Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Charles Phipps 12-10-05, 06:50 PM	Hey guys. I want to state upfront. I love the Kalashatyr but I also hate them. They're just so....insufferably squeaky clean. They're like Care Bears except psionic. They have a lot of potential for abuse though. I was curious if anyone had any ideas about Kalashatyr villains. I was thinking that obviously their rebellion against the Quori might lead some to the same manipulative practices.
MarkB 12-10-05, 07:04 PM	One obvious possibility is the excessively-dedicated Kalashtar who would simply do absolutely anything for his cause. Any zealot has serious bad-guy potential, no matter how noble his intentions. You can increase this further by having him turn out to be being manipulated. The Quori have infiltrated his network of contacts, and been feeding him disinformation for years, so the extreme acts he's been driven to on the basis of what he thinks he's learned of their plans will, far from saving thousands from Inspired domination as he believes, actually discredit and villify all Kalashtar in the eyes of everyone in Khorvaire, crippling the Kalashtar resistance - unless the PCs can stop him in time.
Edymnion 12-10-05, 07:45 PM	Actually, Kalashtar as villians is something even Keith brings up in his first novel (won't get into that, but just sufficed to say that there is a kalashtar in there that is out for their own ends, and we don't know that they are in line with the good guy's or not). Basically, the Kalashtar are fighting the quori, everybody else be damned. As such, if the players just so happen to defend someone who is unknowingly being manipulated by the Quori, and the kalashtar find out, well, they're going to see the party as helping the Quori, and will likely seek to remove the problem...
a_psh 12-10-05, 07:53 PM	In some ways, they're like the Vorlons (from Babylon 5) without a giant battle fleet: fighting the enemy at all costs and going out of their way to be mysterious and inscrutible to outsiders while they do so. I'm quite certain that they'll kill to preserve certain secrets they deem especially important: walk into a kalashtar community asking the wrong questions and you'll come out with a bit of a headache and suprisingly selective amnesia, perhaps, but walk in and ask too many of the wrong questions far too explicitly and you're not coming out. I can easily imagine, for example, the kalashtar trying to off an outsider who's gotten mixed up in the shadow war and wants to expose the Inspired to the entire world.
eloth983 12-10-05, 09:32 PM	I was thinking that they are sort of like the Tok'ra from Stargate. Not villains persay, but still managing to often obstruct the good guys and put them in danger through their plans. This way you could still keep the spirit of them while simultaneously making the players hate them. It would leave you the option to have them be allies, while still having confrontation with the characters. Alternatley, you could portray the kalashtar as being completely unconcerned with the natives of Eberron, busy fighting the Quori on higher planes of existence that they are conviced that mere mortals cannot understand. Or you could just have them be terrorists, who don't care about a little (or a lot of) collateral damage in pursuit of their goals.
Clone547 12-10-05, 10:34 PM	I think having a Kalashtar that comes to to the realization that the war he is fighting is un-winnable, and goes over to the other side interesting. He would be at constant war with his quori spirit. This conflict could lead to some great oppertuinities to RP the split personality. Going with something simalar to the tok'ra, but with the symbiot in the background fighting to control the host.
eloth983 12-10-05, 10:48 PM	Either that or, like with the tok'ra, the characters would have to deal with both the kalashtar and the actual host as completely separate indeviduals. They could have the Kalashtar as an ally, but when the host has control, he works to undo all that the characters and the Kalashtar have done, so the charcters would have to find a way to stop the host without harming or alienating the Kalashtar.
Edymnion 12-10-05, 10:51 PM	Except that the quori spirit within the kalashtar is not sentient. Its splintered between hundreds, or even thousands of other kalashtar. It isn't capable of actually having a will to impose on anyone.
Hellcow 12-10-05, 10:53 PM	I think having a Kalashtar that comes to to the realization that the war he is fighting is un-winnable, and goes over to the other side interesting. One of the things I originally considered for Races of Eberron but didn't have room for was a PrC based along these lines: the kalashtar who turns against his people and wants to become a full-fledged quori in his own right, divorcing himself from his ancestral spirit.
Gurv 12-10-05, 11:39 PM	I had a concept at one point for a kalashtar thrallherd (XPH). Such an individual would be a master of compulsion and control, as the PrC is designed to result in. In this case, his own personal willpower starts to overwhelm that of the quori spirit. With time, the quori begins to lose the battle, and the kalashtar is the one making suggestions to the quori consiousness, instead of the other way around. Once this occurs, it would be only a matter of time before all the other kalashtar linked to that quori are afflicted as well, being subtly influenced by the thrallherd. Those who are most affected by this would manifest as the thrallherd's thralls and believers, while others might simply feel strange in the presence of the domineering kalashtar...some perhaps swayed to a lesser extent by his charismatic ways while others are made uncomfortable by the way his inescapable presence seems to overshadow their own. The only difference to the RAW would be that all the thralls and believers would be kalashtar of the same quori spirit.
(Psi)SeveredHead 12-11-05, 10:55 AM	Any villain has an organization. Is he just the head of it, or is the whole organization nothing but kalashtar? If it's the former, it oculd be just about revenge. (Create an army. Storm the Quori-dominated embassies. Of course, the terrorists under him are all convinced of this.) Such a villain need not be particularly different from other villains. Or the whole organization could be kalashtar... that one is harder to pull off.
Psionycx 12-11-05, 12:19 PM	Races of Eberron had a kalashtar atavist that had become Lawful Evil, convinced that the best way to fight their Dreaming Dark was with their own tactics. He seemed to be placed as a potential leader for a more militant kalashtar faction. The kalashtar are in many ways like the elves, who also tend towards Good. However, just like the elves, this is by no means an absolute and not all kalashtar have to be Good-aligned. Some may lose site of the religious aspects of their conflict with the Quori and see it simply as war, and decide that "acceptable casualties" may occur. Examples might include: 1) A Soulknife assassin that kills anyone he suspects of being an agent of the Dark. 2) A Thrallherd that feels the best way to fight back is to acquire lots of telepathically-controlled backup. The kalashtar as a race have so much on their plate that while they might like to reign in such renegades, they don't always have the resources to do so. A kalashtar faction having drifted towards Evil could easily decide that, like the Dreaming Dark, they need to gain control over people in order to win the war against the Dreaming Dark. They see their peers who are committed to Good as idealistic fools that aren't willing to do what it takes to win.
Sarlax 12-11-05, 02:54 PM	The quori ultimately seem driven to prevent the turning of the age. The kalashtar might decide that it's best to accelerate the process by bringing about an apocalypse. If the kalashtar can engineer massive catastrophes, perhaps the sort that might eliminate entire states, they could sufficiently disrupt the world so that Dal Quor turns, destroying the Dreaming Dark and allowing a new age of light to be born.
Charles Phipps 12-11-05, 03:30 PM	I always thought that the Kalashatyr had better a chance if they were something more like Fu Manchu. Still keeping their ideals but willing to go to abominable lengths to do it. Torture, Brainwashing, Asssassination.... Sarlona would be far less stable if they used those methods.
Kid SixXx 12-11-05, 03:54 PM	Any zealot has serious bad-guy potential, no matter how noble his intentions. Beware when hunting monsters that you do not become one. As you stare longingly into the abyss, the abyss stares longingly into you -Friedrich Nietzsche I totally agree with MarkB's comments, and there is language in the Atavist PrC from RoE to suggest that the zealotry of some Kalashtar Soulknives and Atavists is a matter of great concern to some sectors of Kalashtar society. I often wonder what factors concern the more introspective Kalashtar. Is it fanaticism? The ruthless efficiency by which some of the Soulknives or Atavists hunt down the Dreaming Dark? Or is it the notion that some factions within the Atavists possibly enjoy the combat to such an extent that they actually hope that Il-Yannah never arrives (or at the very least, takes it's time in arriving) for fear that if there are no more enemies to fight, they will no longer serve a purpose in Kalashtar society? Do they revel in the means so much that they have lost sight of the end-state of Il-Yannah? There is a lot of potential for excellent storylines concerning the dark nature of some factions in Kalashtar society and the sobering fact of the matter is that if the Soulknives & Atavists act in the aforementioned matter, the zealots will wind up acting like the terrorists that the Inspired claim that that all Kalashtar are. Nietzsche's quote as it applies to these zealots will then come full circle, and their actions will do more harm than good to the Kalashtar cause.
Hellcow 12-11-05, 05:02 PM	I always thought that the Kalashatyr had better a chance if they were something more like Fu Manchu. Still keeping their ideals but willing to go to abominable lengths to do it. But if they're willing to go to abominable lengths... they aren't keeping their ideals. The kalashtar as a whole see themselves as the emissaries of an age of light. Furthermore, they believe that change can be accomplished through peaceful means. They don't need to defeat the Inspired on Eberron, they simply need to hold them at bay. Torture, Brainwashing, Asssassination.... Sarlona would be far less stable if they used those methods. At which point they become the terrorists the Inspired say they are. And who suffers? The Riedrans, who currently live quite peaceful lives. Certainly, I feel there is story potential in some kalashtar choosing to employ these methods, and I think Kid SixXx is on the right track. But there are good reasons why the kalashtar as a race have not used these methods in the past. The reason kalashtar tend to be good is because their personalities are shaped by their quori ancestors, and it's because those ancestors were good that they opposed the Dreaming Dark in the first place. I believe it's mentioned in RoE, but an evil kalashtar is on some level fundamentally at odds with his quori spirit - which likely makes him a dangerous and unbalanced individual. It can easily happen: the quori spirit is an influence, but as has been noted it is not an active presence that controls the individual; kalashtar have free will and the ability to choose evil, even if they have a bit more of a "guardian angel" urging them to do good when compared to the typical human. The real key, though, is that the kalashtar elders don't feel that they need to defeat the quori: they just need to survive and to hold the Dark at bay, and to keep the wheels of the age turning. Torture and brainwashing are the tools of the darkness. The young and impetuous kalashtar - especially the kalashtar of Khorvaire, who have had less exposure to the traditions of Adar - may believe that the best way to defeat the enemy is to use his weapons against him. But the elder of Adar will certainly maintain that you cannot win a victory for the light by using the weapons of darkness - all you do is spread the darkness further. It may well be that the circumstances of the change affect the nature of the next age: that the next age should be an age of light if the change occurs naturally, but if it is brought about because of chaos and despair on Eberron, it could be an even worse age of darkness. I do agree with the sentiment that the kalashtar look to the big picture and may kill people to serve the greater good, or modify memories to protect the innocent. They do believe that their war is bigger that the concerns of mortals. But the majority do believe overzealousness in the name of the light is itself a tool of the darkness... and IMO when they must kill innocents, they will seek to do so as quickly and painlessly as possible. In comparison to, say, the Church of the Silver Flame, zealotry is a major concern, and the ends do not always justify the means... because the means may make it impossible to attain the end you seek. In Star Trek, Spock says "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one, or the few..." but he's using this as a justification for self-sacrifice, not torture! The average kalashtar is going to follow that same path. While the Tok'ra and Vorlons are both fine comparisons, another good model for the kalashtar is the (movie version of the) Men in Black: they will modify your memories, they will keep secrets hidden, but they are doing it for the good of the public. They are trying to help you: this is not your war, you don't have the tools to fight it, and the best thing they can do is keep you from even realizing you're in danger. Meanwhile they attempt to contain the threats that arise as best as they can, and to keep their plans on track. Every day that they survive is one more nail in the coffin of the Dark. With all that said, I think Gurv's idea of an evil kalashtar who manages to corrupt/control others of his spiritual lineage is a fun one, as is the idea of a kalashtar quori going mad and that affecting the kalashtar of her lineage. And you can certainly have rogue kalashtar turning to the darkness for any number of reasons. The surprise presented by the evil kalashtar is a fun tool... but for it to be a surprise, the majority of kalashtar need to cleave to the traditions of their race. Of all the people of Eberron, the kalashtar are the ones who have an actual reason to have a racial alignment - the constant, subtle influence of the quori spirits, who fled Dal Quor because of their good beliefs. Some may break away from this... especially in Khorvaire, and especially in the present day... but it remains something that defines the kalashtar as a race. So all in all? Certainly keep coming up with ideas on this thread. There's good stuff here. Just remember the reasons for the traditional kalashtar alignment, and the nature of their fight with the Inspired. The DD need to pacify the world and eliminate the kalashtar; the kalashtar simply need to survive and continue their work.
Teron Gorefiend 12-11-05, 05:13 PM	I always thought that the Kalashatyr had better a chance if they were something more like Fu Manchu. Still keeping their ideals but willing to go to abominable lengths to do it. Torture, Brainwashing, Asssassination.... Sarlona would be far less stable if they used those methods. OK, that's it. Don't you read? It's kalashtar, for God's sake! Ahem... more constructively, according to what happens to be the only good chapter in Races of Eberron, the kalashtar have little use for "abominable lengths" because the way to win their mystical war is pretty much to stay alive and keep meditating until the Turning of the Age.
Hola 12-11-05, 05:19 PM	Actualy I had a Kalashtar villian, an assassin that had become dissillusioned with the world and drowned the voice of his Quori spirit with dream lilly.(sorry for my spelling)
Psionycx 12-11-05, 11:00 PM	It's worth noting here that it has been mentioned in the kalashtar racial write-up that they do have to maintain considerable mental discipline in order to preserve their sanity because they cannot rest their minds through dreaming as can other beings. A kalashtar whose meditations are constantly disrupted by the stresses of conflict with the Inspired may begin to show signs of mental instability and/or alignment drift. Indeed, this may be the case with the evil atavist Sharserath. The kalastar seem to combat this by living in tightly-knit communities where they can provide each other with mutual support and a kalashtar suffering from stress can turn to other kalashtar, particular those of the same lineage, for comfort and help. But it's conceivable that a kalashtar, or even a small kalashtar community, facing great pressure could begin to develop emotional/mental problems. An individual kalashtar in this instance might lose sight of the spiritual goals of the Path of Light and become more focused on conflict with the Quori as a straightforward war to be won. This can especially be the case in scenarios of high attrition where a kalashtar community suffers severe losses due to enemy action. ("Meditation?! I will find time for such airy concerns as meditation when I can be sure our enemies will not slaughter during such concessions to weakness!") The same could happen with an unbalanced group. This could also happen in the case of kalashtar orphans, kalashtar born outside of the closed community of their people and so never receiving the training in mental disciplines needed to cope with their dual-spirits and inability to dream. They might spontaneously manifest great psionic power, but be highly unbalanced mentally, developing symptoms similar to schizophrenia. I could easily see a kalashtar psionic cabal in a city infiltrated heavily by the Dreaming Dark or some other evil force becoming paranoid and obsessive and drifting towards Evil in their desire to survive and overcome their foes. For example deciding that only neighbors that are psionically monitored and controlled can be trusted, seeking to dominate authority figures, etc... Basically abandoning the Path of Light in favor of a more pragmatic militant stance. The kalashtar in Khorvaire face certain pressures their peers in Adar do not. They are often spread out into smaller groups in areas that they do not defensively control as do the Adarans. Pressures in this environment and a reduced social support structure could lead to kalashtar with mental problems not common in larger, more supportive kalashtar communities. One idea (and I'm not Silver Flame bashing again despite my rep) would be for a kalashtar orphan to come into the hands of a puritan of the Silver Flame. They might see the kalashtar's quori spirit as a kind of "possession". Oddly resistant to exorcism but possession nonetheless. The orphan might be raised (in a somewhat abusive manner) to regard the inner callings of this spirit as something to be rejected. Ironically, this could lead to the orphan developing an Evil personality as they actively reject the quori's pull towards Good. They might turn on their mentor and become a very serious, and mentally-imbalanced evil. Actually, I could see this happening to any kalashtar that tries too hard to assert their individually over their lineage.
jknevitt 12-12-05, 01:43 AM	OK, that's it. Don't you read? It's kalashtar, for God's sake! Thank you! One would think if you can get out the k-a-l-a-s-h-t-, you can get the rest out correctly. :D
Hola 12-12-05, 01:46 AM	Ah but the y gives it such a flare :)
jknevitt 12-12-05, 01:51 AM	Ah but the y gives it such a flair :) Fixed yer typo.
cmanos 12-12-05, 09:27 AM	One of the things I originally considered for Races of Eberron but didn't have room for was a PrC based along these lines: the kalashtar who turns against his people and wants to become a full-fledged quori in his own right, divorcing himself from his ancestral spirit. Oh sure...tease us with that.....
DarkWarriorKarg 12-12-05, 11:20 AM	An evil kalashtar monk, who has discovered that, if he kills fellow descendants of the quori spirit within, he becomes more powerful. He continues until he becomes The One. :D
FuzzCube 12-12-05, 11:57 AM	OK - not strictly evil Kalashtar, but here is an idea I had. One of the ideas I've been toying with is to let a high level inspired telepath mindseed a Kalashtar. (I don't know if this is possible by the RAW, but if not, then maybe an epic level psionic effect). The mind seed corrupts both the human and quori part of the Kalashtar. The corruption of quori part of the Kalashtar slowly corrupts all other Kalashtar linked to the same quori spirit. This can be expanded into several themes from here, but the one I was thinking of was: The corruption of the quori spirit reawakens its desire to return to Dal-Quor, but this will only be possible if it becomes a full fledged quori. In order to become a full fledged quori one of the Kalashtar must kill all other Kalashtar of the same line, so that only one Kalashtar of that line remains, when that happens the quori spirit will become whole and will be able to return to Dal-Quor - back to the dreaming dark. The reawakened quori spirit manages to take hold of several of the corrupted Kalashtar and uses them to start killing all others of the same line. Stopping the Kalashtar killers is not enough, since the corrupted spirit will simply continue with its work with other Kalashtar of the same line. The PCs would have to find a way to cleanse of the quori spirit of the mind seed.
Cobu 12-12-05, 02:28 PM	An evil kalashtar monk, who has discovered that, if he kills fellow descendants of the quori spirit within, he becomes more powerful. He continues until he becomes The One. :D This was covered in an ask Keith Baker Thread. It doesn't really work because the fact taht the spirit is spread through many doesn't actually affect the power level. As such Kalashtar do feel more powerful when a bunch in their line die. Otherwise the last couple of the line that was killed off would have been crazy powerful and that wasn't the case.
Cobu 12-12-05, 02:37 PM	If you want an evil Kalashtar check out pg 137. It's talking about the Atavists and their leaders and it mentions that "Sharserath was once a noble soul but had a radical change of personality after narrowly surviving an assination attempt. Recently, he has been encouraging his followers to use the methodology of the Dreaming Dark, and many in the movement feel he has turned away from the path of light." Now he may be focused on taking out the quori but that has villian potential all over it. Also he's pretty powerful (Soulknife 6/Atavist 9) AND Lawful Evil. What more do you need?
Cobu 12-12-05, 02:37 PM	If you want an evil Kalashtar check out pg 137 of Races of Eberron. It's talking about the Atavists and their leaders and it mentions that "Sharserath was once a noble soul but had a radical change of personality after narrowly surviving an assination attempt. Recently, he has been encouraging his followers to use the methodology of the Dreaming Dark, and many in the movement feel he has turned away from the path of light." Now he may be focused on taking out the quori but that has villian potential all over it. Also he's pretty powerful (Soulknife 6/Atavist 9) AND Lawful Evil. What more do you need?
Cobu 12-12-05, 02:39 PM	crap anyone know how i can delete these extra posts i made by accident?
MarkB 12-12-05, 03:19 PM	crap anyone know how i can delete these extra posts i made by accident? Ask a mod. Manual deletion by board users is disabled.
a_psh 12-12-05, 03:35 PM	I think there's something very important to take away from Keith's thing in addition to the fact that it makes sense for most kalashtar to be Good: Evil kalashtar only make effective villains when set against the backdrop of the the rest of their people. A single kalashtar or a small cabal willing to use darkness against the quori is a lot more interesting and terrifying than the entire society specifically because of the stark contrast it creates. The wilder is a good class for mentally unstable kalashtar savants; the Quori Nightmare is a great candidate for those that have started adopting the tactics of the Dreaming Dark or just plain delving into their darker selves. Kalashtar also can make good antagonists without diluting their ideals at all. PCs can easily be duped into fighting the kalashtar (or can honestly find that their ideals bring them into conflict with the kalashtar - for example, how would the PCs react if they found out that the turning of the Wheel of the Age would mean a great cataclysm coming down on Khorvaire to match the upheaval in Dal Quor, and that it was only a year away from happening?) without the DM needing to change them at all. Fighting a compassionate, devoted, self-sacrificing enemy can be just as interesting and challenging as fighting one that's rotten to the core. ... The term "Kalashtyr" makes me think of "Vampyres"... Hmm, now if only Keith could turn them into little balls of dark and brooding angst, there would be millions to be made here. (Unfortunately for this pocketbook, of course, Hellcow has good design sense and taste.)
Hellcow 12-12-05, 04:36 PM	for example, how would the PCs react if they found out that the turning of the Wheel of the Age would mean a great cataclysm coming down on Khorvaire to match the upheaval in Dal Quor, and that it was only a year away from happening? It is an interesting idea. After all, the Inspired essentially want to bring about peaceful stagnation. What if the Mourning was in fact the first step in the turning of the age? Are the PCs willing to watch civilization crumble because the kalashtar say that it will bring about a greater good in the future? If such a disaster was in the cards, the kalashtar would undoubtedly maintain that the wonderful future would outweigh it - that as hard as it would be for a time, things would be far better for those who survived it. It's like getting a shot - "This will only hurt for a moment." The problem is, from the quori perspective, "a moment" could mean a century, after which you get 40,000 years of peace. As a_psh suggests, the kalashtar would still act with compassion, doing whatever possible to ease the suffering of innocents: but if you don't like the future that they consider both inevitable and desireable, these good people could still be your enemy. Note that I'm not suggesting that the kalashtar actively caused the Mourning... rather that the effect may be the first symptom of the change and may spread as it moves closer, while the actions of the Inspired might bring it under control. (Presumably, this might also mean that there is a parallel to the Mournland in Dal Quor itself!) Personally, I lean towards the idea that the nature of the change might be reflected in the nature of the next age, and thus most kalashtar would attempt to avoid evil actions in their push for change (and that their desired change wouldn't be so devastating to Eberron). Nonetheless, if you wanted to go down this darker path, I do think it's an interesting dilemma to place PCs in: the Inspired who want to conquer the world but who will keep it intact, and the kalashtar who want to save the world for the future... but whose noble actions may devastate it in the present.
Cloud Divider 12-12-05, 05:21 PM	This was covered in an ask Keith Baker Thread. It doesn't really work because the fact taht the spirit is spread through many doesn't actually affect the power level. As such Kalashtar do feel more powerful when a bunch in their line die. Otherwise the last couple of the line that was killed off would have been crazy powerful and that wasn't the case. See, the fun thing here, is that it doesn't matter that it's not true! All that matters is that the particular Kalashtar trying to become The One THINKS it's true. Maybe he was hanging out with his spirit-brother on a mission, the op went south, and his brother died. For whatever reason, the survivor associated his survival against incredible odds with the death of his spirit-brother and his Quori-essence joining with his. Maybe he thinks the only reason it didn't happen in the past is because they didn't "die right." Perhaps if the victim dies under the proper circumstances (ie ritual murder) it WILL work. Because, see, he's been having these DREAMS lately, and they tell him so. Nevermind that Kalashtar don't normally dream. Maybe he thinks it's his own Quori spirit that's dropping the hints. Maybe he's fabricating them due to some kind of funky PTSD aftereffect. Maybe there's a clever/sneaky/evil Inspired that's decided to run a little experiment with this survivor. How many descendants/inheritors of a single Quori spirit are there? Dozens? Hundreds? You could very easily run a few session's worth of Serial Murder Mystery subplot and only kill off a couple Kalashtar. Ego and insanity (and maybe a little help) may be more than enough to make him feel empowered, even though he hasn't accomplished much of anything in the big picture.
D666 12-12-05, 07:43 PM	See, the fun thing here, is that it doesn't matter that it's not true! All that matters is that the particular Kalashtar trying to become The One THINKS it's true. Maybe he was hanging out with his spirit-brother on a mission, the op went south, and his brother died. For whatever reason, the survivor associated his survival against incredible odds with the death of his spirit-brother and his Quori-essence joining with his. Maybe he thinks the only reason it didn't happen in the past is because they didn't "die right." Perhaps if the victim dies under the proper circumstances (ie ritual murder) it WILL work. Because, see, he's been having these DREAMS lately, and they tell him so. Nevermind that Kalashtar don't normally dream. Maybe he thinks it's his own Quori spirit that's dropping the hints. Maybe he's fabricating them due to some kind of funky PTSD aftereffect. Maybe there's a clever/sneaky/evil Inspired that's decided to run a little experiment with this survivor. How many descendants/inheritors of a single Quori spirit are there? Dozens? Hundreds? You could very easily run a few session's worth of Serial Murder Mystery subplot and only kill off a couple Kalashtar. Ego and insanity (and maybe a little help) may be more than enough to make him feel empowered, even though he hasn't accomplished much of anything in the big picture. Not hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands. Remember, the Kalashtar in Adar have held out against the entire rest of the continent of Sarlona for 1500 years. I don't care how tough the terrain is, that requires numbers. An adversary as ruthless as the Inspired would grind them down by attrition if their numbers were small. The Kalashtar themselves are formidible but they are only a LA +0 race. So the Highlander approach would be doomed to fail, as any sane Kalashtar would realize. Leaving only the crazies... :) Gene
Gurv 12-12-05, 08:49 PM	Are the PCs willing to watch civilization crumble because the kalashtar say that it will bring about a greater good in the future? If such a disaster was in the cards, the kalashtar would undoubtedly maintain that the wonderful future would outweigh it - that as hard as it would be for a time, things would be far better for those who survived it. A kalashtar Child of Winter, perhaps?
Cloud Divider 12-17-05, 12:53 PM	Not hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands. Remember, the Kalashtar in Adar have held out against the entire rest of the continent of Sarlona for 1500 years. I don't care how tough the terrain is, that requires numbers. An adversary as ruthless as the Inspired would grind them down by attrition if their numbers were small. The Kalashtar themselves are formidible but they are only a LA +0 race. I don't necessarily buy that the total world population of Kalashtar is that high. There's many more Kalashtar total than Inspired, certainly. But not by 2 or 3 orders of magnitude. Regarding Adar - it's not just Kalashtar there holding out against the Riedrans - you've also got the Adaran humans. Furthermore, remember that in the case of Kalashtar/Human pairings, only the child of the Kalashtar parent's gender is Kalashtar; ergo you've got a lot of human rebels as well. Plus, you lose quite a bit of the "Fighting the Losing War against Incredible Odds" angst if there's tens of thousands of Kalashtar, IMO. So the Highlander approach would be doomed to fail, as any sane Kalashtar would realize. Leaving only the crazies... :) Hey, I never said the fellow serial-murdering fellow Kalashtar needed to be sane... :)
Korhal_IV 12-19-05, 02:19 AM	Not hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands. Remember, the Kalashtar in Adar have held out against the entire rest of the continent of Sarlona for 1500 years. I don't care how tough the terrain is, that requires numbers. An adversary as ruthless as the Inspired would grind them down by attrition if their numbers were small. The Kalashtar themselves are formidible but they are only a LA +0 race. The Kalashtar might only be LA +0, but there's some LA +bajillion great blue wyrms hanging out with them. I figure they might play a pretty hefty role in defending Adar. Human wave tactics don't work so well in narrow canyons against breath weapons that refresh every 1d4 rounds. ;)