Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Kain_Darkwind 01-30-08, 09:22 PM	All the talk of the new nonsense cosmology got me nostalgic for the good old planes, so I decided to revisit my old 3e Manual of the Planes to see if there were any characters that I wanted to stat up. Asking for suggestions, I was directed towards the prisoner in the Citadel of Ice and Steel (p. 70). It holds the Grand Caliph of the Djinn's greatest enemy. Who is that enemy? Is it a chicamec, perhaps the Caliph's illegitimate son with Chan? Is it a powerful efreet warrior, or perhaps the previous Grand Caliph of the Djinn? A primal para-elemental from a blasphemous (and improbable) pairing between Earth and Air? I'd like to hear what others have to say on this matter. Are there any 'official' rumors? Unofficial ones that you are particularly fond of? A curious ear awaits.
sciborg3 01-31-08, 12:15 AM	Geez Kain, it's obviously an elemental archon that is stronger and "cooler" than any other elemental because it has a helmet. ps. give me some time to think about it. i'll come up with something in the next few days.
Kain_Darkwind 01-31-08, 01:17 AM	Geez Kain, it's obviously an elemental archon that is stronger and "cooler" than any other elemental because it has a helmet. That's where they were hiding before 4e! :eek:
WombleHunter 01-31-08, 07:13 AM	Maybe, upon becoming Grand Caliph, the aspirant Djinn undergoes some form of ritual in which a negative trait (greed, short-sightedness, cruelty) is stripped away and kept bound and frozen in the Citadel of Ice and Steel? Or maybe ALL negative traits. Which become personified. Maybe the whole thing isn't anything more than a traditional ritual, but it is so ancient and so believed in by the Djinn that if the Citadel is breached the Caliph would be believed to be compromised and a Djinn civil war would begin?
Taeldrin Laesrash 01-31-08, 10:06 AM	Or it could be the true heir to the position, an illegitimite kid or the caliph the current one usurped.
sciborg3 01-31-08, 10:46 AM	Maybe, upon becoming Grand Caliph, the aspirant Djinn undergoes some form of ritual in which a negative trait (greed, short-sightedness, cruelty) is stripped away and kept bound and frozen in the Citadel of Ice and Steel? Or maybe ALL negative traits. Which become personified. ala Verin/Ztefano?
Shemeska the Marauder 01-31-08, 11:26 AM	It's a fragment of the frozen words that the Immoths of para-elemental ice are racially compelled to seek out. Eons ago, a now nameless Wind Duke bound the nascent immoth race to seek out the true name of one of his enemies. It might have been that of the Queen of Chaos, the Elder Elemental God, or some other primordial being. However the end result is that the Immoths did their racial quest too well and too quickly, and actually completed their task within the Wind Duke's lifetime. The immoth presented the fragments of the name to their patron/tyrant, heady and swollen with pride and purpose. However as the Wind Duke's eyes watched the name assemble and crystallize like a darkly beautiful, twisted snowflake, he realized with horror his mistake and sundered it out of horror, scattering the pieces to the planes once again. The immoth were filled with rage at what they perceived to be a betrayal of their entire race's given purpose, but their patron was in no position to explain to them his error. Having glimpsed and understood that name, like seeing the unveiled, burning face of God, the Wind Duke archmage was striken unable to communicate his thoughts with any being who had not likewise viewed what he had seen. Filled with agony and terror, he cried out in pain as his flesh erupted in thousands of bleeding slashes, as if a cloud of knives had manifested from out of the depths of his own shadow. Bleeding out upon the ice, he screamed and babbled to his enraged servitors, trying in desperation to tell them something of absolute importance that to this day not a soul in the universe knows. Unable to communicate, unable to impart the urgency that they not ever complete that blasphemous name, the immoths tore him to pieces and set about hunting for the fragments of the name once more. At some point a thousand years hence, one of the early caliphs of the Djinn appears to have discovered the writings of another Wind Duke, or the corrupted astral memory core of that original one. The caliph was horrified by what he found, striken dumb and paralytic for twenty years by something that he glimpsed, even if it was but a fraction of the original knowledge. In the end, once he recovered, the Djinn went about hunting for some critical piece of the Immoth's words, even to the point of assaulting the mountain of eternal ice and buying the silence of Cryonax in the matter, ultimately taking a frozen, burning block of ice with some hazy patch of letters embedded inside. That fragment remains now within the Citadel of Ice and Steel, forever out of the reach of the immoth, and forever preventing the rebirth of something defined and given power by the existance and knowledge of its name.
sciborg3 01-31-08, 03:03 PM	Shemmy - I too was thinking about something to do with words/language. My ideas, still nascent and unformed, may end up tying into your story....
Lord Karsus 02-01-08, 12:14 AM	-His ex-wife...:shifty:
WombleHunter 02-01-08, 09:46 AM	ala Verin/Ztefano? I don't know what that means.
sciborg3 02-02-08, 01:46 PM	they are the same demon with two forms- a servant of Grazz't.
Amon_V 02-03-08, 04:55 AM	I'd suggest that the prison, which is unused at this time, offers one means to perpetually incarcerate a low-epic enemy. This is not to be understated; it means that anyone who messes with the Djinn can expect massive power if it becomes necessary. Privately, I'd suspect that it was originally tied to the old order--the wind dukes of Aaqa and their fight against the Mishra the Wolf Spider and the Queen of Chaos, characters who are now a long forgotten echo in the dim recesses of history. I suspect that the Wind Dukes had prepared the cage to hold characters of that overwhelming power, that their bondage and captivity might eventually over the eons force them to kneel to the victory of law. I'd expect that although this cell was not on its original targets, others were incarcerated over the millennia: Archdevils, Lesser Deities, Epic Level Monsters, and perhaps other political rivals to the sultan himself. Who they are, and what infraction they faced, is probably an excellent history project. But, I recognize that I've largely created my own history, partly out of disgust for 4th edition, so I doubt that anyone would agree on the prisoners or their offenses.