IS there a way to be redeemed from the curse of Azrai?

[Lawgiver]

If you have been cursed with the blood of Azrai is there a way to redeem yourself? If so do you lose your bloodline altogether or does it simply change derivation?

[Arch-Sorcerer Gargamel]

Don't some Ershegh have the taint of Azrai? I forget. I think the curses of Azrai should be able to be redeemed after hard work and sacrifice. Its all up to the DM, though.

[Riegan Swordwraith]

I wouldn't think so.....

However just because the Blood of Azrai has manifested itself in you means you become an inhuman monster....Take the Siren for example.

[Arch-Sorcerer Gargamel]

Not all with the azrai taint become awnshegh and not all awnshegh are evil (the sea one in Anuire) I think one of the Ershegh in Brechtur has Azrai blood

[Temujin]

Nearly everything is possible in my own mind, you just have to work and search for the solution.

[Lawgiver]

What about the second half of the original post?

If your entire lineage is of Azrai blood and you are born with the bloodline, what happens if you free yourself from the curse. Are you now unblooded or something else?

[Shieldhaven]

It would certainly make for an interesting character - the continual struggle to win free of the corruption he was born with...

I'd suggest that the only way to win free of that taint would be to undergo some sort of ritual purification (and quest, don't forget the quest), after which time the character's own past might be rewoven, changing the derivation of their bloodline; or perhaps the character might be adopted by a more benevolent power, who would add the finishing touches to the purification, and thus alter the derivation of the bloodline.

Just some thoughts. Taking away the bloodline entirely just doesn't seem like the way to go, IMO.

Shieldhaven

[morgramen]

I hate to be the only to stand oppossed (well, no not really) ;)

I think that the current awnsheigh are special cases. They are not the average PC character. They are DM tools who are worked to fit a purpose. Certainly, if it needs to be done, then the DM could permit a player to gain Azrai blood, suffer horribly, only to be redeemed and then be ultimately better off for it.

I don't buy that story arch personally. I prefer the tragic hero. The villain who sacrifices his own life in order to save/redeem the one thing in the world that means everything.

Darth Vader anyone?

The fact that he was sooo bad, and that it cost him his life to finally be redeemed, amplified the severity and meaning of his sacrifice and redemption 1000 times over.

So should it be with Anuire.

[Lawgiver]

I agree with you Morg that the awnsheigh defined in the rules are for GM purposes only. (Thus their 'reserved' status as realms). However, I was referring more to PCs then NPCs. I thought it would be an interesting PC to play sometime. The struggle of man against himself is often the most overlooked element of a good campaign, movie, novel, etc. I agree with you that it should require a noble act of redemption, but if it were my PC I wouldn't be in a hurry to play Heratio on the bridge or the man in black with a respirator. I'd prefer to keep playing my PC... though a truly noble end would be worth sacraficing a PC.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
Romans 7:15-21

[Riegan Swordwraith]

Without darkness,we wouldn't need light.Without Evil,we wouldn't need Good.

I think that is a quote,and if it is,I probably just butchered the hell out of it!:)

Everyone likes Villians,because without Hans Gruber,there could be no John McClain......

[Lord Eldred]

I can not see getting rid of the curse without death. Can the Gorgon get rid of the curse? IF a PC player could then so too should the Gorgon. If the Gorgon can't than neither should the PC.

[Lawgiver]

Its not a matter of can and cannot... its more a matter of will. If a paladin who has only recently been cursed would have a stronger will to be free than the Gorgon who has been corrupt for hundreds of years and enjoys the benefits of his curse..

[Lord Eldred]

I am still not sure on how that would work unless you are saying that it would be removed by one of the gods?

[Lawgiver]

If I knew I wouldn't have posted the thread. ;)

[Lord Eldred]

yes but I am sure you have your opinion on the subject!

[Lawgiver]

Me? Have an opinion? Where would you get a crazy idea like that? ;)

[Lord Eldred]

Somewhere around the 100th post! ;)

[Raedwald]

I do not think that a character with the taint of Azrai could be purified unless they had an large infusion of another bloodline(bloodtheft/Investiture). I think in the Regent sourcebook on the WOTC there was something on this.

Otherwise I would say such a character should be continously (but subtlely) tempted by the DM to slip into evil. Also any increase through bloodtheft should be a time of concern because it may waken the blood of Azrai and transform the character in to a awnsheigh.

[Lord Eldred]

Raedwald, if you could tell me where in the Book of Regency you read this it would be appreciated!

[Sellenus]

I think I missed that entry as well. I've never read anything about being redeemed.

[Master Dao Rin]

For my own part, I say that it is possible to 'redeem' yourself of the blood of Azrai.

Personally (I may have a different view than others on what happened at Deismaar): I don't think Azrai's blood actually 'exists' as the conventionally rules make it out to be.

"Huh", I here you all say? :)

Personally, I don't think Azrai's blood is actually fully released in Aebrynnis, unlike all the other bloodlines. This is why Azrai (aka The Cold Rider) can still hang around - his blood is still "tied" to him, unlike all the other god essences. In other words, Azrai never fully died, nor did his blood actually leave him - his 'death', and the sacrifice of the Old Gods - simply "expanded" his "consciousness" (Power) and caused it to be anchored into the land of Aebrynnis, trapping his power in Aebrynnis, but his shell of a 'body' in the Shadow World ... whereas the majority of His power should have gone with his 'body' if his power left the world like with the other Gods and to their own planes of power.

But the link between body and essence is NOT sundered - he's still "living" in BOTH places ... Azrai (his Power) CAN'T leave Aebrynnis, and He (his Body) is "stuck" in the Shadow World, as it were, so He is unable to take true form which (luckily) keeps Him from growing in power. So far as the players know ... right? Which also means Azrai MUST come back to Aebrynnis one day in the future to reunite himself with his Power ... Oh, the saga potential ... hehehe :)

This is also why, IMO, people can have spell-like abilities as a priest (Serpent, Hand of Azrai) in a god that does not "exist" per the BR rules ... because they are calling on Azrai himself to power their spells thru HIMSELF (and the power of the head priest, who "bloodline" permeates the area), exactly as He did with the old True Wizards, the so called Lost Ones.

And, to further this, this is why Azrai's blood has such a hold over its 'possessors' - using a Middle Earth analogy, the Essesce of Azrai (Sauron) is in all those who hold his blood, and like the One Ring, Azrai's Ego, that still holds the Essence as One, can control those people who possess a little bit of Him inside them; the more power, the greater his control over their emotions and thoughts and such. In other words, I make the blood of Azrai much more "intelligent" and "cunning" than what I think is intended per the rules, being that Azrai has a much more active "hand", as it were, in every one of his scions' destinies ...

Makes the title of his one church much more fitting, wouldn't you agree? ;)

In essence, then, I think all affected individuals at Deismaar absorbed some essence of one of the good gods, but Azrai's power lashed out and "leeched" onto the 'natural' bloodline in ALL SCIONS, but that in some instances, based on their 'evilness', his ego/Power/Essence overrode a particular bloodline so that Azrai's influence now dominates the subsumed natural 'good' bloodline every scion has.

This is how I also explain why Azrai's blood can corrupt a scion in bloodtheft, but not the otherway around. Thus the "Bloodline" of Azrai is really a template overlaid on a natural bloodline of the unfortunate scion and his descendants ...

And, ultimately, explains how a scion can redeem themselves of the evil taint of Azrai!

Either that, or its because I'm an eternal optimist. :)

I love Star Wars. And BR. ;)

[Lord Eldred]

All I can say is cool!

[huehar]

Rumor has it that the Ortodox Temple once purified a Roele Emperor after he killed an awnshegh - with a lvl9 spell Bloodline Redemption (it is the popposite of the Magian's Bloddline corruption spell).

[AlamarGGT]

If resurrection is an option I can see it happen.

[Kell]

The only way we have ever played it is that a character would essentially have to Divest their blood into someone else. Having done that, they are then unblooded and free of any taint from Azrai.

Had a character place his blood in a convicted murderer, then had the murderer executed by burning alive. The player no longer had a bloodline, but was at least free of an evil bloodline gained after killing an awnsheigh.

I like the idea of a Bloodline Purification spell...but I feel it would only work if the character originally had a bloodline other than Azrai. Anyone born with the bloodline of Azrai couldn't be "purified" because there is nothing to go back to.

[nickgreyden]

The way my group has always handled it is that the bloodline wasn't blood, it was essence and you could feel the different variations of essence in your body and could, of course, invest another with that essence of which you don't want. Sometimes that is through a magical item. Sometimes I requires a priest. Always it is a chore (quest) to complete and you are often on a ticking clock; sitting on a bomb waiting to explode, before it completely taints all your essence and corrupts the PC. And just like godly might, the power of a "living" god is nothing to be dealt with foolhardily. Things have a way of cropping up in the path of the one seeking to rid themselves of this bloodline that could cause them to fall faster... and if they choose to cut the wrong wire in that bomb... BOOM!