Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Trulock1 01-13-06, 01:17 PM	I was wondering what theories there are about the origin of the Lord of Blades? All I deas are welcome! :D
Edymnion 01-13-06, 01:39 PM	The most "official" theory, the one that cowtows to the actually material presented in the setting is that the LoB was one of the WF teachers that taught other WF after they came out of the creation forges, and thats why he is able to get such loyalty out of his converts, because they already knew and respected him. Another one thats been floating around is that the LoB'ster is actually the original d'Cannith (his first name escapes me) that created the first WF on Khovaire, that has taken all 10 levels of Renegade Mastermaker and then started in on Juggernaught. The origin I created is that the LoB'ster is actually an ancient demon that manifests itself as the strongest being of the age in order to try and take over and restore the Age of Demons.
Kid SixXx 01-13-06, 03:29 PM	Another one thats been floating around is that the LoB'ster is actually the original d'Cannith (his first name escapes me) that created the first WF on Khovaire, that has taken all 10 levels of Renegade Mastermaker and then started in on Juggernaught. Keith suggested in the first Dragonshard article covering the Warforged that Aaren could be in the employ of the LoB'ster, and is helping the LoB with the Mournland Creation Forge. After MoE hit the shelves, the logical quantum leap in thought after seeing the Renegade MasterMaker PrC was the speculation that Aaren was not in the employ of the LoB: he became the LoB.
DargonSwift 01-14-06, 12:55 AM	Aaren d'Cannith and LoB both play a minor role (so far) in my campaign, though the PCs will at least meet LoB at some point. In my campaign the Lord of Blades was a warforged prototype, named Razor, who was created by Aaren just before he was excoriated by his father. After he was excoriated, Razor left with him and they became adventures, with Aaren changing his name to Orin. Their final adventure was to stop a group of cultist (Dragon Below) who were building an eldrich machine that would create a sphere of annihilation over a Gatekeeper seal. Merrix, Aaren's son, was the architect of the machine. During the confrontation, Merrix somehow convinced Razor to betray Aaren, and Razor maimed him before killing off their other companions. Aaren/Orin managed to survive, but was horribly maimed. He crafted mechanical limbs to replace two legs and an arm at the shoulder (Renegade Mastermaker). Razor, fulfilling whatever bargain he and Merrix made, slipped away, emerging years later in the Mournland and using the title, The Lord of Blades. Perhaps it was Merrix who first offered LoB the secrets to become a juggernaut.
Temjinstrife 01-14-06, 03:36 AM	In my campaign, the Lord of Blades' true body died long ago. Warforged existed in Xen'drik as giants' servants and cannon fodder after the humanoids began their rebellion and flight. Their general, the future Lord of Blades, was trained and propagandized into hating the humanoids, while simultaneously chafing against giant rule. Because of his value as a tactician and as support for their troops, he was granted one of the few Circlets of Preservation that have ever been made. During the dragon-giant war, he and his followers betrayed the giants in an attempt to win their freedom, but were brutally crushed. Taking the body of a follower through the Circlet, he fled and created an eldritch machine with knowledge gleaned from the giants' arcane laboratories, which resulted in the final destruction of the giant civilization in Xen'drik, as well as the destruction of his new body. When the schema and docents were found in Xen'drik years later, during the Last War, the Circlet of Preservation containing his essence was also found and brought back to study. The circlet was placed on a warforged test subject, and the LoB's personality reawakened. He lay dormant for quite some time, learning of the world and how it had changed. When the time was right, he struck, taking over the body and fleeing deep beneath Metrol, where he redesigned and rebuilt the machine that he thought would finally destroy all humanity... bringing about the Mourning. Following the Mourning, he created a new, physically powerful body from the creation forge, and placed his circlet on it...
Cutlass 01-14-06, 11:00 AM	My two cents: The writeups that have been presented on the LOBster give him such an abysmally low UMD skill modifier that I would discount any of the "renegade mastermaker" theories as to his origin. Although it is quite possible that he could have such people either working for him or using him as a front man, the LOBster just can't cut it in that regard himself.
SlithyTove 01-14-06, 04:10 PM	In my campaign the LOB was simply an elite Cryan foot soldier in the right place at the right time to free a powerful being from its eons old prison. The LOB's wish for a place where worforged could be free was granted. :smirk: Some Rakshasa actually keep their word. :blink: Wraps up the cause of the mourning and the LOB's orgin all in one nasty combo. :devil: :evillaugh
Kid SixXx 01-14-06, 06:03 PM	Although it is quite possible that he could have such people either working for him or using him as a front man, the LOBster just can't cut it in that regard himself. Indeed. There is no rule that says that the Warforged in the write-up is the actual Lord of Blades. With all of the speculation, I'm of the opinion that there is no single Lord of Blades, just as there wasn't any single Dread Pirate Morgan or any one Ishikawa Goemon. The identity has been assumed by more than one individual Warforged, IMO, and my conspiracist streak likes to think that it's all a plot devised by Aaren & Merrix to further Warforged experimentation with a strong thumb in the nose at the Treaty of Thronehold and the laws of Five Nations. I personally would have preferred that the LoB had never been statted, but that's just my opinion.
RickVigorous 01-14-06, 10:48 PM	I came up with the following (originally found here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=6723526) ): ------------ THE LORD OF BLADES The giants of Xen'drik developed the basic processes that would eventually be rediscovered by House Cannith to produce the warforged. Modern warforged thus trace their heritage back to the giant empire that fell tens of thousands of years ago. The giants developed living constructs during their efforts to fight off the quori invasion. The hope was that their artificial minds would prove resistant to quori influence - and that hope proved to be well-founded, at least at first. Giant artificers ensured that their creation's bodies and minds were unified, by inscribing a magic sigil on each construct's forehead. This sigil protected the warforged from the mental powers of the quori, and for a time it seemed that the invasion would be beat back by these new artificial soldiers. But the quori were clever, and they had the advantage of time; they could experiment on captured warforged for years on Dal Quor, while mere days passed on Eberron. These experiments were largely failures. The giants had done their work well, and the quori's efforts to subvert the warforged proved unsuccessful. But one effort proved successful. The quori were able to develop a device that would attach to the warforged. These devices each housed a lesser quori spirit. These spirits now had access to the bodies of the warforged, and in this way they slipped into their minds as well. One corrupted warforged was tasked with inserting a quori spirit into the creation forges where the warforged were created. The corrupted warforged succeeded, and in so doing compromised the power of the magic sigils forever. However, the quori did not realize that their pawn was not under their control. Soon after accomplishing his task, the warforged vanished. The quori were curious about the fate of their erstwhile servant, but they simply assumed he was lost in the chaos surrounding their planar invasion. The giants never learned what corrupted their creations, as the renewed quori invasion forced them to use the draconic magic that would eventually prove their undoing. For his part, the warforged had developed powerful psionic powers as a result of the quori meddling. His activities between the end of the giant empire and the present are unknown. Tens of thousands of years later, Merrix and Aaren d'Cannith discovered the corrupted giant creation forges deep in the jungles of Xen'drik. They learned how to create modern warforged. The quori spirits that had corrupted the forges were long gone, but the effects of their work remained. The new warforged retained the magic sigils (now called "ghulra," a Dwarven word for truth), but the sigils no longer provided any protection. The ancient warforged, now a mighty psychic, learned of these new living constructs. During his long years in isolation, he had seen countless fleshy creatures die, many at his own hands. He became convinced of the essential superiority of living constructs. The reactivation of the creation forges meant that he was no longer alone. These new warforged would be the chosen race. They would eliminate the meat races, and the ancient warforged would rule a world of metal and stone. During his long existence, he developed a way to imprint his spirit into other living constructs, overwriting their personalities with his own. In this way he created disciples: beings that shared his mind as memories, although they lacked his vast powers. This process also altered the ghulra on his victims' brows, changing them into duplicates of his sigil. The ancient warforged adopted a new persona, which would instill fear in the fleshy beings he desiped: the Lord of Blades. And here's a new feat to go along with this plotline: Uncorrupted Ghulra [Warforged] Your ghulra is untainted by quori influence. Prerequisite: Warforged, 1st level only. Benefit: You are immune to mind-affecting spells and abilities, but you lose the ability to use docent components. Special: Unlike most feats, this feat must be taken at 1st level during character creation. I envision this version of the Lord of Blades to be something like a fighter 1/wilder 14/warforged juggernaut 5, if we limit him to non-epic levels (although with 40,000 years of experience, he might very well have gone epic). I think his duplicates should lose the psionic powers, but retain the warforged juggernaut levels (with enough levels in other classes to allow them to meet the prerequisites). The exact details are more-or-less irrelevant; as far as I'm concerned, the ability is a plot device and little else.
Armorlord 01-15-06, 12:50 AM	Don't forget the theory that he was once the King's servant, Bulwark, but I've never liked that one considering that he in theory left a positive impression about warforged being real people.. that or some really serious blackmail. ... -Holy crap, I just thought of something serious enough if you wanted a twist that bad. That King Boranel and/or Breland were actually responsible for the Day of Mourning, the exact details of that aside, and his servant cleverly arranged a blackmail of that information in exchange for the freedom of the Warforged.. As for how he got from released slave to being a juggernaut of flesh-death, I can think of several different routes that could be drawn up. All and all though, what I really like is the idea that the Lord of Blades is a presonality from the time of the giants, surprised I never thought of it before. I could imagine him sending his people after locations and items that no-one else had heard of or thought to look there. Giving him an edge in unusual schema and warforged designs. I agree he may have best been left unstated, or at least higher level, though I didn't take a good look since I have a PC of my own that's lining up to be opposition for his whole group, gathering fellow warforged to rebuild Cyre. And on a somewhat different note, a different theory regarding Lob: Sirellyn's Superior Magnetism (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20021011a): The Lord of Blades one shot. Might not kill him, but with all those flunkies he keeps it'll at least hella fun to see and give you time to flee and/or fireball. ;)
Kalanth 01-15-06, 01:55 AM	I really don't have any earth shattering theory on this. I just play out the LoB'ster as a deranged Warforged who suffered some ill effects mentally from the Day of Mourning. I play it off as the LoB having made up the stories about his ties with Aaren and Merrix. I also don't use the printed stats on him, and made him out of a few bard levels to enhance his charm and lies, and tossed in juggernaut and barbarian. He recruits warforged easily in Sharn because no one knows who he looks like, but the images of his hulking figure and brutish design are falsified tales of legend. The real LoB is a Gold and Silver lined warforged made of a blueish steel and keeps himself highly polished. In my Eberron it is not uncommon to find him lurking in Sharn, though most won't know its him, and he only moves about the city at night.
Armorlord 01-15-06, 08:40 AM	I really don't have any earth shattering theory on this. I just play out the LoB'ster as a deranged Warforged who suffered some ill effects mentally from the Day of Mourning. I play it off as the LoB having made up the stories about his ties with Aaren and Merrix. I also don't use the printed stats on him, and made him out of a few bard levels to enhance his charm and lies, and tossed in juggernaut and barbarian. He recruits warforged easily in Sharn because no one knows who he looks like, but the images of his hulking figure and brutish design are falsified tales of legend. The real LoB is a Gold and Silver lined warforged made of a blueish steel and keeps himself highly polished. In my Eberron it is not uncommon to find him lurking in Sharn, though most won't know its him, and he only moves about the city at night. That is a pretty slick way to run it, particularly if your players are all geared up to tromp around the Mournland looking for a heavy combat warforged, heck even give them one against 'a' Lord of Blades, either some other crazy 'forged or, my favorite, a Warforged Charger juggernaut with the blades attached seeming to command a force of warforged looking for them. If they beat him they'll wonder where his Final Messenger went but walk around for months thinking that they defeated the threat of the Lord of Blades, prehaps never discovering that the one defeated was just a dupe with low wis/cha dolled up that way serving the true LoB as a physical 'front man', prehaps one of many. Imagine a later point where they continue to persist in His Business and forge their way to where they know he must be, the inner sanctum of his base of operations in the heart of the Mournland. Bursting into the final chamber ready to face the 'real' Lord of Blades after avoiding/facing the other threats- only to recoil as they see five of six of them turn from where they seem to be holding council with another less-threatening warforged. As the others engage the gold and silver lined one edges off to the side aiding the 'Lords of Blades' with his bardic abilities performing Lord of Blades propaganda, and who slips out quietly through a secret door if the fight goes badly. :w00t: :lightbulb :plotting: :evillaugh
Kalanth 01-15-06, 02:14 PM	You got it, Armorlord. :D No one said he had to be a massive damage hound who would just walk all over the enemies. And if they did say it, I ignored it. :D I like to think that the LoB would be a little more slick than just a standard thug.
talion09 01-15-06, 02:44 PM	You got it, Armorlord. :D No one said he had to be a massive damage hound who would just walk all over the enemies. And if they did say it, I ignored it. :D I like to think that the LoB would be a little more slick than just a standard thug. This especially makes sense if you factor in the creation forge that the LOB has the mournland. If he can churn out custom made WF, it would be easy to make duplicate/frontman WF.