tek's vortex was unique..it was the only one still alive! - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

tek's vortex was unique..it was the only one still alive!

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
terminus_vortexa
Jan 20, 2009 16:17:49 EAF&W, p.56 -

'The vortexes have now become extinct, but the kings have managed to keep the conduit alive much like liquid that, when siphoned through a hose, flows by means of the vacuum created. Once the reaction had begun it could only be stopped by the conscious effort of the one who had opened it. And that time is past and will never come again.
As for the elementals, they are powerless to stop the theft of their diminishing energies. They despise the defilers, but they are too detached and chaotic to identify the sorcerer-kings as the perpetrators.'

Yet it was Tectuktitlay's Living Vortex that Dregoth captured, and planned to use for his ascension.

What kept Tek's LV alive, when all of the others died? Was it his pyramid, and constant blood sacrifices? Did he have knowledge the other SKs did not, and this is what preserved his LV?
Since the vortex functions like a siphon, if an SK does not keep the conduits flowing, will the vortex stop funneling power?
Is this why the SKs attach the ends of their vortexes to Templar's Holy Symbols, instead of the Templars themselves, so the conduit is constantly sustained and can be passed on,and a possible reason for why SKs may only sustain a finite number of templars at once?
Is the process of learning to tap the amulets for power and manipulate it the reason the Templars can't just start casting Wish from day 1,and must gain XP and levels like all other spellcasters?

Or, interpreting the passage differently, the vortex will NEVER STOP pumping energy, so could one potentially usurp the spellgranting power of an SK?(of course, the SK would not be very willing...)

Also, the vortexes are specifically said to siphon from the ELEMENTAL planes. Could this be one of the reasons the Paraelemental plains are getting stronger, while the Elemental planes seem to be getting weaker?
And here's the big question - Will the now-free Living Vortex of Tektuctitlay reproduce? Can future ABs hope to obtain their own brand-new Living Vortices?
#2
Sysane
Jan 20, 2009 16:32:25 I think the reason that Tect's LV is treated as being alive is due to an interpretation of what was cited in Dragon Kings and an oversight of EAF&W by the authors of Dregoth Ascending.

Its a safe assumption to think that the author was under the impression that *all* the vortexes attached to the SKs were still living.

With that said, I always went with the theory that the Living Vortices weren't *true* living sentient beings but ancient life shaped creations crafted by the Rhulisti at the height of the Blue Age. Under that belief I don't think LV could truly reproduce, but could be recreated by someone with advanced knowledge of the life shaping arts
#3
terminus_vortexa
Jan 20, 2009 16:55:24
I think the reason that Tect's LV is treated as being alive is due to an interpretation of what was cited in Dragon Kings and an oversight of EAF&W by the authors of Dregoth Ascending.

EAF&W, p. 55 -

'A living vortex of energy once planted its tendrils on the inner planes and was
attracted to the strange metamorphosing creatures that the sorcerer-kings had become'

My own interpretation of this is that the Vortex was a child of the Inner Planes, but only because it rooted there before attaching to the SKs.

I can't directly disprove the Lifeshaped idea, while it is pretty cool, I've never heard of any other Halfling tech based on pure energy. the Lifeshapers seemed to deal exclusively in shaped,physical constructs.

Also, I've been riveted to the idea of Athas being a lot more important to the fate of the Cosmos than previously indicated (Asmodeus' ideal feeding ground) and the idea of an extra-planar origin to the Vortex is very appealing to me.

I'm chewing on the idea that a Living Vortex is a modified or mutated Living Conduit(which some Fiends know how to make,DK p.64), and the reason they are extinct is because the Fiends had no use for these deviant offspring of their Living Conduits,which could empower the native Athasians independent of the Fiends' wishes and purposes. So they killed them off, but were powerless to stop the flow of power(EAF&W p.55). maybe they knew this, maybe not. But the fact that they didn't send a blackout squad to kill every SK attached to a vortex,or else try to force the SKs to barter with the lower planes for spell-granting power, indicates that they thought the job was done.Fiends rarely show up on Athas,and NEVER as far as I know do anything so overt as assaulting an SK, as this opens up the possibility for discovery of their presence by people who would understand their nature and try to stop them.But if the Fiends ever found out that the SKs are still drawing power through the vortexes, they
#4
Sysane
Jan 20, 2009 17:13:19
I can't directly disprove the Lifeshaped idea, while it is pretty cool, I've never heard of any other Halfling tech based on pure energy. the Lifeshapers seemed to deal exclusively in shaped,physical constructs.

True on the pure energy argument. It could be that life-shapers believed that harnessing energy via life-shaping went against the laws of nature.

Not to hijack the the thread, but It may have been a creation of the nature-benders and elemental clerics of the Blue Age and therefore an area of life-shaping rarely delved into.

From the Official Time DS line:
Enemy's Reverence: Evil elemental clerics form an alliance with the nature-benders.

#5
terminus_vortexa
Jan 20, 2009 17:39:12 Awesome. A weapon to drain the Elemental planes of their power, with the unintended ability to funnel that power to minions of its point of attachment? The fact that the Vortexes didn't interact again with the Material plane until the metamorphosis of the SKs indicates that the Para-priests and nature benders probably thought the project was a dead end, when the Vortexes didn't start immediately pumping power with noticeable consequences. Then, the SKs attract the vortices' attention with a huge display of strange energies, the vortices wake up and attach themselves to the source of these strange energies, and the true power of the vortices comes to manifest itself. Awesome. lifebent Vortices it is! However, I personally favor the idea that Tek's vortex was still alive. It makes it unique, and opens up the possibilities for more living vortexes for future ABs. It also explains why Dregoth didn't just capture Sielba's when she got killed (or at any point before Tek's became available), or Kalak's (which was available a couple of years before Tek's). Tek had advanced his transformation a little, IIRC, and seemed to hide true scholarly pursuits behind religious mystique. He doesn't strike me as the kind of SK to waste the energy from the CONSTANT sacrifices of human lives made to him (by himself, ripping their hearts out). He, like any SK, had the capacity to store VAST amounts of life energies, and would have had a lot on hand to experiment with. He kept more psionicists on hand than any other SK,IIRC, and a whole order of Templars arranged into a scholarly hierarchy of sorts. nibenay may possibly have had greater access to ancient spellcraft lore, but Tektuctitlay most likely had a greater reserve of life energy on hand to experiment with. If he developed his customized metamorphosis spells by himself, with less accumulated book knowledge than Nibenay, he probably had to do a lot of experimentation and analysis on himself that another SK may not need to do, if they had more of the original formula. He'd be more likely to notice and experiment with the Vortex. And the other SKs may never suspect savage that King Tectuktitlay, bloodthirsty warlord and the most personally violent and savage of the Sorceror-Kings, was hiding his real level of knowledge, power and understanding of the nature of the Vortexes behind a veneer of savage, bloodthirsty madness.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 terminus_vortexa Jan 20, 2009 16:17:49	EAF&W, p.56 - 'The vortexes have now become extinct, but the kings have managed to keep the conduit alive much like liquid that, when siphoned through a hose, flows by means of the vacuum created. Once the reaction had begun it could only be stopped by the conscious effort of the one who had opened it. And that time is past and will never come again. As for the elementals, they are powerless to stop the theft of their diminishing energies. They despise the defilers, but they are too detached and chaotic to identify the sorcerer-kings as the perpetrators.' Yet it was Tectuktitlay's Living Vortex that Dregoth captured, and planned to use for his ascension. What kept Tek's LV alive, when all of the others died? Was it his pyramid, and constant blood sacrifices? Did he have knowledge the other SKs did not, and this is what preserved his LV? Since the vortex functions like a siphon, if an SK does not keep the conduits flowing, will the vortex stop funneling power? Is this why the SKs attach the ends of their vortexes to Templar's Holy Symbols, instead of the Templars themselves, so the conduit is constantly sustained and can be passed on,and a possible reason for why SKs may only sustain a finite number of templars at once? Is the process of learning to tap the amulets for power and manipulate it the reason the Templars can't just start casting Wish from day 1,and must gain XP and levels like all other spellcasters? Or, interpreting the passage differently, the vortex will NEVER STOP pumping energy, so could one potentially usurp the spellgranting power of an SK?(of course, the SK would not be very willing...) Also, the vortexes are specifically said to siphon from the ELEMENTAL planes. Could this be one of the reasons the Paraelemental plains are getting stronger, while the Elemental planes seem to be getting weaker? And here's the big question - Will the now-free Living Vortex of Tektuctitlay reproduce? Can future ABs hope to obtain their own brand-new Living Vortices?
#2 Sysane Jan 20, 2009 16:32:25	I think the reason that Tect's LV is treated as being alive is due to an interpretation of what was cited in Dragon Kings and an oversight of EAF&W by the authors of Dregoth Ascending. Its a safe assumption to think that the author was under the impression that all the vortexes attached to the SKs were still living. With that said, I always went with the theory that the Living Vortices weren't true living sentient beings but ancient life shaped creations crafted by the Rhulisti at the height of the Blue Age. Under that belief I don't think LV could truly reproduce, but could be recreated by someone with advanced knowledge of the life shaping arts
#3 terminus_vortexa Jan 20, 2009 16:55:24	I think the reason that Tect's LV is treated as being alive is due to an interpretation of what was cited in Dragon Kings and an oversight of EAF&W by the authors of Dregoth Ascending. EAF&W, p. 55 - 'A living vortex of energy once planted its tendrils on the inner planes and was attracted to the strange metamorphosing creatures that the sorcerer-kings had become' My own interpretation of this is that the Vortex was a child of the Inner Planes, but only because it rooted there before attaching to the SKs. I can't directly disprove the Lifeshaped idea, while it is pretty cool, I've never heard of any other Halfling tech based on pure energy. the Lifeshapers seemed to deal exclusively in shaped,physical constructs. Also, I've been riveted to the idea of Athas being a lot more important to the fate of the Cosmos than previously indicated (Asmodeus' ideal feeding ground) and the idea of an extra-planar origin to the Vortex is very appealing to me. I'm chewing on the idea that a Living Vortex is a modified or mutated Living Conduit(which some Fiends know how to make,DK p.64), and the reason they are extinct is because the Fiends had no use for these deviant offspring of their Living Conduits,which could empower the native Athasians independent of the Fiends' wishes and purposes. So they killed them off, but were powerless to stop the flow of power(EAF&W p.55). maybe they knew this, maybe not. But the fact that they didn't send a blackout squad to kill every SK attached to a vortex,or else try to force the SKs to barter with the lower planes for spell-granting power, indicates that they thought the job was done.Fiends rarely show up on Athas,and NEVER as far as I know do anything so overt as assaulting an SK, as this opens up the possibility for discovery of their presence by people who would understand their nature and try to stop them.But if the Fiends ever found out that the SKs are still drawing power through the vortexes, they
#4 Sysane Jan 20, 2009 17:13:19	I can't directly disprove the Lifeshaped idea, while it is pretty cool, I've never heard of any other Halfling tech based on pure energy. the Lifeshapers seemed to deal exclusively in shaped,physical constructs. True on the pure energy argument. It could be that life-shapers believed that harnessing energy via life-shaping went against the laws of nature. Not to hijack the the thread, but It may have been a creation of the nature-benders and elemental clerics of the Blue Age and therefore an area of life-shaping rarely delved into. From the Official Time DS line: Enemy's Reverence: Evil elemental clerics form an alliance with the nature-benders.
#5 terminus_vortexa Jan 20, 2009 17:39:12	Awesome. A weapon to drain the Elemental planes of their power, with the unintended ability to funnel that power to minions of its point of attachment? The fact that the Vortexes didn't interact again with the Material plane until the metamorphosis of the SKs indicates that the Para-priests and nature benders probably thought the project was a dead end, when the Vortexes didn't start immediately pumping power with noticeable consequences. Then, the SKs attract the vortices' attention with a huge display of strange energies, the vortices wake up and attach themselves to the source of these strange energies, and the true power of the vortices comes to manifest itself. Awesome. lifebent Vortices it is! However, I personally favor the idea that Tek's vortex was still alive. It makes it unique, and opens up the possibilities for more living vortexes for future ABs. It also explains why Dregoth didn't just capture Sielba's when she got killed (or at any point before Tek's became available), or Kalak's (which was available a couple of years before Tek's). Tek had advanced his transformation a little, IIRC, and seemed to hide true scholarly pursuits behind religious mystique. He doesn't strike me as the kind of SK to waste the energy from the CONSTANT sacrifices of human lives made to him (by himself, ripping their hearts out). He, like any SK, had the capacity to store VAST amounts of life energies, and would have had a lot on hand to experiment with. He kept more psionicists on hand than any other SK,IIRC, and a whole order of Templars arranged into a scholarly hierarchy of sorts. nibenay may possibly have had greater access to ancient spellcraft lore, but Tektuctitlay most likely had a greater reserve of life energy on hand to experiment with. If he developed his customized metamorphosis spells by himself, with less accumulated book knowledge than Nibenay, he probably had to do a lot of experimentation and analysis on himself that another SK may not need to do, if they had more of the original formula. He'd be more likely to notice and experiment with the Vortex. And the other SKs may never suspect savage that King Tectuktitlay, bloodthirsty warlord and the most personally violent and savage of the Sorceror-Kings, was hiding his real level of knowledge, power and understanding of the nature of the Vortexes behind a veneer of savage, bloodthirsty madness.