Kael, does this conflict with what you recently said about all the gods having reverence for Sucellus on account of Nemed? Or is it only the gods that feel that way, not their archangels? What does Basium know about Nemed? Archangels weren't created until after Nemed abdicated his Precept in order to father the human race, after all. Of course, Basium does know enough about The One to carve his named into his fingers, and logically it seems like the archangel of life should know at least as much about the old god of life as the other archangels.
Oh, Basium hates Sucellus, there is no doubt.
Having Auric Ulvin/Mulcarn like the risen Sucellus seems a little odd too, since they weren't friendly in their first lives.
Mulcarn never knew the risen Sucellus so he never had to consider the "Nemed reborn" aspect. Auric isnt a god so he wouldn't fall into the statement.
How can Dwarves use magic?
You have stated that men can channel magic because of the "Divine Spark." Men have the Divine Spark through their descent from Nemed, one of the original creations of The One. Elves, Aifons, and Orks are all descended from Men, and thus from Nemed. The Dwarves, however, are not descended from Nemed, but from statues given life by Kilmorph. Do they have immortal souls? Are their souls of a different nature than human/elf/aifon/ork souls, being from Kilmorph instead of Nemed? Are their souls the souls of human worshipers of Kilmorph reincarnated in smaller, sturdier bodies? Is the Dwarven creation story wrong, and they actually humans changed by their close contact to with Kilmorph (like the elves were by their contact with Sucellus and the Aifons with Danalin), who were either deceived by Kilmorph or made up their own myth because they didn't want to be associated with human enemies? Is this just an inconsistency arising from the fact that you hadn't come up with the Nemed character at the time you wrote the story of Keldon Ki?
In the D&D game dwarves couldnt use magic at all. In the original FfH design the khazad were supposed to have hired human mages instead of dwarven adepts. The luchuirp werent dwarves in the origional D&D game.
As you said there is a gap there (that dwarven adepts can use spells, that the luchuirp can have archmages). But I feel like some of that comes through. That is the reason why the khazad are so weak in magic, the Luchuirp could justify their magic use through the use of enchanted items instead of their direct casting (though that does beg the question of how they enchant itself without the "divine spark").
What chance does Laroth have for becoming a becoming the God of Death? Is it even possible for a mortal to ascend to godhood? Are other humans aiming at divinity (besides Auric)?
I dont know about Laroth, some of Arawns angels have sided with him, so they seem to think he can do it. He is an incrediably powerful figure. Pretty much the father of the Sidar (who use his rituals to trade their souls for long life without wondering where their souls are going...), and creator of the Nether Blade. He does a lot of messing around for someone trapped in the afterworld.
Yes it is possible for a mortal to ascend to godhood. If the creation of Sucellus can do it, why not the children of Nemed.
Yeah, a few people are going for differing versions of godhood. The three brothers are treated as a new generation of gods, and they pretty much have the power to back it up. Others seek to make themselves gods just by gathering followers to worship them (not that it buys them anything but adjulation). There are thousands of angels under Camulos trying to take his seat, but thats not unusal for that group.
What sort of power can mortals gain from the Gems of Creation? How much of the Gods' power relies on the infinite plains of raw elements created by Agares?
Only two of the brothers were ever more than backstory in the D&D games. One was the godking over a nation (i dont remember the nation, this was an early campaign so i dont think it would have matched up with what we have now). Other countries, and the players, doubted his divinity as if he was another crackpot. A war was raged and an army marched against his country. He ordered his own army to stand down and he met the invading army standing atop a cliff edge.
He raised his hand, where the gem was placed. The winds started, enemy banners flapped, then he dropped his hand. Tonadoes snaked down onto the battlefield. The army was destroyed in a fury of tornadoes and lighting strikes. He push the winds back and they carried the remains of the destroyed army back enemy capital, where they were dumped on the city in the heart of a massive storm.
The second character the players directly interacted with. He was called Tuoni, Hades, about a dozen names of different death gods. He was able to trap the souls of those that died before they went into the afterworld. The party got in a fight with him and he sent dozens of their most powerful defeated enemies back against them at once.
A side story: one of the players was specialized as a werewolf slayer. This is durign the casting of the spells of winter, and the sun had already been extinguished so werewolves prowled the land in packs under the eternal night. Duin was the head fo the werewolves and once the party figured out who he was and what he had been doing the inevitable fight ensured.
What was planned to be a huge fight ended in one attack. The werewolf slayer rolled a crit against Duin, then rolled 100 on the percentile for the crit effect (we had a chart for that and 100 was the most deadly effect). With the crit effect and the slayers own bonuses it was enough to Duin in one shot. I had a big werewofl fight planned, but I scrapped it assuming that all the werewolves that saw that would stand down and wouldn't dare attack the party.
Cut to a year or so later in real time. Tuoni/Hades stood at the top of the Malachite Palace (the gate to the afterworld in the shadowed vale) and the party charged up the stairs at him, weapons drawn. As with his brother, up came the hand, this time with a huge opal embeded in his palm. He couldn't kill the players because of a previous protection so he summoned a dozen or so of their old enemies to defned the stairs.
The werewolf slayer met the ghost of Duin. He rolled his attack, got a crit and again rolled a 100. Duin was for the 2nd time downed in a single hit without even swinging a blow. For years afterwards Duin was the name given to any big nasty plot encounter that was completly disabled by some minor action. Poor guy never got any respect.
