Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lily_Knight 11-22-05, 07:52 PM	For my new campaign the characters have to stop the potential escape of a daelkyr from Khyber. I am a little undecided though on how to portray the daelkyr (whom I have named Phelryydra). So my question to the board users is this: should I portray the daelkyr as having reasonably understandable, although still quite alien, intentions OR portray him as an incomprehensibly insane demigod?
Charles Phipps 11-22-05, 08:00 PM	I'll draw you a picture... Imagine that you are in, quite bluntly, the most frelled up freakshow imaginable. A carnival where everyone is a corpse and engaged in depravities, a huge massive living Temple of Flesh where the interior is a stomach with trapped souls screaming out of the end of tentacles with faces, or something similiarly nightmarish. ...or imagine a little inviting Cottage in the Middle of Nowhere. Filled with little dollies and doelies and nothing horrible at all. This is the home of the Daelkyr. Take your pick. The Daelkyr themselves should be decidedly nonthreatening in behavior. The Daelkyr themselves have understandable motivations in the General sense (they wish to mold a greater physical/spiritual/metal creature) but they're aesthetics are beyond the pale. Its the contrast that is an important thing. Daelkyr are like Willy Wonka in that they're beautiful in many ways but equally find beautiful in horrible transformations...such as Kids to Gingerbread or little orange slave people or....nine mouthed tentacle beasts.
Uller999 11-22-05, 08:00 PM	I'm partial to the second option. I think of Daelkyr and Quori and the Rajash to be Ctuthulu (sp?) like monsters. They are alien and incomprehensible and though there motives might seem clear, dealing with them is touching some far-off ideology of incomprehensible madness
Charles Phipps 11-22-05, 08:01 PM	I'm partial to the second option. I think of Daelkyr and Quori and the Rajash to be Ctuthulu (sp?) like monsters. They are alien and incomprehensible and though there motives might seem clear, dealing with them is touching some far-off ideology of incomprehensible madness Except that's the Rajahs not the Daelkyr. The Daelkyr take huma appearences even if they're incomprehensible. They're more like Nyarlathotep than Cthulhu. Ironic since he's a Cthulhu creature too.
Uller999 11-22-05, 08:13 PM	Except that's the Rajahs not the Daelkyr. The Daelkyr take huma appearences even if they're incomprehensible. They're more like Nyarlathotep than Cthulhu. Ironic since he's a Cthulhu creature too. I was referring to the tone not the actual creature Cthulhu. Since the Daelky are the physical manfiestation of "the plane of madness" it would seem they should be mad to all but the insane characters. I like the idea of evil incarnate as something naturally abhorent to all but the most deranged individuals. I think Daelky work really well in that role.
Zemyla 11-22-05, 08:25 PM	What's interesting is that the daelkyr's alignment is "usually neutral evil". So there are some good daelkyr around. However: a) they're probably still in Xoriat, because they wouldn't help invade, and b) good or not, they're still as mad as the proverbial hatter. So don't count on help from good daelkyr unless it suits their needs.
Psionycx 11-22-05, 08:51 PM	I am remined of a race from the 2E Spelljammer campaign setting: the Reigar. They were obsessively artistic, and extremely intelligent and magically adept, and had supposedly managed to destroy their home planet in the "Master Stroke", which was a supreme expression of the art of war. The daelkyr are physically beautiful, but have alien asthetics that probably make more sense of Xoriat. They also see living beings as raw material for their "art". Flesh is their medium and they love working with it. Given their power and intellect they probably do not consider "lesser" creatures as anything more than children, or pets. So they may be oddly affectionate to their victims even as they perform some grotesque experiment on them. They may be quite polite, in a Hannibal Lechter sort of way. But start a battle and they may become demonic.
Eberik 11-22-05, 09:14 PM	Well I do like the ideas, it's how I have intended to play then, much like the creatures from the Lovecraft mythos, but in doing so remember one thing about them: They are not "EVIL" in the sense of the word as good or evil. They are labeled evil becaue that is how the insignifcant minds of mortals label them, its the only way we can comprehend them without destroying our frail reality. They simply are what they are and do what they do. We (humanity or as it were mortal races) mean little if nothing to the galactic scale of things. Motes of dust in the rays of a sun to distant to see us. Now with that said, I really like the idea you said Charles about being like Willy Wonka.... gods, imagine a "candy" factory in the Labyrinth... my players would die laughing, but IC and OOC. (loves the idea)
zambuka 11-22-05, 10:01 PM	Dr Hannibal Lecter. A highly charismatic intelligent person who can hold a stimulating intellectual conversation while casually chowing down on the deep fried, battered ******* of his dinner guest. Someone who is unpredictable but always rational and consistant in his actions. Someone who is highly cultured and refined in his own wierd way. Daelkyr view their work and destruction as an art form, and by art I don't mean some whakko taking a dump on the sidewalk and calling it art. Their canvas is the physical body of their victims and the society they live in. He wouldn't be as creepy if he was wild eyed and insane and prone to wierd mood swings and inconsistant actions. edit: wow.. it edited the word I wanted to use. Replace it with "ball sack", or "marble pouch" or "sporren filler" or whatever colloquialism you choose.
Steelpunk 11-22-05, 10:51 PM	I generally portray their psyche as one that perceives patterns in everything, and sees every grain of sand as a piece in an ever-changing puzzle, and only they know what the puzzle is supposed to look like. I don't see them as unpredictable beings, but rather as beings who seek to reshape worlds in accordance with a wholly alien logic and intelligence that is far beyond mortal ken. The closest analogy I can think of might be an abstract painting - it might seem chaotic, illogical and incomprehensible to the viewer, but to the artist it follows a distinct structure, pattern and logic that makes perfect sense.
Edymnion 11-22-05, 11:20 PM	Accourding to MoE, the Daelkyr radiate an aura of madness so strong, it kills any non-abberation that gets close to them. Even sealed away, the sample daelkyr's aura radiates 15-20 feet out from his prison, and the general aura of madness fills his entire prison/fortress. He spends much of his time instructing his minions to operate his Husk of Infinite Worlds to create bizarre new abberations. They may be mad, but they are not chaotic (well, they can be Chaotic, but I mean they don't embody chaos). They can make fully thought out plans, and carry them through with inhuman patience and determination. But its not someone you can reason with, because their reasoning is wholey differant than ours. You follow their orders, you accept their rewards (and hope your reward isn't a trip into the Husk), and you do not question them.
rampant 11-23-05, 12:11 AM	unless you have really really really reheheheheally BIG rock to drop on them
makeshiftwings 11-23-05, 12:20 PM	As my players are low-level, I haven't got a chance to play one yet, but when I do, I am going to try to keep "conversation" with it to a minimum. I envision conversation with the daelkyr as going something like this: A statuesque, beautiful man stands before you, his hands covered in blood, his face devoid of any emtion whatsoever. The discarded remains of various creatures lie strewn about him. PC: Uh... hi there, mister daelkyr, we were just wondering if... The Daelkyr opens its mouth, and you are cut off as a horrible screeching like the cries of a hundred dying children surrounds you. His mouth opens wider and wider, an obscene black pit, and your vision is eclipsed by the whirling madness that lies within. Your mind is filled with horrific, incomprehensible visions of tortures so hideous that you begin to doubt that any goodness is possible in this world. Amidst the churning chaos and despair, a barely noticable pattern appears, a unique moment of pain drilled into the back of your skull that somehow conveys a message: "You have come for the sword. You will not have it. You will die here." The chaos subsides, and the daelkyr stands before you once again, face blank and expressionless. PC: Er.... well... ok, talking time is over.
green_yawgmoth 11-23-05, 11:47 PM	If you have the BoVD, I run them as sort of like the Xammux. Carrying out all manner of horrible experiments underground and such. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v91/yawgmoth/kittyjig.gif
Eberik 11-24-05, 10:44 AM	As my players are low-level, I haven't got a chance to play one yet, but when I do, I am going to try to keep "conversation" with it to a minimum. I envision conversation with the daelkyr as going something like this: A statuesque, beautiful man stands before you, his hands covered in blood, his face devoid of any emtion whatsoever. The discarded remains of various creatures lie strewn about him. PC: Uh... hi there, mister daelkyr, we were just wondering if... The Daelkyr opens its mouth, and you are cut off as a horrible screeching like the cries of a hundred dying children surrounds you. His mouth opens wider and wider, an obscene black pit, and your vision is eclipsed by the whirling madness that lies within. Your mind is filled with horrific, incomprehensible visions of tortures so hideous that you begin to doubt that any goodness is possible in this world. Amidst the churning chaos and despair, a barely noticable pattern appears, a unique moment of pain drilled into the back of your skull that somehow conveys a message: "You have come for the sword. You will not have it. You will die here." The chaos subsides, and the daelkyr stands before you once again, face blank and expressionless. PC: Er.... well... ok, talking time is over. Love the description (runs away with a slightly bulging cloak).
realdm 11-25-05, 06:52 AM	ok my dear colleagues, here is how I represented to my PCs the daelkyr known as the stained, which, in my campaign, sleeps underneath the city of towers. its not chaotic. its not human, but when they saw the image i heard a lot of swearing. by the way this wen is one of the top artists i found on deviant.. share with me this little treasure http://www.deviantart.com/view/13792264/ hope you enjoy realdm