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Gary Dallison
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United Kingdom
6353 Posts

Posted - 24 Nov 2016 :  08:30:32  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote  Delete Topic
So i came across a curious passage in the ogb about sembias history and it has sparked a thought or two about a way to add a bit more spice to this relatively undetailed region.

One thing is missing though. What does a yugoloth want. Devils want souls and to control everything. Demons want to consume everything. What do yugoloths want?

Any thoughts?

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KanzenAU
Senior Scribe

Australia
763 Posts

Posted - 24 Nov 2016 :  09:12:06  Show Profile Send KanzenAU a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Extracted from the current Monster Manual to get you started:
Yugoloths are fickle fiends that inhabit the planes of Acheron, Gehenna, Hades, and Carceri. They act as mercenaries and are notorious for their shifting loyalties. They are the embodiments of avarice. Before serving under anyone's banner, a yugoloth asks the only question on its mind: What's in it for me?

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TBeholder
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2384 Posts

Posted - 24 Nov 2016 :  09:44:14  Show Profile Send TBeholder a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by dazzlerdal

One thing is missing though. What does a yugoloth want. Devils want souls and to control everything. Demons want to consume everything. What do yugoloths want?

Any thoughts?

To get paid well for the job they like. Which is killing.
Though playing those noisy berks with their loonie visions against each other isn't bad, either.

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And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense -R.W.Wood
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6353 Posts

Posted - 24 Nov 2016 :  12:38:30  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Well avarice is excellent and works really well with sembia.


The passage i found stated that the army of darkness nearly drove human habitation in the lands that would be sembia to extinction.

I know that the army of darknessnwas destroyed by the elves with help from a crusade from cormyr and the dales (i think sarshel of later impiltur royalty was part of that crusade).

However in impiltur thr crusade did not completely eradicate the fiends so why would it be 100 percent successful in sembia the dalelands and cormanthyr.

Im wondering if a few fiends survived and hid among humans and live there still manipulating things. They of course want money and war, and sembia is all about money (which war can help produce).

Just a thought for now. Need to research it some more

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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe

United Kingdom
729 Posts

Posted - 24 Nov 2016 :  13:13:05  Show Profile Send Thauramarth a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The best general information of what motivates the Yugoloths can probably be found in the 2E Planescape series (in particular; Faces of Evil: Fiends, and Hellbound: The Blood War).
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Shemmy
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USA
492 Posts

Posted - 26 Nov 2016 :  22:05:19  Show Profile  Visit Shemmy's Homepage Send Shemmy a Private Message  Reply with Quote
What yugoloths want is quite simple: they desire a perfect universe in which no concept of mercy exists and wherein every creature suffers forever.

On small scales of time they (and especially the lesser yugoloths) appear as just greedy, selfish mercenaries, but in reality they're playing a long game versus the rest of the cosmos. They're among the oldest of outsider races in existence, older than the gods in fact, and they created the other fiends (either the obyriths and ancient baatorians, or tanar'ri or baatezu depending on which source you look at). Keep thinking that they're just greedy mercenaries with no loyalty however. >:)

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Ayrik
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Canada
7969 Posts

Posted - 27 Nov 2016 :  01:15:31  Show Profile Send Ayrik a Private Message  Reply with Quote
I agree with Shemmy. Yugoloths want absolute evil. Meaning by definition that these fiends are "profoundly and utterly immoral, malevolent, wicked, and depraved". They are creatures of pure, concentrated, unbridled evil - they are not distracted by such irrelevant concepts as Law and Chaos, they are just as likely to use/abuse tyrannical power structures as to impulsively inflict wantonly random cruelties. Yugoloths are basically more exploitative and opportunistic than baatezu yet more sinister and manipulative than tanar'ri. And yugoloths, like all other fiends, have a "hierarchy" spanning up to the most rarified, potent, and cunning archfiends - some of whom are nearly godlike in terms of raw power, patience, intelligence, and ambition.

And yugoloths do want souls, especially evil souls. They want to guide and tempt and warp and twist and taint and corrupt good souls to irrevocably evil ways. They want to dominate and punish these souls. They want to make souls suffer eternal tortures. They want to feast on souls. An important measure of a yugoloth's power is the number of souls (mostly larvae; but also hordlings, lemures, manes, dretches, rutterkins, and always some accursedly wretched mortals) it can draw upon for spiritual sustenance.

This yugoloth in Sembia might indeed be a Blood War "mercenary" scouting the Realms. It could herald the first wave of fiendish invasion. It could be the agent of a more powerful yugoloth, baatezu, or tanar'ri. It could be an agent summoned by a powerful wizard or lich, priest or deity. Or it could be working alone.

But yugoloths are more selfish, treacherous, and deceptive than any other fiend. You can bet that while this yugoloth might be working towards accomplishing somebody else's goals, it might also be working towards the goals of yet somebody else, it might resentfully work against these goals, it might strive towards a careful plan of subtle betrayals from which all it's masters perish while it alone prevails and prospers.

And yugoloths, like any other "immortal" fiend or planar, are largely disinterested in places like the Realms. Unless it sees dull little Sembia as place rich in resources (like evil souls, magical weapons, etc) it can bring home - or it plans to stick around a long time and make dull little Sembia its new home. Expect gates galore, and expect all sorts of things (like armies of fiends, crusading angels, mighty archwizards, whatever) emerging from these gates seeking their piece of this Realms action.

Even the "littlest" yugoloth is direly malign entity polluted by every cardinal sin imaginable - although some yugoloths embrace things like greed, lust, or sloth to extremes no mortal could comprehend, most especially when methods can be found to enjoy these things by causing the suffering to others. A typical yugoloth would prefer to bribe or corrupt a paladin before resorting to murder, it would also enjoy every opportunity to cause humiliation or faithlessness or pain to break this paladin, it would particularly relish a fallen paladin becoming a reviled agent of villainy, but it would still happily kill the paladin in a quick and quiet fashion (or in a series of lengthy and inhumanly disfiguring torments) if it became necessary. Moral fairy tales aside, it is simply impossible to redeem an evil fiend in D&D - they are formed from the very essence of cosmic evil itself.

[/Ayrik]

Edited by - Ayrik on 27 Nov 2016 01:49:34
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 27 Nov 2016 :  01:52:25  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
A snickers bar.

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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
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USA
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Posted - 27 Nov 2016 :  03:16:23  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay

A snickers bar.



Many learned sages have wisely come to the conclusion that what a yugoloth would do for a Klondike bar is a question best left unanswered.

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jordanz
Senior Scribe

553 Posts

Posted - 27 Nov 2016 :  04:20:01  Show Profile  Visit jordanz's Homepage Send jordanz a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik

I agree with Shemmy. Yugoloths want absolute evil. Meaning by definition that these fiends are "profoundly and utterly immoral, malevolent, wicked, and depraved". They are creatures of pure, concentrated, unbridled evil - they are not distracted by such irrelevant concepts as Law and Chaos, they are just as likely to use/abuse tyrannical power structures as to impulsively inflict wantonly random cruelties. Yugoloths are basically more exploitative and opportunistic than baatezu yet more sinister and manipulative than tanar'ri. And yugoloths, like all other fiends, have a "hierarchy" spanning up to the most rarified, potent, and cunning archfiends - some of whom are nearly godlike in terms of raw power, patience, intelligence, and ambition.

And yugoloths do want souls, especially evil souls. They want to guide and tempt and warp and twist and taint and corrupt good souls to irrevocably evil ways. They want to dominate and punish these souls. They want to make souls suffer eternal tortures. They want to feast on souls. An important measure of a yugoloth's power is the number of souls (mostly larvae; but also hordlings, lemures, manes, dretches, rutterkins, and always some accursedly wretched mortals) it can draw upon for spiritual sustenance.

This yugoloth in Sembia might indeed be a Blood War "mercenary" scouting the Realms. It could herald the first wave of fiendish invasion. It could be the agent of a more powerful yugoloth, baatezu, or tanar'ri. It could be an agent summoned by a powerful wizard or lich, priest or deity. Or it could be working alone.

But yugoloths are more selfish, treacherous, and deceptive than any other fiend. You can bet that while this yugoloth might be working towards accomplishing somebody else's goals, it might also be working towards the goals of yet somebody else, it might resentfully work against these goals, it might strive towards a careful plan of subtle betrayals from which all it's masters perish while it alone prevails and prospers.

And yugoloths, like any other "immortal" fiend or planar, are largely disinterested in places like the Realms. Unless it sees dull little Sembia as place rich in resources (like evil souls, magical weapons, etc) it can bring home - or it plans to stick around a long time and make dull little Sembia its new home. Expect gates galore, and expect all sorts of things (like armies of fiends, crusading angels, mighty archwizards, whatever) emerging from these gates seeking their piece of this Realms action.

Even the "littlest" yugoloth is direly malign entity polluted by every cardinal sin imaginable - although some yugoloths embrace things like greed, lust, or sloth to extremes no mortal could comprehend, most especially when methods can be found to enjoy these things by causing the suffering to others. A typical yugoloth would prefer to bribe or corrupt a paladin before resorting to murder, it would also enjoy every opportunity to cause humiliation or faithlessness or pain to break this paladin, it would particularly relish a fallen paladin becoming a reviled agent of villainy, but it would still happily kill the paladin in a quick and quiet fashion (or in a series of lengthy and inhumanly disfiguring torments) if it became necessary. Moral fairy tales aside, it is simply impossible to redeem an evil fiend in D&D - they are formed from the very essence of cosmic evil itself.



So they basically represent a "pure" form of evil or Neutral evil. And their antithesis would be the Guardinals? That does not seem congruent...
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Ayrik
Great Reader

Canada
7969 Posts

Posted - 27 Nov 2016 :  05:36:37  Show Profile Send Ayrik a Private Message  Reply with Quote
One thing learned in Planescape is that not all things need to be symmetrical, balanced, or equal. Celestials and the Upper Planes serve many purposes, they do not exist simply to counterbalance Fiends and the Lower Planes. Some differences are quantitative (mere number of planar layers, etc), some differences are qualitative (good vs evil, etc), some differences are entirely intangible and - planeslore teaches us - entirely senseless, incomprehensible, even insane to mortal understandings. Yet it all somehow works and an evil Yugoloth is said to have invaded Sembia, lol.

[/Ayrik]
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6353 Posts

Posted - 27 Nov 2016 :  14:56:45  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Interesting notions. Thinking about it, sembia seems ideal for a yugoloth.

Its a realm without mercy. Everyone slaves away for coin, would commit any deed for more coin, and when the coin runs out even a persons life maybe his very soul is up for sale.

Armies of evil fiends wouldnt work. Just one or two big players behind the scenes of noble houses. They probably learned the hard way (from the fall of myth drannor) that all out conquest doesnt work well.

Im sure ive read a few stray passages about fiends in the dalelands and maybe even sembia (i recall a statue at a temple which involved fiends).

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Ayrik
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Canada
7969 Posts

Posted - 27 Nov 2016 :  21:29:11  Show Profile Send Ayrik a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Money is the prop of tyrants, capitalists, and plutocrats. It buys a man's loyalty and a woman's honor. It lays waste to mind and body. It is the common measure of inequality, it separates the serfs from nobles and kings.

So yes, Sembia seems appealing. Look how easily the Shadovar bought the nation. Perhaps a yugoloth could collect and trade useless gold to enslave an entire nation of evil souls.

[/Ayrik]
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6353 Posts

Posted - 27 Nov 2016 :  21:35:56  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Even worse you take a good person. Make him spend his entire life striving to acquire gold just so he can survive and provide for his family and by the end of his life he is a money obsessed monster just like everyone else.

Seems like a nation a yugoloth might help found.

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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 27 Nov 2016 :  22:16:15  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik

Money is the prop of tyrants, capitalists, and plutocrats. It buys a man's loyalty and a woman's honor. It lays waste to mind and body. It is the common measure of inequality, it separates the serfs from nobles and kings.

So yes, Sembia seems appealing. Look how easily the Shadovar bought the nation. Perhaps a yugoloth could collect and trade useless gold to enslave an entire nation of evil souls.
'Chaos sown through order' - YES, that DOES sound like it is the perfect recipe for fiends who walk the line of neutrality. Greed is based on systematic capitalism, which creates human suffering (when allowed to run rampant), which in-turn foments disorder.

And here I though Gnomes were the ultimate (secret) capitalists. Now I am picturing an illuminati-like group of hidden yugoloth Overlords directing things on Toril to their satisfaction.

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone


Edited by - Markustay on 13 Dec 2016 18:20:50
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Gyor
Master of Realmslore

1621 Posts

Posted - 27 Nov 2016 :  22:25:20  Show Profile Send Gyor a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik

I agree with Shemmy. Yugoloths want absolute evil. Meaning by definition that these fiends are "profoundly and utterly immoral, malevolent, wicked, and depraved". They are creatures of pure, concentrated, unbridled evil - they are not distracted by such irrelevant concepts as Law and Chaos, they are just as likely to use/abuse tyrannical power structures as to impulsively inflict wantonly random cruelties. Yugoloths are basically more exploitative and opportunistic than baatezu yet more sinister and manipulative than tanar'ri. And yugoloths, like all other fiends, have a "hierarchy" spanning up to the most rarified, potent, and cunning archfiends - some of whom are nearly godlike in terms of raw power, patience, intelligence, and ambition.

And yugoloths do want souls, especially evil souls. They want to guide and tempt and warp and twist and taint and corrupt good souls to irrevocably evil ways. They want to dominate and punish these souls. They want to make souls suffer eternal tortures. They want to feast on souls. An important measure of a yugoloth's power is the number of souls (mostly larvae; but also hordlings, lemures, manes, dretches, rutterkins, and always some accursedly wretched mortals) it can draw upon for spiritual sustenance.

This yugoloth in Sembia might indeed be a Blood War "mercenary" scouting the Realms. It could herald the first wave of fiendish invasion. It could be the agent of a more powerful yugoloth, baatezu, or tanar'ri. It could be an agent summoned by a powerful wizard or lich, priest or deity. Or it could be working alone.

But yugoloths are more selfish, treacherous, and deceptive than any other fiend. You can bet that while this yugoloth might be working towards accomplishing somebody else's goals, it might also be working towards the goals of yet somebody else, it might resentfully work against these goals, it might strive towards a careful plan of subtle betrayals from which all it's masters perish while it alone prevails and prospers.

And yugoloths, like any other "immortal" fiend or planar, are largely disinterested in places like the Realms. Unless it sees dull little Sembia as place rich in resources (like evil souls, magical weapons, etc) it can bring home - or it plans to stick around a long time and make dull little Sembia its new home. Expect gates galore, and expect all sorts of things (like armies of fiends, crusading angels, mighty archwizards, whatever) emerging from these gates seeking their piece of this Realms action.

Even the "littlest" yugoloth is direly malign entity polluted by every cardinal sin imaginable - although some yugoloths embrace things like greed, lust, or sloth to extremes no mortal could comprehend, most especially when methods can be found to enjoy these things by causing the suffering to others. A typical yugoloth would prefer to bribe or corrupt a paladin before resorting to murder, it would also enjoy every opportunity to cause humiliation or faithlessness or pain to break this paladin, it would particularly relish a fallen paladin becoming a reviled agent of villainy, but it would still happily kill the paladin in a quick and quiet fashion (or in a series of lengthy and inhumanly disfiguring torments) if it became necessary. Moral fairy tales aside, it is simply impossible to redeem an evil fiend in D&D - they are formed from the very essence of cosmic evil itself.



Actually I remember Yugoloths having distain for lust, the could have tiefling descents, but relatively I think Yugoloths were the prudes of the fiend races.

Which should be played up now that Succubi are Neutral Evil fiends and no longer demons or devils, it makes more space between them and explains why Yugoloths would bother to have Succubi underlings, to do what the Yugoloths find distasteful.
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Gyor
Master of Realmslore

1621 Posts

Posted - 27 Nov 2016 :  22:32:16  Show Profile Send Gyor a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Ordinary Yugoloths are mercanaries, payed in souls, weapons, magic, slaves dark secrets. The leaders want the ultimate victory of evil. I think the blood war is a means to do this by forcing demons and devils to weed the weak fiends out, and making the stronger fiends stronger. Basically a way of prefecting evil, a giant exiperiment.
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TBeholder
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2384 Posts

Posted - 28 Nov 2016 :  06:31:16  Show Profile Send TBeholder a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Gyor


Which should be played up now that Succubi are Neutral Evil fiends and no longer demons or devils, it makes more space between them and explains why Yugoloths would bother to have Succubi underlings, to do what the Yugoloths find distasteful.

Either that, or not bother to stretch things to make the last proclamation make sense, and if it doesn't just ignore it and go on.
quote:
Originally posted by Gyor

I think the blood war is a means to do this by forcing demons and devils to weed the weak fiends out, and making the stronger fiends stronger. Basically a way of prefecting evil, a giant exiperiment.

For the greater good of greater evil?

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Bladewind
Master of Realmslore

Netherlands
1280 Posts

Posted - 28 Nov 2016 :  20:54:49  Show Profile Send Bladewind a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Constantly executing experiments meant for Greater Evil; that's the 'eternal' routine on the minds of daemons.

Depending on what phase they are in one can see them dragging condemned from miserable torturous prisons, flaying, eviscerating, butchering and stretching them, cajoling, agonizing and terrorizing them again while imprisoned to distill esoteric goods such as liquid agony or nightmare vapor. Others delight in hunting for innocent souls, harvesting their essences for nefarious arcane fiend-warping experiments requiring blood, marrow, fire, soot and sulfur. Others trade in secrets and falsehoods, shifting sealed documents and protected scrolls from planar front-lines to mortals with messages full of false and ultimately hollow promises of wealth or power. The most common yugoloth are mercenaries of the Blood War, brutal and silent, whose efficiency has build up the wealth of a criminally few top yugoloth sponsors. These most powerful daemons are visonairy architects of a new greater evil future, each with their own philosophy of how it would look like, but united in their secrecy.

I tried giving personality flaws (pride, apathy, lust for power) to some of the more diplomatic types of Yugoloths, supercharging the conversation with their charm, intimidating voice and insightful way of insulting mortals on a cosmic level. They are painfully aware of their current status in the Yugoloth hierarchy and usually see it as a carefully guarded secret.

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Gyor
Master of Realmslore

1621 Posts

Posted - 13 Dec 2016 :  16:48:50  Show Profile Send Gyor a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by TBeholder

quote:
Originally posted by Gyor


Which should be played up now that Succubi are Neutral Evil fiends and no longer demons or devils, it makes more space between them and explains why Yugoloths would bother to have Succubi underlings, to do what the Yugoloths find distasteful.

Either that, or not bother to stretch things to make the last proclamation make sense, and if it doesn't just ignore it and go on.
quote:
Originally posted by Gyor

I think the blood war is a means to do this by forcing demons and devils to weed the weak fiends out, and making the stronger fiends stronger. Basically a way of prefecting evil, a giant exiperiment.

For the greater good of greater evil?



The first part I don't understand and yes to the second part. I think the Yugoloths support for the blood war, is a kind gory neodarkwinian plot of encourage the evolution of greater evil, killing the weak, leaving only the most worthy.
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 13 Dec 2016 :  18:22:11  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Right - "survival of the fittest'.

Today we call it 'tough love', but psychologically, it amounts to the same thing. "That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger".

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone

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Wrigley
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Czech Republic
605 Posts

Posted - 14 Dec 2016 :  10:37:42  Show Profile  Visit Wrigley's Homepage Send Wrigley a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Blood War is planar manifestation of battle between law and chaos. It was originaly between polar oposites (LG vs CE) but founding of Hells moved this conflict to the lower planes. Yugoloths have been there for the whole time and their interests are in keeping this conflict going as it make a lot of evil across the planes. They let their underlings to be hired by both sides as it helps their goal.
As opposed to demons and devils who are after souls to make new of their kind Yugoloths are still in original form and numbers keeping the purity of their essence. They know well that this way they can never be defeated because for any killed Yugoloth his replacement will be formed from the planes. Souls are a currency for them and they use it as well as other sources to spead Evil everywhere. They are the ulitmate representation of pure Evil.
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Gary Dallison
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United Kingdom
6353 Posts

Posted - 14 Dec 2016 :  11:55:12  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
And there was me thinking a certain corporation that hold IP rights and abuse them were the ultimate representation of evil in the universe.

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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
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Posted - 14 Dec 2016 :  18:48:47  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by dazzlerdal

And there was me thinking a certain corporation that hold IP rights and abuse them were the ultimate representation of evil in the universe.



Yes, we know this is your view, it has been expressed quite often.

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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 14 Dec 2016 :  19:01:10  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Not to beat a dead horse (or annoy Wooly any further), I'm going to go out on a limb here and dare to enter the RW for a moment -

If you think a toy company keeping you from playing with stuff you like is 'the ultimate evil in the universe'. then I think you need to read a newspaper, and few history books, and, well, just reevaluate everything. There are people waking up every morning wondering if they will eat, or get bombed today, or be raped, or even wake up at all.

And if I could feed and protect them all, I would gladly take the entirety of FR (and every other setting/game I love) and throw them all in an incinerator, and erase them from the minds of everyone else... just to accomplish said goal.

And I am pretty damn sure Ed himself feels the same way.

You know I love you Dazzler, but... just sayin'.
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6353 Posts

Posted - 14 Dec 2016 :  19:24:21  Show Profile Send Gary Dallison a Private Message  Reply with Quote
well it was only meant as tongue in cheek but im never going to get over it. im still annoyed from when they changed opal fruits to starburst.

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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
Moderator

USA
36779 Posts

Posted - 14 Dec 2016 :  19:51:54  Show Profile Send Wooly Rupert a Private Message  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by dazzlerdal

well it was only meant as tongue in cheek but im never going to get over it. im still annoyed from when they changed opal fruits to starburst.



That's fine. I myself am still bugged by the lack of anything resembling an explanation for the many changes to the Realms from the transition to 3E. And I will never get over that, much less what was done to the setting during 4E.

I just don't make a point of bringing it up 4d6 (drop the lowest) times a day.

You've obviously got some creative impulses and the time to indulge them -- put your energy there. It's a lot more productive than the Hodor/Groot-like repetition of the same sentiments.

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Wrigley
Senior Scribe

Czech Republic
605 Posts

Posted - 17 Dec 2016 :  23:32:20  Show Profile  Visit Wrigley's Homepage Send Wrigley a Private Message  Reply with Quote
You can easily see there are some Yugoloths even here trying to subtly turn the disscussion from the topic at hand pointing to the weak point in it to deter you. :-) They just do not like when somebody is trying to shed some light on their activity or even less on their motives.

It is a dangerous route you pocked through the planes...

(No offense meant to anybody, just keeping to the topic)
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 18 Dec 2016 :  00:06:37  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The only 100% accurate (and complete!) history of the multiverse is kept by the 'Loth's, in an enormous city-sized library they jealously guard (and keep all non-loths out).

In a bizarre irony, the biggest liars in the universe are the 'keepers of the truth'. Even when an Over-Power causes one of those mass-forget effects (or some epic level spell, like the one that 'erased' Kiaransalee), or even when the Domains of Dread shift & change (along with people's memories of the place), the Loths have a record of it all locked securely away. Thus, even when the past itself changes, the loths have the first version intact (along with any 're-writes').

Everyone has heard "Knowledge is Power" - its one of the few universal sayings known throughout the primes. What people don't know is that its the Yugoloth's mantra - the code they live by. A berk might think their actions are completely random, but they have the resources of one of the most ancient races (if not THE most ancient) at their disposal, along with the sum total of all knowledge - NOTHING they do is random. They have devised a system of mathematical algorithms that can plot the course of history itself, based on past events. A little nudge there, a good shove here, and they get the result they want... but no-one knows their 'end-game'.

Of all the fiends, the 'Loths are the most dangerous. You know what you get with the others; a tanar'ri will try to eat your face off, and a batezu will 'get you with the fine print' and take your soul, but a 'Loth... they want you to dance on the end of their strings, just so a certain child is born centuries from now. As an immortal race that have been around since the beginning of time, they are the epitome of patience. A cutter would be wise to avoid them altogether... maybe mess with something safer, like an Elder Evil.

--- Phreldarc the Mad, former archmage of Galivarr and current patient of the Outlands Home for the Criminally Insane (maintained by the loths, of course)

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone


Edited by - Markustay on 18 Dec 2016 00:11:35
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Ayrik
Great Reader

Canada
7969 Posts

Posted - 18 Dec 2016 :  01:34:22  Show Profile Send Ayrik a Private Message  Reply with Quote
No library could be "100% accurate and complete", lol. The perceptions and thinking of yugoloths would differ vastly from those of baatezu or tanar'ri, would be completely opposed to those of celestials, and would be entirely mundane to any of the truly divine Powers or Overpowers. Even the greatest of deities are "blindered" by portfolios and powers, hardly able to perceive or readily comprehend anything beyond the thresholds of their directly manifest interests - and these are beings with memories and histories spanning times before even the yugoloths and the Blood War even existed.

I should think that whatever Great Cosmic Library built by the 'loths would be filled with their own writings and writings which agree with their own (profoundly evil) sense of the universe. It would also be filled with lies and deceptions and subtly sinister Machiavellian manipulations certain to corrupt even the finest of small minds offered by puny, fragile, ephemeral beings like mortal men.

I shan't even quibble about the technical impossibilities of a thing which contains all things (aka Russell's Paradox, a set containing all sets including itself), Godel's Incompleteness Theorems, paraconsistent logic, and other such philosomathemanticological trickery - mere pedantic digressions which would accomplish little more than disintegrate this fine scroll.

[/Ayrik]

Edited by - Ayrik on 18 Dec 2016 01:36:42
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire

USA
15724 Posts

Posted - 18 Dec 2016 :  04:43:32  Show Profile Send Markustay a Private Message  Reply with Quote
In the Great Wheel cosmology, nothing needs to make sense, in a traditional 'physics' kind of way.

And thats why the irony - that library ISN'T 'tainted' - its pure, unbiased truth. The only way knowledge could wield power if it IS truth - "the truth could set you free", but it could also imprison a whole lot of folk. The 'loths 'have the goods' on so many beings in the multiverse, and yet, they only rarely stoop to blackmail. Thats why I say "no one knows their end-game". For whatever reason, they keep amassing all that information, corruption-free.

Maybe, they need to keep track of the (ultimate) truth, because they are the universe's most compulsive liars? They've spread their own versions of everything so far and wide, even they have trouble keeping track of it all, and don't remember the truth. Thus, the library. Maybe their real goal is to simply twist every single truth in the universe into a lie, so the universe itself becomes one big lie.

And since 'thought' has the power to alter reality, they could possibly be creating their own universe. In case they screw it up ('crash' the universe), they have the library as a 'back-up file' so they can restore any truths they need.

Who knows? they're fiends! They're as alien as you can get - we couldn't even possibly put their motives into human context.

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone


Edited by - Markustay on 18 Dec 2016 04:44:17
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