Now, who is Decius!??

Still, why apparitions? It's rather specific. And the Sidar are good at keeping secrets, so he might not have learned all that much about them yet - hell, maybe he specifically wanted to lure, catch and interrogate one. Plus, he did apparently know what to do with the Divided Soul, or at least figured it out quickly enough. Maybe he didn't know for sure that this assassin was a Divided Soul and not anyone else that might want to kill a general in a dark fantasy world during a military campaign.

 

I would say that Spectors would probably count as more frightening apparitions, and that wraiths and demons probably would too. I'm thinking that he was a Bannor commander who was charged with a task from the Overcouncil against the Calabim even after the corrupted Bannor made peace with them, and who can choose to continue to carry out the Overcouncil's orders leading the Malakim forces, or to betray them and serve the Calabim. I'm not really sure how the Sidar fit in though. Maybe they just allied wiht the Calabim and the Undercouncil.

 

I think the Sidar just went off and declared war on everybody due to orders from Laroth.

 

wait... you think the Sidar declared war?

 

Oh, I gotta get to that... thanks for the reminder...

 

Well, not officially - but they tried to whack the leaders/heros of most nations without warning, yeah. More like a mass assassination, to be followed by hiding or a defensive war until Laroth uses those souls to complete his overthrow of Arawn.

Perhaps "declared" was a bad word. They started a war with everybody.

 

The pedia entry says the pass is snowing, and should be at that time of years, which suggests Auric is near to ascending. Decius could be leading a war against him.

The Sidar do not feel very much, so another Age of Ice would not be detrimental, but beneficial. I think they would be immune to the cold, and the cold would keep otherss from disturbing their paths. I could definetly see the Sidar and Doviello siding with the Illians in a final showdown against the other nations.

 

I disagree. They may not strongly sense things, but that doesn't make them less vulnerable. It might just make them slower at reacting to a real danger, making them more vulnerable.

 

Still, they certainly could decide that a little cold is a small price to pay for the utter destruction of any enemies they might have made.

Also, the Civilopedia entry about Sandalphon does make it seem likely for him to at least coexist with Mulcarn.

 

maybe decius is laroth who came back from the underworld to bring more souls there so when he is finished here, he can go back and have a larger empire. Charadon and Duin came back from the dead. Laroth then should have that capability. This would explain why he hates the sidar since they stole his tomes from him and left his empire.

 

All very fascinating suggestions... Can't wait to find out what the truth is, though.

 

Umm...no.


Laroth doesn't hate the Sidar. He likes them more than anyone, because although they think they serve Arawn they have long been serving him. The Sidar didn't steal his tomes, the Once-Elves did. The Sidar were never in his empire, unless you count Rathaus Denmora just barely entering it to talk to an angel in his service thinking he was going to serve Arawn. I doubt that the Sidar know Laroth exists. The Sidar got these books from the Malakim, as Varn (or, more likely imho, his wife Talia) Gossam took them out of the Shadowed Vale, after Varn's father had taken them from Laroth. He likes that the Sidar use these books, and very well may have meant them to be found. The rituals don't just slowly devour their souls to give long life, they slowly transfer their souls to Laroth for him to use to gain power. Laroth forged the Netherblade out of stolen souls specifically to give to Rathaus Denmora so he could capture more, stronger souls to help him defeat Arawn and become a god.


Duin and Charadon didn't just "come back," they were resurrected using powerful life magic that became available only after Sucellus was resurrected. This wasn't possible until recently. Hmm...on second thought, such power might have been available from within the netherworld when Arawn was god of both life and death. I'll just assume it is something that must be used in the plane where one is to be resurrected though.

I'm not sure he would want to be resurrected anyway. The netherworld is much more responsive to his will, and his Spirit magic is more important there. He probably wouldn't want to return until he ascends to godhood. (Hmm...would he even be bound by the Compact and thus vulnerable to the Godslayer like the other gods, as he wasn't around when the Compact was signed?)




I see no evidence that Decius is a sorcerer of any kind, much less one so strong as Laroth or Kyorlin.

 

It seems that he knows some very interesting magic.

 

That isn't magic, its a loss of concentration. Decius started to set his body on fire. Veridan was hearing himself cry in pain, making him unable to maintain the concentration needed to seperate. Knowing how to stop someone else from being able to finish using their magic does not require magic.

 

Ah, I read that as Decius holding the torch up to him after drawing him back. "Held up to" doesn't seem to convey the same thing as "pressed against" or the like.

 

Yeah, that was more to show him being pragmatically brutal than mystically powerful. (That's why we mentioned that Veridan needed to concentrate a moment.)

 

It seems a far more reasonable conclusion to assume he was burning Veridan than that he was using magical powers to achieve the same end... seems like such thoughs are just there if you're hoping he is Laroth or Kyorlin. Too many heroes from the past have been brought back and as has been said before, they don't like to play the same trick again twice.

 

That's very clever of him, not to mention awesome. I get the impression that, in addition to being "pragmatically brutal", he is also pretty savvy at counteracting various magical opponents (I guess that comes with fighting apparitions). I wonder if this will be reflected in the campaign (I suspect that he will also be a Hero in the scenarios)?

 

There's a possibility that he is Kylorin before Kylorin was taught magic by Cerdiwen. Also, I think I read somehwere that the Bannor, Malakim, and Calabim are the only 'Patrian' nations. I could be wrong but it makes sort of sense Decius is pre-magic Kylorin.

 

there are also Elohim, Balseraph, and was (but it changed) Kuriotates, also Hippus have their roots in Patria