Topic: On the Priests Arnak

[kyussopeth]

If there is one thing that made me a Shadow World fanatic it was the Unlife & if there was one aspect of the Unlife that excited my imagination most it was the Priests Arnak. I hate these bastards (in best possible way)  with a visceral disgust that I generally reserve for the NY Jets & hippies.

Their work is abhorrent nihilism masquerading as wisdom. They are  perfidious underhanded misanthropic & they wrap themselves in the raiments of legitimacy crushing order, grinding life into dust beneath a millstone of apathy & ennui. Their impassive gaze hidden behind a mask of hope. Merciless, they contaminate the civilizations they infiltrate with easy answers that flatter the vanity of Man, they make greedy men proud of their avarice, lazy men proud of their sloth. The priest Arnak turn lustful men into predators, wrathful men into murderers, proud men into fools. They help the weak envy the strong & the strong resent the weak until life becomes the war of all against all & is emptied of meaning. All that is left is despair's carrion comfort as peoples, cultures, societies, races devour themselves in paroxysms of suicidal nihilism.

God I love to hate them.

Anyway I have never seen a suggestion of where they got the names of their orders so in my campaign each order of both priests & messengers is named after some hapless culture. It's songs, epics, histories, religion, & folkways reduced to nothing but a mirthless joke made by a sneering implacable servant of the Iron Wind.

Tell me about the Priests Arnak in your campaign, tell me of their methods, their ideology, their schemes and how they fail or succeed in pursuit of the annihilation of all things.

[Hurin]

I love those guys too.

I always wondered: do the high priests know that this is essentially a death cult, or do they just keep the central mysteries a secret from their acolytes? Do they have free will, or are they essentially puppets of the Unlife? How do you play it?

[kyussopeth]

I love those guys too.

I always wondered: do the high priests know that this is essentially a death cult, or do they just keep the central mysteries a secret from their acolytes? Do they have free will, or are they essentially puppets of the Unlife? How do you play it?

Is it cannon or just my interpretation? I don't know, but I always play it as if the Unlife is an entire conscious, perhaps even somehow sentient, Universe that is driven mad by contact with our universe. My inference  is that the High Priests and of course all the Messengers as well as the Heralds are Husks used by the Entity to carry out their ultimate aim. In my view that ultimate aim is not to cut off contact with SW's reality, but to extirpate conscious thought everywhere. It may have succeeded in destroying the Lords' of Orhan Universe & its neighboring Planes. The Unlife seeks Threshold worlds & planar weak points through out the SW Universe & throughout the multiverse to silence all sentience, all life, & dwell in the eternal silence of it's perfect solitude.

In my Campaign Messengers & High priests can't be tortured or broken & are impervious to pain & fear. Kadaena is the first being to contact the Unlife and many of her most ardent supporters among the K'ta'viiri were possessed by it too. Eventually using the Book of Gates & the Key, perhaps using the Shadowstone to corrupt the Key, She and her cult would have pulled much or all of the Galaxy into the Threshold Dimension allowing their full capabilities to be used throughout all the galaxy and of course granting the Unlife the ability to silence the galaxy. 

Thus the Shadow World must remain a prison lest Kadaena's cult unshackled use their Psionic power & technology to spread their madness.

[Hurin]

I love those guys too.

I always wondered: do the high priests know that this is essentially a death cult, or do they just keep the central mysteries a secret from their acolytes? Do they have free will, or are they essentially puppets of the Unlife? How do you play it?

Is it cannon or just my interpretation? I don't know, but I always play it as if the Unlife is an entire conscious, perhaps even somehow sentient, Universe that is driven mad by contact with our universe. My inference  is that the High Priests and of course all the Messengers as well as the Heralds are Husks used by the Entity to carry out their ultimate aim. In my view that ultimate aim is not to cut off contact with SW's reality, but to extirpate conscious thought everywhere. It may have succeeded in destroying the Lords' of Orhan Universe & its neighboring Planes. The Unlife seeks Threshold worlds & planar weak points through out the SW Universe & throughout the multiverse to silence all sentience, all life, & dwell in the eternal silence of it's perfect solitude.

I very much like this interpretation. It can lead to a really great revelation when players realize that even the Lords of Orhan are threatened by the Unlife. Cool stuff.

[kyussopeth]

I very much like this interpretation. It can lead to a really great revelation when players realize that even the Lords of Orhan are threatened by the Unlife. Cool stuff.

It gives, I think, a sense of being the ant before an on rushing locomotive. There is nothing like a hopeless twilight struggle to cast in relief the heroism of the protagonists.In this context even the mighty Lords of Orhan are the doomed remnant of a greater struggle - a desperate rear guard action.

[metallion]

So, what is the Iron Wind, anyhow?  Literally, the spell that summons the Iron Wind brings up a greyish mist that tears apart just about anything it comes in contact with.

That's a nanite cloud, folks. With a distributed AI. SpaceMaster's Tech Level scale doesn't go that high.

So a Priest Arnak is simply a mass of those nanites organized into a bidepal form, perhaps using the recorded personality of the fool who became a P.A. to present a front to the world.  That personality may well have no idea that they're really a mass of tiny machines bent on eating all the things.

Heck, that personality may well have no idea they're a Priest Arnak except when it is convenient for them to know it.

[kyussopeth]

So, what is the Iron Wind, anyhow?  Literally, the spell that summons the Iron Wind brings up a greyish mist that tears apart just about anything it comes in contact with.

That's a nanite cloud, folks. With a distributed AI. SpaceMaster's Tech Level scale doesn't go that high.

So a Priest Arnak is simply a mass of those nanites organized into a bidepal form, perhaps using the recorded personality of the fool who became a P.A. to present a front to the world.  That personality may well have no idea that they're really a mass of tiny machines bent on eating all the things.

Heck, that personality may well have no idea they're a Priest Arnak except when it is convenient for them to know it.

I can see it. Man I don't know if you're just riffing, but this speaks to me. Why has no one, not even the Emperor's Truthsayer, realized who or what Osaran is? Because the nanites only let him know when its convenient.

By the way I had the characters in my campaign find a parchment written by a priest Arnak adherent whose writings were direct copy & paste from comments you made on this very message board about the Priests & the Loremasters.

[Terry K. Amthor]

So, what is the Iron Wind, anyhow?  Literally, the spell that summons the Iron Wind brings up a greyish mist that tears apart just about anything it comes in contact with.

That's a nanite cloud, folks. With a distributed AI. SpaceMaster's Tech Level scale doesn't go that high.

So a Priest Arnak is simply a mass of those nanites organized into a bidepal form, perhaps using the recorded personality of the fool who became a P.A. to present a front to the world.  That personality may well have no idea that they're really a mass of tiny machines bent on eating all the things.

Heck, that personality may well have no idea they're a Priest Arnak except when it is convenient for them to know it.

I can see it. Man I don't know if you're just riffing, but this speaks to me. Why has no one, not even the Emperor's Truthsayer, realized who or what Osaran is? Because the nanites only let him know when its convenient.

By the way I had the characters in my campaign find a parchment written by a priest Arnak adherent whose writings were direct copy & paste from comments you made on this very message board about the Priests & the Loremasters.

Love this Arnak discussion, and glad to see someone has read Loremaster Legacy. There is a lot of Shadow World backstory in the subplots of the book.

[kyussopeth]

There is a lot of Shadow World backstory in the subplots of the book.

Yes and I have to admit I'm greedy for more of that backstory. For gaming purposes I wish you could provide an outline of the "metaplot" of the setting to a certain date.

But that's another thread.

I don't know if you ever considered a starting adventure with a small village in the wilds of Wuliris, or some other remote nearly untouched place, where a stranger arrives in town & begins doing the kinds of things that a Loremaster might do even getting low level characters to help him along the way. Until his full plan comes to fruition & the village dies horribly & quickly. So that even if the PC's kill the Priest they know they've been part of his scheme & they've added to the despair & entropy. I don't know how one would publish an adventure like that, but giving the PC's a little direct taste of ashes through an adventure sounds like a perfect way to introduce the unique value of the Priests Arnak & the difference between the devouring emptiness of the Unlife & the generic forces of Chaos or Evil or the Dark Side. As seen in other more famous settings.

I always imagined it was a servant of the unlife whispering in the ear of the King of Saralis when he went out to face the Ordainer in single combat. Surely with such power on his side forged by the mightiest Smith/Alchemist ever he would vanquish this abomination. Who or what could stand against him? Hubris broke the Wyvern Crown. One's very desire (very understandable desire too) to be heralded & acclaimed to be a symbol of resistance in a time of darkness became something else. The very desire to unite & strengthen a nation, a culture, a people became a weapon in the expert hands of a Priest Arnak (or the White Mage) to disrupt & destroy.

[Terry K. Amthor]

There is a lot of Shadow World backstory in the subplots of the book.

Yes and I have to admit I'm greedy for more of that backstory. For gaming purposes I wish you could provide an outline of the "metaplot" of the setting to a certain date.

But that's another thread.

I don't know if you ever considered a starting adventure with a small village in the wilds of Wuliris, or some other remote nearly untouched place, where a stranger arrives in town & begins doing the kinds of things that a Loremaster might do even getting low level characters to help him along the way. Until his full plan comes to fruition & the village dies horribly & quickly. So that even if the PC's kill the Priest they know they've been part of his scheme & they've added to the despair & entropy. I don't know how one would publish an adventure like that, but giving the PC's a little direct taste of ashes through an adventure sounds like a perfect way to introduce the unique value of the Priests Arnak & the difference between the devouring emptiness of the Unlife & the generic forces of Chaos or Evil or the Dark Side. As seen in other more famous settings.

I always imagined it was a servant of the unlife whispering in the ear of the King of Saralis when he went out to face the Ordainer in single combat. Surely with such power on his side forged by the mightiest Smith/Alchemist ever he would vanquish this abomination. Who or what could stand against him? Hubris broke the Wyvern Crown. One's very desire (very understandable desire too) to be heralded & acclaimed to be a symbol of resistance in a time of darkness became something else. The very desire to unite & strengthen a nation, a culture, a people became a weapon in the expert hands of a Priest Arnak (or the White Mage) to disrupt & destroy.

Some great ideas. As for the adventure, I know that the Guild Companion e-zine is looking for submissions.

http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=15182.0

[metallion]

So, what is the Iron Wind, anyhow?  Literally, the spell that summons the Iron Wind brings up a greyish mist that tears apart just about anything it comes in contact with.

That's a nanite cloud, folks. With a distributed AI. SpaceMaster's Tech Level scale doesn't go that high.

So a Priest Arnak is simply a mass of those nanites organized into a bidepal form, perhaps using the recorded personality of the fool who became a P.A. to present a front to the world.  That personality may well have no idea that they're really a mass of tiny machines bent on eating all the things.

Heck, that personality may well have no idea they're a Priest Arnak except when it is convenient for them to know it.

I can see it. Man I don't know if you're just riffing, but this speaks to me. Why has no one, not even the Emperor's Truthsayer, realized who or what Osaran is? Because the nanites only let him know when its convenient.

By the way I had the characters in my campaign find a parchment written by a priest Arnak adherent whose writings were direct copy & paste from comments you made on this very message board about the Priests & the Loremasters.

Not just riffing, I've been developing Unlife-as-nanite-culture for years.

And thanks for the feedback -- that's some of the highest praise I've ever gotten right there!

[kyussopeth]

Some great ideas. As for the adventure, I know that the Guild Companion e-zine is looking for submissions

I love to hear that however I am not sure I'm familiar enough with RM to do that. I run Shadow World using AD&D heavily modified to reflect the settings realities such as the three realms of magic, plus I only have the RM 2nd ed boxed set (red cover with the McBride paintings). One of my pet peeves as a GM is poorly thought out mechanics. for example if I'm trying to make a deadly trap for an average party of 4th  through 6th level characters (in RM) would an RR vs. a level 10 poison be that difficult for them to make, would it result in a TPK if the entire party were exposed, would it be a mild inconvenience or something in between? I know what RR's are, but have no way of estimating their difficulty. When I convert stuff to AD&D I just eyeball it and try to figure out from context what the mechanics imply. This is fine for my game I have 30 years of experience with D&D & I am confident in my knowledge. I would likely give some poor editor nightmares trying to write for a system I have never run or played in my life. Especially a very crunchy set of rules like RM.

I am very much game however if I thought I had a chance of producing something useful.

[kyussopeth]

Not just riffing, I've been developing Unlife-as-nanite-culture for years.

Reminds me of a great cruel joke I played on another PC once in a D&D game. My character could put memories into a thought bottle that is the memories would leave my mind & sit like a living thing in the bottle unable to be discovered. I used the bottle to hide a plot I carried out to undermine him that led to him killing off his closest associates because they seemed guilty of betrayal while I was the one betraying him. I never allowed myself to hold that memory in my own mind when he was near. In fact I only allowed myself to plot against him for 15 minutes a day. The rest of the time I was his valued & trustworthy ally.

The thing is he was a powerful Psion with mind reading ability (not unlike an Itanian Warlock) so that was literally the only way i could betray him without notice. A nanite AI, however, seems like it could be mind probed just as easily as any other intelligence so its compartmentalization would have to be something off site, as it were, as well.

[Terry K. Amthor]

Loving this discussion of the Priests Arnak. I am actually featuring a low-level one in the upcoming Gryphonburgh module, acting alone and pretending to be a Vicar of the Church of Orhan. My angle is that these people are accomplished liars and sociopaths (whether they started this way, and were recruited, or the Unlife molded them into what they are, or a combination, is up for debate). They have no concept of guilt or empathy, and they inflict pain out of curiosity or even pleasure. The gods of Charon and their minions might be power hungry and sometimes sadistic, but those who serve the Unlife are truly evil.

[kyussopeth]

Loving this discussion of the Priests Arnak. I am actually featuring a low-level one in the upcoming Gryphonburgh module, acting alone and pretending to be a Vicar of the Church of Orhan. My angle is that these people are accomplished liars and sociopaths (whether they started this way, and were recruited, or the Unlife molded them into what they are, or a combination, is up for debate). They have no concept of guilt or empathy, and they inflict pain out of curiosity or even pleasure. The gods of Charon and their minions might be power hungry and sometimes sadistic, but those who serve the Unlife are truly evil.

How is the priest able to hide from the other casters in the hierarchy? I imagine being scanned directly may be forbidden by etiquette, but the temptation would be to do it frequently.

I imagine an organization of such power would not be too restrained by manners to carry out scans & divinations. Being a Priest Arnak in a church with real gods paying attention is the most difficult assignment possible. Granted the Lords of Orhan are far more limited in power (or so it seems to me) than the deities in more common (i.e. D&D) fantasy settings.
Limited or not they are real in setting & have a necessary motivation to keep an eye out for interlopers.

I'm not arguing its impossible, but I am asking what your solution is to this. Also of course there could be an obvious answer from RM spell law & my unfamiliarity is hindering me from seeing it.

By the way i am all for low level interaction with the priests Arnak. The Priests Arnak are without empathy and I should point out that a not infrequent side effect of Psychopathy is a vastly increased pain threshold. Just imagine a priest under interrogation behaving like Elijah Wood's character in Sin City. Empty without affect his face lit by a unchanging demoniac grin. Granting the PC's no sense of satisfaction upon his demise. No sense that he's been punished merely ended.

[Valkrist]

Terry, you'd better hope only GMs are reading this thread because you are giving away some adventure details that players shouldn't know about.

[Terry K. Amthor]

Terry, you'd better hope only GMs are reading this thread because you are giving away some adventure details that players shouldn't know about.

Ooops! Well, Any good (i.e., paranoid) PCs will immediately suspect the kindly local vicar of being up to something. Didn't we always as players?

[Valkrist]

Ooops! Well, Any good (i.e., paranoid) PCs will immediately suspect the kindly local vicar of being up to something. Didn't we always as players?

lol... you got me there!