| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Foxhelm |
Posted - 03 Aug 2011 : 14:16:44
Been thinking of this, even asking Mr. Greenwood. There is even a topic on Wizards (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/27504153/Vryloka_in_the_Forgotten_Realms._Point_of_Origin).
Basically the Vryloka are a group of nobles from a vanished lineage in a land of mists which made a deal with a mysterious lady of red and/or roses for a ritual to gain the vitality of Vampires.
There are hundred of fallen nations plus fallen or exiles nobles, so they could arise any where. The Ritual itself might not be as big a secret in the realms.
Patrons could be anyone from Velshroom (SP) god of Necromancers and/or Myrul (SP) dead evil god of the dead, or even a twisted patron of Sharess due to the fact the living vampires crave passion and experiences to pass their long lives or Tempus/The Red Knight due to the fact many of them fight to remove the dullness of long lives.
Thoughts, comments, ideas? |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Markustay |
Posted - 05 Mar 2013 : 01:05:11
Its weird, because in my Homebrew setting (not the mish-mosh I am currently running), I connected vampirism with Shades in a way.
My Męladrin are like Michael Moorcock's Melniboneans, except they are ALL like Elric (in looks and in health). Basically, their desire for more power lead them to merge with shadow-essence, and they became.... Shades! {ta-DAAA!}
So my Shades are a bunch of Elves that behave very badly, like a cross between Crown wars era Gold Elves and Drow. Fortunately, they are in decline and tend not to bother people too much (anymore).
The shadow-essence formula they used to alter their race was stolen (or sold-off by unscrupulous Męladrin... and they are all unscrupulous) quite some time ago. However, it effects other races quite differently. It makes humans very ill, to the very brink of death... and beyond. The lucky ones just die. Most come back as some form of 'hungry dead' (zombies, ghouls, ghasts, wights, etc), but the rare few who survive with their mind intact become something very similar to what the Męladrin did to themselves.. except they are living vampires (well... sort of 'half dead', like the Shades).
So if I were to use the 4e rules for my homebrew setting, I could use the Vryloka template as a basis for my own 'vampire lords' (I have a slavic-like region, where werebears can also be found). |
| Diffan |
Posted - 04 Mar 2013 : 19:11:20
I'm thinking about making their ancestory originate from the Border Kingdoms, perhaps some large scale city that fell to a war with humanoids of the surrounding areas a few hundred years prior to the Spellplague. It has enough wiggle-room Canon wise to make sense since countries and cities fall in the Border Kingdoms quite often plus it gives their race a chance to move and repopluate in many areas of Faerūn. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 04 Mar 2013 : 17:52:23
So they seem to be more like the modern/Underworld version of vampires (a self-procreating race) then the traditional 'dead' ones. They are flavored more like people with some sort of strange hereditary disease (that also happens to give a few super-powers in the bargain).
It doesn't seem like you need to do much 'converting' - I'd just use them as-is. If it were me, I would just say that the 'Red Lady' was really Lilith, so the 'living vampire' thing would have some demonic origins. |
| Gyor |
Posted - 04 Mar 2013 : 08:38:55
Vryloka's aren't really half vampires, they're more akin to Vampire: The Requiem's ghouls, which hav no relation to dnd ghouls. These ghouls are mortals infused with a portion of a vampires power, able to use Vampiric powers, but are still mortal, can have childern.
Vryloka aren't connected to any particular vampire and they seem to keep thier distance from actual vampires, which is clear deference with White Wolf's ghouls. The Vryloka have far more autonomy.
In someways they are vampire like at all. They feel emotions and can breed. They can go out in day light. They have the utility power to turn into a small flying creature, although if you read the power most Vryloka don't choose a bat, they don't like how that associates them with vampires. Also the red hair seems to further seperate them from gothic vampires.
In fact a Vryloka could live a pretty normal life if she so choose to not use her shadow powers. And nothing says that Vryloka are a particularly evil race, they just did something in the past that left them tainted by something. Outside the realms most worship the Raven Queen, whose unaligned, not evil
They were just driven fron thier homeland by the ignorant, who feared them by association.
I'd love to see the Vryloka in a forgotten realms novel, I think they have the potential to be so much more then just puersaudo vampires.
They already had a Vryloka Sorceress from Chondath as a pregenerated character for some sort of organizee play and its legal in the LFR.
Oh side note they can used thier power to resurrect anyone, not just humans.
|
| Brimstone |
Posted - 08 Aug 2011 : 15:35:39
Page 140 of the same tome again mentions Rashemi Nobles. (Usually men and women born of powerful and influential beserkers) who undertake dangerous quests to prove their fitness and courage.
So a family of beserkers that turn to evil, maybe? |
| Brimstone |
Posted - 08 Aug 2011 : 15:28:14
Page 138 in Unappraochable East mentions Rashemi Nobles. In days of old, young Rashemi Nobles made the dajemma to visit strange lands, slaying horrible monsters and wicked warlords, but now it is an exercise in drinking and sightseeing. |
| Diffan |
Posted - 08 Aug 2011 : 13:32:37
quote:
Originally posted by Foxhelm
quote:
Originally posted by sfdragon
you can also replace her with a necromancer of your choice or make up.
RW and RQ are non existant in the realms.
this is not to say you cant use them...you just have to exp[lain their pressence if you do
It's just that Ed and other DMs seem to have work with mysteries by writing out a mystery as one of a number of hooks. Ed keeps the answer hidden away for his use if they pick this up or if he needs it, then has the heroes/readers explore it. This could also lead to different answers which might be better the what he had had, but allows him to work on it his own way without the users knowing what he is doing.
So keeping the RW a mystery allows the DMs and Players to develop their own plot hooks/adventures/campaigns around it in the Source books/Dragon Articles until a good answer is needed or arrives.
Does this make sense, not sure of wording...
You could go this route and it should work fine. The Red Witch doesn't have to be a deity or even an Exarch. She could just be a powerful being suffused with nercomantic energy or a long-lived vampire who has received LOTS of power (divine, arcane, primal, etc..) I don't know what more info we're gonna get on the Red Witch but I think her ties could be linked to Rasheman, possibly a Durthan who played too much with necromancy and primal spirits and thus becoming something of an Othlor with a craving for physical-sustenance like blood or some sort of psychic drain.
These are just musings of course. |
| MrHedgehog |
Posted - 07 Aug 2011 : 20:42:06
quote:
Originally posted by sfdragon
quote:
Originally posted by MrHedgehog
Are there nobles in Rashemen?
only the witches as they rule the place...
I'd say the Iron Lord, but the witches choose the Iron Lord....
so yes and no.
So there aren't nobles... I meant with my question "There aren't nobles in Rashemen". Being a witch or whatever is not hereditary. |
| Foxhelm |
Posted - 07 Aug 2011 : 19:27:01
quote:
Originally posted by sfdragon
you can also replace her with a necromancer of your choice or make up.
RW and RQ are non existant in the realms.
this is not to say you cant use them...you just have to exp[lain their pressence if you do
It's just that Ed and other DMs seem to have work with mysteries by writing out a mystery as one of a number of hooks. Ed keeps the answer hidden away for his use if they pick this up or if he needs it, then has the heroes/readers explore it. This could also lead to different answers which might be better the what he had had, but allows him to work on it his own way without the users knowing what he is doing.
So keeping the RW a mystery allows the DMs and Players to develop their own plot hooks/adventures/campaigns around it in the Source books/Dragon Articles until a good answer is needed or arrives.
Does this make sense, not sure of wording... |
| sfdragon |
Posted - 07 Aug 2011 : 19:22:23
you can also replace her with a necromancer of your choice or make up.
RW and RQ are non existant in the realms.
this is not to say you cant use them...you just have to exp[lain their pressence if you do |
| Foxhelm |
Posted - 07 Aug 2011 : 15:50:40
The important aspect was ritual, the Red Witch can appear in any or multiple time periods in the realms. All you need is her and the human nobles or aristocrats to be changed.
Wooly mentioned the idea of The Red Witch being a vampire seeking godhood. They worshiper her as their creator, and in core see her linked to the Raven Queen (but argue over if she's a Exarch, Avatar or Aspect of the Goddess). They also take the shape of family clans which do battle with each other, more with political points like nobles will do then fighting.
My suggestion is keep the Red Witch a Mystery of the Realms unless it's needed for your campaign. Is she a witch, a vampire, an undead like a lich, a god/ddess or related aspect, a devil, and so on.
The Vryloka see her as a goddess, but different families could argue about which god or goddess she is or serves. Which can bring up plot hooks and more for campaigns and adventures. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 07 Aug 2011 : 15:34:30
quote:
Originally posted by Quale
That mysterious lady of red could be that vampire zulkiress of Thay. Maybe she was a rival of Zhengyi the Witch King. There's a place in Ravenloft called Nova Vaasa.
Speaking of the Vampire Zulkiress, anyone ever give more info on her? I remember trying to chase down info years ago and never seeing anything. I know they gave just a bit more in the history of the realms supplement. |
| Diffan |
Posted - 07 Aug 2011 : 04:56:01
This was my idea from the WotC Boards:
quote:
Originally posted by Diffan
I also like the idea of the distant kingdom or some such on the Borderlands, resting on the southern shore of the Lake of Steam. That place has probably had more rulers, would-be kings, and city-state principalities than any other region of Faerun.
The Border Kingdomes were heavily detailed in the free Forgotten Realms articles we received about 4 years ago (still free if I'm not mistaken) and a lot of things could have changed in that area since the Spellplague. My initial idea was to have one or more Baronies run by Vyrloka, slowly taking over the Border Kingdoms and unifying them as a full nation. The Spelplague, however, made the baronies scatter to all over Faerūn and spread their race over a good portion of the continent.
Since they're long lived and have to move constantly (least be discovered to be an undead) they have populated a good portion of the Realms and can be found in any major city or strong country.
|
| Brimstone |
Posted - 06 Aug 2011 : 04:35:32
So... |
| sfdragon |
Posted - 06 Aug 2011 : 04:10:39
quote:
Originally posted by MrHedgehog
Are there nobles in Rashemen?
only the witches as they rule the place...
I'd say the Iron Lord, but the witches choose the Iron Lord....
so yes and no. |
| MrHedgehog |
Posted - 05 Aug 2011 : 16:31:09
Are there nobles in Rashemen? |
| sfdragon |
Posted - 05 Aug 2011 : 05:20:05
this was asked on the wotc forums too.
you can put them just about anywhere since this red witch does not exist.
with using its existing story, she could be used as a dead goddess from way back in one of the many pantheons.
you can place one in and or from cormyr, the place you would never expect.
even in tethyr.
Westgate might work too |
| Brimstone |
Posted - 05 Aug 2011 : 01:25:04
quote:
Originally posted by MrHedgehog
Why those places (Rashemen, etc.) I don't understand. I don't think something like that could arise in Rashemen...
Sure they could. Durthan becomes a vampire, and corrupts a noble family. The Hathran find out and scatter noble family to the wind.
Heck even an exiled Cormyran Noble family would do. Lots of ways one could spin this. Impiltur would be another great place to work them into...
YMMV |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 04 Aug 2011 : 18:10:57
I think I'd spin it so that these folks were found by a vampire that aspired to godhood. The vampire figured that granting this boon would result in worship, and help elevate the vampire to being a deity. I'd further spin it so that this vampire had, instead of doing this with just one clan, done it with multiple people in multiple locations, hoping for those people to gather their own followers in each area and eventually increase in numbers enough to push the vampire into godhood.
What might be more fun is if this plan succeeded, at some point in the distant past -- but then the newborn vampire deity was quickly subsumed by a more powerful deity. Most of the vryloka were wiped out in a religious purge, but some scattered and survived, and their descendants are plotting for their short-lived deity's rebirth... |
| MrHedgehog |
Posted - 04 Aug 2011 : 16:26:59
Why those places (Rashemen, etc.) I don't understand. I don't think something like that could arise in Rashemen... |
| Brimstone |
Posted - 04 Aug 2011 : 04:20:13
I keep thinking Rashemen, or Damara, or Narfell, or Vaasa, or... |
| MrHedgehog |
Posted - 04 Aug 2011 : 02:14:09
My friend just got me this book as a gift a couple days ago = D
First, I strongly dislike the idea of "living undead", or gaining the benefits of being a vampire without actually being a vampire...I think these vryloka and revenants should both just be undead character races. (This reminds me of a Heroes of Might and Magic 4 leader who was "half-dead" if anyone played that...)
But to place them in the realms you could just place them anywhere, really. They would just live in secret.
The only place that seems like it would be the best place for one to come from would be Thay (in 1485+ or at whatever time Thay became an undead ruled place). They could be created as class halfway between living and undead controlled by Szass Tam or whatever other undead beings rule there. They wouldn't be the absolute rulers as they are described, but like an intermediary class between the undead and the living. It would be like how in the real world under European colonialism people who were part European were higher status than the indigenous people but not as high status as the Europeans.
Its unclear to me if they reproduce sexually like humans or if each has to do a blood pact to become partially undead. That would greatly influence their society, it sort of sounds like they reproduce, though? Perhaps they dislike that they are an abomination themself, or simply didn't want to live in an evil country. I personally think it would be cool to have a rebel Vryloka who betrayed Thay because they were not actually evil
PS. Why be what you really are in a fantasy world = P ? |
| The Sage |
Posted - 04 Aug 2011 : 02:08:35
Alternatively, I could see the Red Witch being a guise of Shyressa, the vampiress, and one of the masters of the Twisted Rune. The vryloka could easily work as an addition to her vampire-minions. |
| Foxhelm |
Posted - 03 Aug 2011 : 23:24:41
quote:
Originally posted by Eltheron
Nobody wants to be a regular ol' human or elf any more. 
I have a human as a character... they just want to have exotic love with strange people like Tieflings, Eladrin, Vryloka, Shifters, Genasi and such...  |
| Aryalómė |
Posted - 03 Aug 2011 : 23:15:12
I'd love for the Vrylokas to be Realmsified. They are so awesome. |
| Eltheron |
Posted - 03 Aug 2011 : 23:13:35
Nobody wants to be a regular ol' human or elf any more.
|
| Foxhelm |
Posted - 03 Aug 2011 : 22:38:07
quote:
Originally posted by Arik
I think what you're basically saying is "it's players/DMs wanting to gain the advantages of powers of vampires without actually suffering any of the disadvantages". A major part of the reason I personally choose to disallow pseudo-vampires ... if you want to have immortal youth, strength, and vigor then you must simply accept the problems associated with being an eternally hungry undead predator. It's just a package deal in my mind.
There's:
Crunch: The fact if you drop below half your hit points, you loose two bonus chances to heal.
Fluff You have to fake being human or deal with people freaking out and maybe trying to kill you.
The Vampire class has more drawbacks, which vanish as you get powerful and head into the Paragon Path. |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 03 Aug 2011 : 22:09:25
I think what you're basically saying is "it's players/DMs wanting to gain the advantages of powers of vampires without actually suffering any of the disadvantages". A major part of the reason I personally choose to disallow pseudo-vampires ... if you want to have immortal youth, strength, and vigor then you must simply accept the problems associated with being an eternally hungry undead predator. It's just a package deal in my mind. |
| Foxhelm |
Posted - 03 Aug 2011 : 21:36:22
quote:
Originally posted by Arik
The game already has vampires, many flavours of vamp with differing abilities. Van Richten's Guide to Vampires is of course the definitive resource in my mind, making vamps as varied as character classes.
So, to be honest, I personally prefer to entirely ignore half-vampires, hybrid-vampires, vampyres, vamp imitators, and basically any other sort of quasi-vampire copycat being - there's already plenty of vamps and countless unique possibilities among them. At my table the "other kinds" of vampires are either actual vampires of some sort or are mislabelled by the ignorant simpletons and hero/villain characters with whom they interact. The rest simply belong in the Department of Redundancy Department. This is of course personal preference more than canon.
It's basically the 4th edition answer to those wanting to play a vampire race without getting overpowered with Vampire as a class acting as a form of template which can be placed/modified for any kind of Vampire character of any race.
It's like Shifters are for Werebeast lovers, Tieflings for devil fanatics, Dragonborn for Dragon Nuts, etc... |
| Ayrik |
Posted - 03 Aug 2011 : 19:30:17
The game already has vampires, many flavours of vamp with differing abilities. Van Richten's Guide to Vampires is of course the definitive resource in my mind, making vamps as varied as character classes.
So, to be honest, I personally prefer to entirely ignore half-vampires, hybrid-vampires, vampyres, vamp imitators, and basically any other sort of quasi-vampire copycat being - there's already plenty of vamps and countless unique possibilities among them. At my table the "other kinds" of vampires are either actual vampires of some sort or are mislabelled by the ignorant simpletons and hero/villain characters with whom they interact. The rest simply belong in the Department of Redundancy Department. This is of course personal preference more than canon. |
