Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Akuma_Kami 09-20-07, 04:54 PM	Im sort of new to this forum, so Im hoping that Im posting this in the correct place. If not, I apologise ahead of time. I was reading through the last issue of Dragon and came across the mention of The Elders, also called the Ancient Brethren. Well, to make a long story short, it piqued my interest and I thought about making an Epic Level/Forgotten Realms Campaign pitting adventurers against the forces of these " unfathomably old beings." My problem is this: I have researched in everything that I could possibly get my hands on. But, other than The Lady of Pain, Asmodeus, The Serpent( who according to some references may in fact be just another name for Asmodeus) and Jazirian (The Couatl God). I cant seem to find any information or even theories on what other being may hold membership to this brotherhood of primal powerhouses. Does anyone out there know anything more about this group? And if not, do you have any suggestions on who I might include in my version of it? Thanks in advance for the help :D
Shemeska the Marauder 09-20-07, 07:01 PM	There isn't much. Without actually getting out any notes on the topic, IIRC the whole thing came from "Die Vecna Die", which plays rather fast and loose with the sources it drew upon (ie it treats The Serpent as an actual being, when the previous sources that created the Serpent never meant it to be anything other than a combination of Vecna's madness and his unique visualization of magic). The linkage of Jazirian with Asmodeus only appears in one source, which subsequent takes on the topic rather uniformly ignored when it came to the Couatl goddess. The Lady of Pain's history is still a large blank slate (for the best I would say). I'd treat the entire thing as Vecna's delusional catagorization of a number of very old, very powerful planar beings as being linked with one another in some way, and Vecna's desire to number himself among their putative ranks. There might be no truth to any of it at all, it might be a monstrous exercise in false history, but it could still work to motivate Vecna, cultists of Vecna, and other people who fall for the whole thing as being at all grounded in truth. Perhaps the unknown entity or entities atop Chronias in Mount Celestia might be considered among their number? Perhaps the Baernaloths of the Gray Waste. Perhaps the vanished archfiend Larsdana Ap Neut, architect of the Tower Arcane in Gehenna was granted membership, or forced her way to inclusion, or was destroyed for her presumption? Perhaps the vanished progenitors of the Eladrin or the first (pre-Guardinal) NG celestials might be included? Etc.