Gods! ...stems off `Powers o

[Tim Nutting]

> Or is there something really simple that I've missed?

According to Plansescape a priest is hampered while on planes not of his
deity. Traveling around the Great Ring (the order of the planes and the
ring is roughly the same from 1st through 2nd, though the names differ)
find the shortest path (without going through the Outlands/Concordant
Opposition) between the priest and the god. The number of steps is the
number of effective experience levels the priest loses in regards to spell
casting.

However, the Prime is effectively 2 steps from any outer plane (Home,
Astral, Prime) but there is NO drop in power. The only thing that planar
scholars can explain is "the powers want it that way, berk", or something
to that effect.

In essence, if the gods of Aebyrnis didn't want their followers hampered
by the Shadow World, then they wouldn't be.

l8r
Tim Nutting

[Gary V. Foss]

Tim Nutting wrote:

> > Or is there something really simple that I've missed?
>
> According to Plansescape a priest is hampered while on planes not of his
> deity. Traveling around the Great Ring (the order of the planes and the
> ring is roughly the same from 1st through 2nd, though the names differ)
> find the shortest path (without going through the Outlands/Concordant
> Opposition) between the priest and the god. The number of steps is the
> number of effective experience levels the priest loses in regards to spell
> casting.
>
> However, the Prime is effectively 2 steps from any outer plane (Home,
> Astral, Prime) but there is NO drop in power. The only thing that planar
> scholars can explain is "the powers want it that way, berk", or something
> to that effect.
>
> In essence, if the gods of Aebyrnis didn't want their followers hampered
> by the Shadow World, then they wouldn't be.

You could argue that one of the reasons why there are relatively few gods with
influence in Cerilia is because of the presense of the Shadow world. There's
what eleven or twelve? Moradin, I suppose you have to count, and the gods
worshipped by various giants, orogs, goblins and gnolls, though it is debatable
wethere all of these are full-fledged gods.

Many of the gods that do exist have a closer connection to the world having
been humans on it before Deismaar or the children of such former humans. We
know very little about the gods B.D. (Before Deismaar) so it's kind of hard to
tell what might justify their presence and power on Cerilia at that time.

Gary

[Tim Nutting]

Well, Moradin has been worhsipped for a long time, near as I can tell, by
the Dwarves. I have difficutly imagining Kostiche, Yeenoghu, and the rest
of the other evil gods being "recent" arrivals.

Oh well... not that it really makes all that much difference. The general
gist of the Planespace info was "it's that way because it is" and that's
good enough for me.

A good eventide unto all
Tim Nutting

[Memnoch]

- -----Original Message-----
From: Complete Systems
To: 'birthright@MPGN.COM'
Date: Monday, August 31, 1998 10:49 AM
Subject: [BIRTHRIGHT] - Gods! ...stems off 'Powers of Darkness - Now
Torazan'


I've got one of those little question that probably has a very simple
answer....

1) According to the list; Abrynnis is shielded from other planes by the SW
(although as to if it is simply difficult or actually impossible to get to
SW from said other planes is still in debate), but direct travel / contact
is not an option.


2) Each deity has their own plane to which they elevate followers (/
snatch victims) to when they have died.

It could just be me, but shouldn't that
a) put some interference between gods and their followers,

Nope, see below on Planar Geography

b) make it difficult to elevate/damn a soul to the deities equivalent of
Heaven / Hell


Again, see below

c) summon a demon from the depths of the abyss (or does it just take
longer while the demon does the 'working visa' paperwork, being shunted from
one SW bureaucrat to another :-)


Again, see below....

One possible 'stop-gap' answer is "well, that's why there are so many
undead and other nasty stuff in SW, it's either lost souls, or summoned
stuff stuck there while the summoner has given up waiting, presuming that he
mucked up the spell somewhere.

Or is there something really simple that I've missed?

Regards,

Dubhghaill (Doyle)
Victoria, Australia, 613 9563 5085
enq@completesystems.com.au


>>>>>>
Well, in regards to planar travel, the Shadow World is the "Border"
Ethereal... so, in effect, if one were to cast an ethereal spell, pass
through their border into the Deep Ethereal, and then attempt to travel to
Cerilia (or Cerilia's crystal sphere), it would indeed be "shielded" from
the planes (in this case, the other worlds of the prime material)....

However, Deities are part of the Outer planes, which is connected to the
Prime by the Astral... The astral does not contact the ethereal plane at
all. (The astral is a plane of the mind (mental possibilities) whereas the
Ethereal is a plane of physical possibilities, or elemental ones).

Since the Ethereal, and by extension the Shadow World (being the Border),
does not contact the Astral, it would not shield the deities from their
followers and vice versa...

[James Ray]

Hmm. I dunno - that explanation still leaves open Astral travel, though
doesnt it? I mean, after a few guys go Ethereal and are never heard from
again, people would probably quit trying THAT method, and stick to astral
bodies and the like (IF they have cause to even think of journeying to the
Planes in the FIRST place :)

James

- ----------
> From: Memnoch
> Well, in regards to planar travel, the Shadow World is the "Border"
Ethereal... so, in effect, if one were to cast an ethereal spell, pass
through their border into the Deep Ethereal, and then attempt to travel to
Cerilia (or Cerilia's crystal sphere), it would indeed be "shielded" from
the planes (in this case, the other worlds of the prime material)....>