Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Gavinfoxx 07-06-07, 04:46 PM	Hi there, I was thinking of motivations for my young sun elf wizard to be adventuring rather than, ya know, spending a couple of hundred years studying, and I came up with the idea that adventuring is the fastest way to gain power and such. Next, I needed a reason for my character to *want* to gain power... so I thought that there is some kind of generations-spanning curse afflicting his family that can only be cured by direct application of powerful magic from someone that is a direct descendant of someone in his family... and something about this needs to be done in a short amount of time, like within the next 20 years (a blink of an eye for an elf!), or something bad is going to happen... Now the idea is that this curse doesnt actually give anyone in the family any power, and that it is a very shameful curse for anyone in the family, and that it is not a secret at all. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!
Terjon of the Blue Rose 07-07-07, 01:26 AM	Every 333 years there is a round of deaths in the family. Not just one or two either. We're talking a whole branch falls off the tree. With only two or three branches remaining something needs to be done now. As for a shaming aspect I wouldn't look so much at the curse itself as I would at how the family came to be under such a curse. Perhaps his family lost one of the fabled moonblades or, given the nature of the curse I selected, wrongfully exiled a portion of their own family.
Terjon of the Blue Rose 07-07-07, 01:49 AM	This how I see it. 2000 years ago your family had a sacred duty and was required to watch over the crypts in a major elven settlement. For a period of 333 years a branch of the family would watch over the crypts and then their duty would be done and another branch would be chosen. When war came though, the family was decimated except for the branch who remained to defend the crypts. The family reached a decision when the war ended and chose not to relieve the branch currently occupied with this task until the other branches recovered their losses (no small amount of time given elven birth rates). The branch set to the task was outraged. They had fulfilled their duty and it was their turn to return to the lands of sun and moonlight. They left the crypts with only a skeleton crew of defense in order to argue their rights. A powerful necromancer learned of this and took advantage of the weakened defenses to take the crypt. He raised many powerful undead from the ancient corpses stored within and set them upon the city. When the necromancer was dealt with and the undead laid to rest the entire branch who had chosen to leave their duty was exiled. True, they had been withheld their natural rights but that was no excuse for refusing their natural duty. Those who tried to remain and argue were tried and imprisoned. One young elf, only 25 years of age when this all began and 32 by the time the last of his family had been banished, spent almost his whole life in prison. There he learned to hate the larger family who had punished him for their failings. While dying; an ancient, decrepit figure, he used his last days scrawling curses on the walls, floor and ceiling of his cell. Thought mad with age by the family they let him be only to find that his last ramblings had come true with his death. Thus the curse began, and ever since, on the aniversary of the changing time, a branch of the family suffers horrible deaths, one after another, until the whole branch is gone.
warwinner 07-07-07, 01:58 AM	I was thinking of something like impotency or something, what's more shameful ?
Lyinginbedmon 07-07-07, 04:56 AM	I was thinking of something like impotency or something, what's more shameful ? That might prevent the family for actually being a family, in the geneological sense...
Terjon of the Blue Rose 07-07-07, 06:05 AM	As pointed out that would stop a family from lasting very long. What's more impotency in a genealogical sense, especially amongst the elves who already have a low birth rate, is something that I would think would not neccessarily be considered very shameful but rather disturbing. Most likely they would recieve the simpathy of the community and adventuring wouldn't be the means to achieving the power to end the curse but rather the community would likely band together to help solve the problem. Not to mention that adventuring leads to a short life so often:D. Of course it depends on how much of the shame you want to put on the character and how much on the family. Mine puts all the shame on the family where impotency can be a more personal shame.
Fithero 07-07-07, 08:53 AM	Make it something that is actually shameful for elves in general- -The family is blessed by Gruumsh (or some other orc deity), there is a mark on their body that clearly marks them as so. Perhaps theyve lost one of their eyes or one of their eyes is a different colour, or just solid black. Heck, maybe even just a brand or tattoo. If you wanted to give them a power, give them the ability to rage 1/day no matter their class or level. Being blessed by an enemies deity would be pretty damn shameful, perhaps an ancestor betrayed his race to the orcs or something, and gruumsh promised to smile down on his line for the rest of time. (You could exchange this for a drow deity, most likely lolth. In this case, perhaps every member of the family has pure white hair and eyes that are the various colours a drow can have... this is sort of less severe though. With both of these cases, an aversion to light could be applied to offset any bonus you apply) -The family cannot go into that 2-hour mediation thingy that elves can do, instead they have to sleep a full 8 hours like humans. This would instil a sort of "your inferior to the rest of us" feel in the community, regarding the character. (Perhaps for an even worse case, the family lives only as long as humans. This would be pretty shamefull and not many people would want to marry into the family, knowing about the curse.) -The first born of every couple is always a still born... this is pretty heavy too. Hope these help.
warwinner 07-07-07, 09:53 AM	Or mix them all up Your family failed in it's sacred guard duty over it's petty interests, thus elven ancestors whose tombs were desecrated cursed your family that the first child of every couple will be stillborn, but one of your family had the gall to approach orcish shamans hoping that gods of their prolific kind would have a solution to this Thus via gruumsh the orc shamans nullified the curse on the condition that your family would manifest the mark of gruumsh for generations to come and must serve gruumsh if need be, lest their curse remanifest Due to this shameful past, his family has very low standing among elves, so to raise his family's standing and nullify all the curses and marks, the young elf sets out .........
Fithero 07-07-07, 09:56 AM	Eh... dump the whole impotency thing... like Terjon said... elves already breed slowly... impotency would pretty much destory the family line. If you really wanna go with something like that... you could use the 1st born child always a still born thing... but even thats a bit of a blood line killer :(
warwinner 07-07-07, 10:02 AM	you're right, Also we don't want Npc's unnecessarily insulting the pc
Lyinginbedmon 07-07-07, 10:49 AM	One of my players had this idea: At their 200th birthday, they are transformed into humans. Logically, this is the worst thing that could occur to a living elf, given that they typically see humans as an inferior race.
Randmc 07-07-07, 11:20 AM	Many years ago, a member of your family make a pact with a powerful demon in order to gain terrible evil powers. The pact involved the demon binding himself to your ancestor in order to transfer his powers. The power of the demon allowed your ancestor to access incredible arcane powers, which he used to torment innocent persons and gain personal power (shame). The powers of arcane mastery were passed down to your evil ancestor's children, each one being able to call upon the same force, but to a lesser extent. The power was divided between the generations of the bloodline. Now, after several generations, the demon's gift manefests as little more than a gift for arcane magic. You, as a studious elf, have found out about your ancestor's pact and have discovered something very disturbing: the pact has come due. The duration of the pact is up, and the next generation born to your family will not be elf children, but will be the demon reborn. A close family relative of yours is pregnant.