as in, within two or three seconds of Morgan pushing the blue-haired sister away from the door - I think I'll have to post next.

The Prophecy

The Duchy of Zerul, by a road in southwest

Jaelnec almost went immediately to offer Thaler his guidance in getting to the clearing across the trees, but unsurprisingly Olan - always eager to help and much closer to her as he was - took her hand before the squire had even moved from the spot.
"This way," he said, leading her by the hand and gesturing for Jaelnec to show him the way. Jaelnec started to make to retrieve the donkey and raven instead, but discovered that the two of them were already heading their way. The raven made a hoarse noise that almost sounded impatient, as though it was hurrying them along. Weird...
The walk was short and quick, and soon the three of them arrived to find Aemoten, Etakar and their new acquaintances just where the young Nightwalker had left them.
"We're here," he said, more for Thaler's benefit than to announce their arrival to the ones already occupying the area. Stopping near where he had left Aemoten and Domhnall, with Olan and Thaler not far behind him, he gestured at the older Nightwalker and the Daywalker, indicating them to Domhnall and Iridiel. "This is Olan... well, just Olan, I guess," he shrugged, unsure how to introduce the ageless man. "And this is Thaler, apprentice in the Knighthood of the Will."

---

Zerul City, the Drunken Dove

"If you don't want to talk, we're not going to force you," the blue-haired sister assured them, patting the air with a weary smile, even as her masked sibling started hobbling her way after I'on, heading to their private room without even bothering to check if they were following. "We don't really have any authority over you, anyways, and whoever you are or whatever you've done to make those guards decide to dump you on us, we don't care. The deo'iel don't enforce laws or hunt criminals, we hunt monsters." She sighed. "But if you're telling the truth about meeting who you said you met, I think it'd be a good idea if we talked... or you could end up getting a whole lot of people killed, including yourselves."
The blue-haired demonspawn turned to leave as well then, following her sister as they headed to their private room - which was on the ground floor, just a few doors down the hallway they were heading for - to hopefully make these people realize just why them having met the Fixer was such a big deal. The Fixer never spares a witness, she thought sadly, thinking about the deo'iel she had heard had met the Grand Master's nefarious right-hand man, most of whom were dead now. He only ever saves them for later.

As she walked, her gaze fell on her sister's shrouded form in front of her, and she felt her heart grow heavy with sadness at the same time as it was warmed by the fondness she felt for her. Many people - most, probably - would be surprised to know that such a thing was even a part of a demonspawn's emotional repertoire in the first place, but she loved her sister dearly, and she knew that her sister - at her core, deep beneath the corruption of her demon blood - loved her as well. The two of them had always been together, right from the day of their birth, and everything they had done, they had done as partners.
Joining the deo'iel had been the masked sister's idea, and the blue-haired one had been fiercely against it, citing that their mother - their real mother, not the Dread Mother - would be against it as well, if they told her. But the masked one had convinced her, eventually, that they had to do something; that simply hiding in some remote place at the edge of the world would not do anyone any good, least of all themselves. She wanted to make a difference and prove that even demonspawn could make the world a better place, if only they received the right guidance and support, and if only they had someone they loved to lean on when times got hard.
People who looked at her sister only saw the monster she had become, though... which saddened her immensely. They saw how her form had been twisted and her mind made wicked by the use of her demon-power, but never stopped to think what it really meant. Other demonspawn made the decision not to use their abilities to avoid corrupting themselves, to avoid becoming progressively more evil until they lost themselves to the sinister essence of Himyth within them, but her sister decided to use her power to hunt the dangerous ones, the ones that did not care who they hurt or killed, or whether they tainted themselves by tapping into the infernal power of their blood. She sacrificed herself to the evil within so that she could protect others from evils with less restraint... and one day, when she could no longer control herself - or no longer cared enough to control herself, rather - her blue-haired sister had to be there. She had promised her sister years ago that when that day came, she would kill her. Only she could do it; no one else had the power to kill her sister.
She had not exaggerated much when she had she had warned the masked demonspawn against destroying the city; though she probably - hopefully - would not be able to do so simply by letting her emotions trigger her power or losing her cool for a second, there was no doubt that the masked sister was capable of such a thing. If she put her mind to it, she could probably wipe the entirety of Zerul City from the map within a few minutes; reduce it to rubble, shift the entire area into the sea, letting it be swallowed by the ground... The masked sister's power was enormous and terrifying, which was what made it so vital that Gaath was not allowed to sneak up on them, especially if he got to both of them; that would very likely make him nearly invincible.
Luckily, her sister was not so far gone yet that she would do such a thing; in fact she did not think that her sister would even kill a single innocent, if it could at all be avoided. And the second such was not true anymore...

The Prophecy

Anyone else has something to add in the Drunken Dove-scene before the transition to the sisters' room?