A really silly question (and I’m not even sure if i’m posting in the right forum), but: what’s an Immortal? Is there a clear reference to some work of fiction (like the elder gods in the map of Might)? Is the “hero cult” an element of the default setting?
As I read it, I think it doubles as a broad category for supernatural beings so that the gaming group can better fit to their needs, and also as an example of what characters can accomplish if the reach true glory.
My doubt was mainly about a missing reference that can help me to better understand the idea and how much can I stretch the concept to fin in my campaign. How do you interpret it?
It’s related to the Norse idea that immortality isn’t about living forever in the physical plane but about remembrance and worship. There’s also a bit of Unknown Armies (so, by extension Tim Powers) in there as well.
The concept seems open enough to stretch really, really far… the Immortal Lords could be orbiting satellites like in Anomalous Subsurface Environment as far as I can tell (and wouldn’t that be wonderful?).
Too bad Torchbearer doesn’t seem right for GONZO, or I’d consider adapting ASE to it.
Got it, and it gives me a lot of ideas. I love the idea of cult of personality and heroes. I guess that it also serves as a neat, adventure-driver goal for a character.
Sorry for necrothreading, but I wasn’t sure this was worth a new thread.
I’m trying to wrap aroundk the idea if giving the Immortals in my campaign some degree of personality, more detail as to enrich the game’s setting. I already did three main religions (that roughly follow the three alignments), detailed one of the immortals in game and am working on two others.
How do you play this elements on your games? Tell me about your Immortals and how you introduce them in your campaign. I’m trying to get some ideas from other groups, so I can take on this from a different perspective.
The Lords. These are nameless and faceless. The embodiment of the primal forces (i.e., Law, Chaos, Want, Plenty, Valor, Terror, etc.).
The Young Lords. These are more like “gods.” They have names and personalities. They have cults dedicated to them. For instance, I have Freydis, Lady of Sowing and Reaping. Thyr, Lord of Justice. Muir, Lady of Righteous Valor. Hrym, Guardian of the Dread Ship. Thyr and Muir are actually a paired cult (a clerical order follows Thyr while an order of paladins follows Muir) and a fading one. Not many people follow them any more and soon they will be forgotten and become one with The Lords.
The Hero Cults. These are similar to the Cults of the Young Lords, but are focused on a still-living or recently deceased Hero that aspires to Immortal Lord status. If successful, they will attain apotheosis and become Young Lords.
In my game I mostly plucked them from clerical spell descriptions. Generally, people worship all the Immortal Lords and call upon counterpart groups of them when making their appeals (Lords of Rain and Drought would both be called upon to end a particularly dry season), and cults will try to focus on individual Immortal Lords to try to gain their favor or special powers, often by seeking out the identity of one of the Lords, finding out who they were in life, seeking artifacts associated with them, etc. In my campaign cults to an Immortal Lord of Darkness and an Immortal Lord of the Arcane have sprung up as antagonists, with the cults seeking their crypts.
