[Be Gone] Ch 21 – Entitled Characters

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Breaths hissed out all around. “Your Titles, Master Aelryinth?” Korbald asked formally.

            “The Ringlord. The Stafflord, shared with Mulcaster, we made the First Staves together. Lord of Scepters, I made Terra’s first Rod.” I reached out to tap the crystalline length of Mortus Dius, and up popped the middle of it, revealing the slender length of Centus Mortus inside. They eyed my Staff again, reassessing it. “The Lord of Pyramids. glaus nûrg mönt, which is a Draconic Title, translating as ‘White Death King’, for how many of them I have killed and sent to vivus. The Sage of Focus, for my Concentration. And The Master Archtheurge of the Seven Traditions, which requires Master Theurge and Archtheurge in all Seven Traditions.” I reached up to my head, stroked it once. “Some call me Marked by Sylune, and I had the hair to prove it, but Feature has informed me that I am bald right now.” Out of Her dominion, after all.

            “ALL of the Theurgic Classes, Aelryinth?” Mother Bea inquired, looking a little faint.

            “Yes. No exceptions. Plus a boatload of Advanced and Secondary Classes, of course. It took Rank M to pay for them all...”

            “Full Feats and Masteries?” Bronze pressed in disbelief, adding all that up.

            “Yes.” You’d think that with all those Classes I’d be able to skimp, but nope. There was simply too much out there you could learn and Master, and it got even worse after Ten, as new Advanced Classes became available.

            Like, oh, Sublime Chorister...

            “That,” Korbald murmured, “must be one HELL of a character sheet, Aelryinth.”

            “Truer words,” I nodded, smiling slightly.

            “That Hellscar?” Tread spoke up, gesturing at my face.

            The Baneskull on Mortus Dius burst into black flames. “Meet Gorgriespiel, the malebranche who gave it to me. I’m sure it’s been a wonderful investment for him, but it’s only the second thing he left me to remember him by.”

            They all grinned in appreciation of the irony. “What is the dragon?” Bronze asked directly, looking at my Feature-tat looking back at him. “An Eidolon?” I couldn’t have a real dragon as a servant who could do that, right?

            “He isn’t a dragon; he’s a Giant Snake using a Dracoform spell, which your Familiar can gain when your effective Master Level is 21 or higher, along with him having the Celestial Template from Improved Familiar and Sacred Servant.” I let them mumble over all that. “Effectively Familiar, Animal Companion, Eidolon, and Sacred Beast rolled into one. Effective Master Level is 27.”

            They all hissed again. Here I was, playing with post-20 Caster Levels and Companion Master Levels...

            “I can say that we have been busy, Aelryinth, but that busy...” Korbald shook his own shaven head once.

            “I want a friendly dragon I can ride around on,” Rapman muttered softly, and they all nodded.

            “Just need Binder, Arcane, and Druidic Theurgies, the three Feats to stack Mastery Levels across Theurgies, and the Sacred Servant and Improved Familiar Feats,” I said quietly, turning up my hands. Feature was hissing quiet laughter to himself. He was big and bad, and he knew it.

            “That’s all? Here I thought I was going Deep! Binder magic is almost useless here at the basic level, as the stuff you can Summon is always hostile, and there’s no Eidolons to be had!” Tread blurted out. “The locals aren’t at all happy if you start messing with the local Spirits, either. The Shadowlands are causing enough problems, and there’s certain factions that abuse the crap out of some of the Spirits...”

            “Freaking Lion slavers...” muttered Bronze, shaking his head.

            “Well, if I can get a Pyramid erected, in time, you can go somewhere there are Eidolons, and come back,” I pointed out.

            They all gaped at me, I lifted my eyebrows, and they all groaned.

            “You’re reading something here, Ael, I can see it. What’s going on?” Korbald asked, shaking his head.

            “I don’t play the game of gods, but my mental Stats are pretty high, and I’ve got all Seven Traditions, and a lot of time with Divination magic. So, I can guess, and my guesses are pretty good.”

            “Go on,” Mother Bea encouraged me.

            “I kinda think you are evangelists.”

            Their mouths slowly dropped open. That is a WEIRD thing to say to gamers...

            “We are carrying the names of the Aruan Pantheon into a foreign realm, which doesn’t really acknowledge any gods...” Mother Bea spoke up first. “We can’t reach them here, but we know of them, and the Power of the Ten system still draws on them...”

            “The Alignments are everywhere,” I said in no uncertain terms. “They may be inactive here, they may not have proponents, and they may be ignored, but they are everywhere.

            “And that means you can always call on the power of Heaven here.” I brought up a finger before they could repeat the whole thing about Divine magic. “Gods typically don’t manifest without a bastion of faithful there to call them, it’s true. But the Faith and the magic are still there, even if nobody is gathering them,” I said pointedly, and let that trail off.

            “That’s... what an Ur-Priest does?” Rapman asked hesitantly.

            “There’s been some revisions lately of exactly what an Ur-Priest is and represents. The classical representation of someone who steals Faith and magic from the gods for their own ends is indeed one interpretation, sort of like a Wizard grabbing Divine Magic without permission from the gods.

            “However, Ur-Priests were also the very first Divine Tradition. Before the gods were recognized, came, and instituted their own lines of Faith and Prayer, Ur-Priests were the only Divine Casters, not much different from Shamans in their own way, using Faith in whatever powers, true or false, they served or pretended to serve in order to work miracles.

            “They were naturally driven out as unfaithful charlatans by the Devoted, but the fact remains that their Tradition is valid, and if there are no gods, is perfectly legitimate in its own way. Priests who worship a philosophy or such are, in effect, Ur-Priests themselves, proving that you don’t actually need the Divine to Cast Divine spells, you just need Faith and knowledge.”

            “You are treading on shaky ground, Aelryinth,” Mother Bea said softly. She probably took adhering to doctrine and the Alignments VERY seriously here, because the natives did not.

            “No, I’m not. Because if you take the Faith and magic of the gods with their approval, then you are, in effect, a Priest who can take their worship into new lands where they are not known, and show their power even if the gods aren’t there to do their part of the job.” I sat back as they blinked at me. “This, then, comes down to the moral character of the Priest. Can they remain true to the gods, even if they don’t have to, to wield their magic? Or will they be selfish bastards and try to throw off the gods, the benefits and the drawbacks thereof, and muddle through on their own, ignoring the ramifications of not having the Divine looking out for you... and the fact the Alignments don’t care what gods you worship, they are still Right There, and you ignoring them doesn’t mean squat?”

            The Wrath of Heaven bloomed up around my hand. “Most Powered don’t take Pacts, but I have,” I stated simply. “I have an absolute yardstick here to let me know I’m still on the right path and doing the right thing for the situation.

            “When I am in the Domain of my gods and the light of Aru, I will simply ask permission to use the power of Faith in service to Heaven... and technically, I don’t even need to, since I have the Theurgies to not do so.

            “When I am outside the Divine Domains, I can serve Heaven directly, wielding Faith on its behalf, and further the name and faith in the gods I believe in by doing so.

            “I have Communed with Mithar directly and confirmed that as long as I stay true to this measure, what I have done is effectively become a free-roving agent of Heaven whose Divine power is not dependent on the gods being aware of me. In effect, I am being held to the same standard of conduct as a Wizard practicing Celestial magic.

            “Departing from this standard is effectively becoming a thief of Faith, would violate my Heavenpact, and I would absolutely know I am not on course. Notably, that even includes the action of stealing Faith from Law, Chaos, or even Evil. It should be noted the Ur-Priests of said Alignments are not held to that same level of conduct, of course...”

            They looked at the Wrath burning electrum on my hand, my eyeless face, the Hellscar on my face, and the Celestial Familiar staring at them from atop my head.

            “I think we’ve been outvoted,” Korbald acknowledged, and even Mother Bea nodded slowly.

            “Do you have any idea what the critical mass is before gods can manifest, Ael?” Rapman asked, interested in this process. “The locals are suspicious enough of our outsider religions and all, combined with our different magic.”

            “I have no idea at all, Rap,” I answered, shaking my head. “There’s too many variables compared to Terra to be accurate, first being that Terra was actually brought into Aruan territory... and this realm is not that.”

            I pointed unerringly off in a certain direction. “I believe the reason you were brought HERE is because of that nexus out there, forming a planar breach and conjoining the planes. Something out there set that up, released demons and Sin on the mortal plane, and is feeding on the conflict of energies.

            “Since He had to send you somewhere, Mithar sent you somewhere you would be very useful. I think just a little presence of vivus, and things would be much different here.”

            “Yes, vivus!” blurted out Bronze excitedly, leaning forwards. “Do you know the spell variant?”

            “And the Weapon Enhancement, yes. I will happily write them all out for you.”

            They all clenched their fists, despite themselves. They knew the power of vivus, and what it was going to do for this world!

            “How many spells do you know, Ael?” Mother Bea asked quietly, yet eagerly. “Our ability to research new spells here has been miserable, as you might imagine.”

            “Over two thousand,” I answered honestly. As they stared, I went on, “My home base is a Pyramid that houses the greatest school of magic on the planet. Argos is the Dean, Weirdboy runs the Archives. The top of it is a temple to Aru and Sylune.

            “Mulcaster runs the Investing and Infusing of the Crafter shops and Foundry Forges of the bottom level.

            “I get exposed to basically every single new spell and magic item that gets developed and registered.” I eyed Korbald apologetically. “While I know a lot of ki-related stuff, Korbald, I’ve nothing of true Chi with the Dragons.”

            He waved it away. “Our use of Chi actually generates more renown for us than our spells, and is the least affected by our circumstances. I won’t say that we’ve the true breadth of the Seven Dragons, but we have most of the Techniques and Forms, and we’ve had an easier time learning some new ones than we’ve had with magic.”

            “Well, then, how about I fill you in with anecdotes on home after we do what we can to prep for this demon army coming on the way?” Magnus pulled out a mostly-empty tome from my Masspack, and then a few bottles and an artfully-crafted Fountain Pen that fairly glittered with breathtaking style.

            I unstopped the first wide and short vial of ink, dipped the nib, and began to write, not really looking at it since it was using vestigial magic, and I had 360 awareness of the manafield, Detect Magic at VIII, Understand the True Weave. “I don’t have a Write spell with no Matrix, so I’ll have to do this by hand. A Valence I is an hour, but Vivic Weapon should be just fine with that, right?”

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