Valkrionn
The Hamster King
Yes it does, but as for what it is you must dig through forum posts. Hint: Check FF or Orbis, not RifE's forum.
I started snooping and found it before I noticed your post. Look at me all detective-like. I hope my edit doesn't spoil anything. Maybe I'll remove it to be safe.
Naxus' 'pedia struck me as far too short, so I expanded it. The original 'pedia is worked in, naturally, since it was fine.
KillerClowns is back! Excellent!
Here's one for a Doviello leader called Pyotr. I'll leave it to the sharp-eyed to spot the influence.
Spoiler :Pyotr. You must go. They are coming for you.
They will come. We will stay.
Charadon fears your claim to the tribe. For your own sake, you must leave, Knyaz
Do not call me that. Am I a prince? I am no more prince than you. I will not abandon the people.
Charadon thinks otherwise.
Then, he is wrong.... The men he sends, are they many?
They carry the trappings of ten, but they are only three in number.
And how long have they travelled?
Three moons and three suns. Frost has set its jaws upon them.
Are they wounded?
They have fought with the bears and white tigers of Sybersk Ridges. Their wounds are grievous.
Then they have turned upon one another. They fight and they bicker. Each wants to be strongest. They kill their weak and take by conquest. This is Charadons way.
Charadon speaks the way of the wolf.
That is not the way of the wolf. That is the way of Charadon. He does not understand the way of the wolf.
I do not follow, Alman.
Charadon looks at the wolf crossing the ice and he sees only teeth and fury. But he is not looking at the wolf, he is looking at his own reflection on the ice. All he sees is himself.
The wolf is not a solitary creature, it hunts in a pack. Each wolf knows its place, whether it smells the prey, chases it to exhaustion or strikes from the snowdrift. The wolf pack hunts together. The pack lives or the pack dies as one.
Then we must be like wolves?
Exactly. The forager who collects the firewood, the hunter who tracks the caribou, the shaman who reads the winds, the healer who mends the broken bones, all are important for the pack to survive. If we abandon the weak, who will tell us which is berry is good and which is poison? If we do not feed the hungry, who will make the tent that shelters us against the winter snows? If we praise only the strong, who will dig the pits that keep the wild animals out while we sleep...?
"And I, what can I do? Who am I within the pack?"
You should prepare the stew. Tonight we enjoy a conquest of bread. Charadon has provided our meal.
During an (absolutely delightful) game as the Bannor, I realized that there were no truly corrupt Bannor leaders, save perhaps Ophelia (for a sufficiently loose definition of "corrupt"). I've got an idea for a minor leader to amend this: Gaius Octavius. Because, we can all agree, the Bannor need some Lawful Evil in the mix.
Basic bio: insane, racist, nationalist, generally vile theocratic Bannor cult leader
Alignment: Lawful Evil (550, -750)
Traits: Spiritual, Charismatic,
Image: I rather like the middle one on this page or the first one on this. If not, something else will do; my main theory is whatever he ends up looking like, it should be a priest/cult leader/inquisitor.
Favorite Civic: Theocracy
Favorite Wonder: Pillar of Chains
AI: disciple heavy, very strong preference for the Order, weights religious considerations above all others. Nastily aggressive.
Spoiler Gaius Octavius :Brothers and sisters, citizens of the Bannor! I am Inquisitor Gaius Octavius, Greatest of the Bannor, True Chosen of Junil, Bearer of the Banner of Racial Purity! The old leaders have failed us! We have escaped Hell, but its dark temptations and whispers haunt every corner of Erebus! I need not speak of the wicked heresies of the Veil, the depraved rites of the Overlords, the mad goals of the White Hand, or the shadowy lies of Esus, for all good servants of the Order know to put the vile believers of such madness to the blade! They should continue to do so, of course, but there is more work to be done!
I have seen, with my own very eyes, the dark secrets of the so-called "Brother Religions." The Empyrean, the Fellowship, the Runes, all are as wicked and corrupt as the ritualists of the Ashen Veil, though they hide their own evils far more efecctively. But nevertheless, their sins must be purged from this world, lest they corrupt this world, twisting it into their own depraved image!
The Empyrean would have us believe they seek "wisdom" and enlightenment. Lies, lies, lies! Within the halls of the Overcouncil, the elders of this false religion scheme to strip the righteous nations of this world of their sovregnity, of their independence, of the power they need to hold back the forces of Hell, forcing us to rely upon them for our defense! Our armies shall be disbanded, replaced by foreign-born Radiant Guardsmen! They shall seduce your daughters, impregnating them with the seeds of tainted blood! Say no to the Overcouncil, no to foreign goods, no to the dilution of the Bannor bloodlines!
The Runes of Kilmorph are naught but a Dwarvern religion! Need I remind you, that dwarves are sub-humans, wretched, impure, vile creatures, as bad as the foul Orcs? Every time the price of corn goes up, a Dwarf is behind it! Dwarvern councilmen play the Overcouncil just as surely as the rapacious Empyrean, though their motivation even more base than the desire for Bannor women. Nay, though none would doubt they'd have your daughters given the chance, their dreams are of gold, Bannor gold flowing into their vaults. Greed drives the Dwarvern race, to the man, and their religion is built upon this disgusting greed. All who worship the Runes of Mammon are dwarves, say I, in soul if not in body than in soul. Every Bannor who kneels before an earthen altar is a traitor! Send these abominations to Hell, says I!
Though they almost appear human, the Elves are no better than the Dwarves. And so to is their religion; the Fellowship of Leaves is built upon bloody sacrifice and cruel hunts! Honorable men are set loose, then hunted by elves and the traitors who have given their souls to the Fellowship! Some claim I have no proof of these claims, but that is only because they hide it, so enchanted by Elven whores, older than their own grandmothers, they'd give their pureborn sons and daughters to the bloodstained altars hidden deep within the sacred groves of the Fellowship!
Our old leaders will not put these "lesser" heretics to steel, as they so rightly deserve! They show restraint and mercy to those who only deserve suffering and death! I, Inquisitor Gaius, alone, stand against the tide of heresy disguised as "tolerance" and "diplomacy." Know this, brothers and sisters of the Bannor, that I am your only hope! Unite behind me! Know that the corrupt Bannor leadership fears me! They refused to allow me to take up arms the military, accusing me of being "mentally unfit for duty" because I refused to kneel down before a officers drawn from peasantry and foreigners. They kicked me out of the Temple of the Order when I began to ask questions they feared to answer, also accusing me of madness! Is it madness to ask why the inquisitors are not out in full force, why our taxes feed unbelievers and foreign-blooded mongrels? Follow me, and we shall restore the Church and the Nation to its true glory!
If I were to add a corrupt Bannor leader, I'd probably use either Gil-ganthor or Maraphene (both characters from the Tale of Saverous).
Gil-ganthor was the man who slew the Burnt Priest, who later went on to be a close adviser of the Bannor emperor (at the time when Valin had lost all his honors and the Church was already corrupt, but not yet to point of hunting him down or being destroyed by Auric). I don't have much to base this on, but I like to think that he was either a pawn of Mammon led to slaw a pawn of Hastur in order to gain power, or was a once decent man who became possessed by the spirit of the enemy he supposedly killed.
Maraphene is a Confessor who clearly shown as an evil and ambitious woman. I could see her becoming the most corrupt of all High Priest of Junil ever. To the eyes of Valin's guardian angel, she appears to be guided by a serpentine demon.