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The Devil In The Details - Merrshaulk and Sseth

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Storyteller Hero
Learned Scribe

USA
329 Posts

Posted - 15 Nov 2021 : 20:58:19

The published lore about Merrshaulk in Serpent Kingdoms has some surface contradictions, and the interpretations in the wiki around Merrshaulk are messy as a result.

Basically, the deity Merrshaulk fell into a slumber for thousands of years, no longer answering prayers, causing his worshippers to worry. A deity named Sseth appeared, claiming to be an aspect of Merrshaulk, and claimed Merrshaulk's following (at least much of it) while Merrshaulk slept.

After cleaning up the text and analyzing where there might be typos in the charts, this is what I've come up with:

Sseth is an avatar of Set, not a divergent aspect, but a convergent aspect sharing the same consciousness/overmind. Set decided to take advantage of Merrshaulk's downfall to snatch the juicy worshippers up for grabs. This is why Sseth is CE on the Serpent Kingdoms chart with the exact same portfolio as Set, who is LE - Merrshaulk is CE so Sseth must PRETEND to be CE despite being LE as an avatar of Set.

For some unknown reason, Merrshaulk doesn't seem to want to be woken up or drawn out of his personal space, according to 2e Planes of Chaos, eating anyone who dares to wake him up.

I may have that reason.

Asmodeus.

Before falling into slumber, Merrshaulk had slain an avatar of Jazirian, which would have caused the Creator of Couatls great pain and suffering.

Asmodeus may have once been a being known as Ahriman, with a creation myth in 2e Guide to Hell tying him together in what was once a bond of camaraderie with Jazirian, until they had a falling out over how the multiverse was to function (may be tied to Asmodeus' history involving his trial before the gods if bridging the lore from 2e to 5e).

As such, Asmodeus may have some leftover sentimentality or possessiveness over the deity Jazirian, and Merrshaulk earned the ire of Asmodeus with the slaying of Jazirian's avatar.

Asmodeus is one of the few beings that a deity should not anger carelessly, due to the protection he enjoys from THE PACT PRIMEVAL and his role as the lynchpin that prevents the Nine Hells from being overrun by the hordes of the Abyss, a multiversal infection that would inevitably spread to the other planes, the other gods' domains if not kept in check by the Lord of Nessus.

Asmodeus is also well-connected in the politics of the multiverse and probably has many favors owed him since the days of the ancient Dawn War.

Merrshaulk may have been attacked/weakened due to Asmodeus' plotting (or at least received a harsh threat), and is now laying low, trying to avoid provoking Asmodeus into doing something worse than making Merrshaulk's faith dwindle to much lesser numbers than before, or trying to recover from whatever Asmodeus may have had done to Merrshaulk.

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Edited by - Storyteller Hero on 15 Nov 2021 21:01:34

Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6351 Posts

Posted - 15 Nov 2021 : 21:09:21

I noticed the similarities with Set and Sseth as well but i went down a slightly different route.

To me, Sseth is Set.

Set is one of the Mulhorandi godkings and an outcast one at that. While the other godkings may have ascended to the status of true deities sometime after they retreated from public life around -150 DR, i find it unlikely that an outcast godking would be able to muster enough belief from his few worshippers to accomplish the same.

It is known that Set went about slaying quasi godlings, presumably in an effort to acquire more power to ascend. He also becomes snakelike at some point in his travels. And then he vanishes like all the other godkings.

In my version Set uses a portal network of the sarrukh / baetith to travel from Thay to Unther to the Lake of Steam and finally onto Chult, emerging from the Peaks of Flame at the same time that yuan-ti were praying to Merrshaulk to save them in their time of need (pure coincidence.

I reckon Sseth is just the yuan-ti attempt to pronounce Set, who would have seemed like a god to them and so they accepted him as Merrshaulk reborn because he was snakelike like them, and part human like them, and super powerful. He helped the yuan-ti create the Empire of Serpentes and led them for 300 years.

I never really decided upon what befell Merrshaulk or Serpentes, i tried to tie it into some magical accident that is tied to Eshowdow, the Tomb of Annihilation, the slumbering sarrukh, etc.

Storyteller Hero
Learned Scribe

USA
329 Posts

Posted - 15 Nov 2021 : 21:22:18

quote:
Originally posted by Gary Dallison

Set is one of the Mulhorandi godkings and an outcast one at that. While the other godkings may have ascended to the status of true deities sometime after they retreated from public life around -150 DR,

If memory serves correctly, it wasn't that the Mulhorandi god kings ascended so much as the main bodies of the Mulhorandi god kings in the Outer Planes were able to reconnect with their avatars and have a more traditional presence like the deities in the Faer�nian pantheon.

They were already true deities, but their presence was limited due to restrictions that were in place.

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Gary Dallison
Great Reader

United Kingdom
6351 Posts

Posted - 15 Nov 2021 : 22:02:04

Well if you read Old Empires carefully you will see them described in many different ways. I chose to make them quasi deities and then demigods and then true deities because the outer planar essence thing didnt work for me.

Gods travel across the universe to another planet because of the planar barrier, but that barrier doesnt cover the entire planet because there are numerous instances of gods taking divine action during the time of Imaskar up to the present day, so the barrier must only cover the Old Empires region, so why didnt the godkings just appear in Rashemen or Shaar and annihilate Imaskar.

Godkings come from another world that is presumed to be earth, but we know that the worship on earth dies out. So how can there be an outerplanar essence to rejoin with after 2000 years. The whole Tiamat, Tiamat, Tiamat, Marduk, Bahamut thing became so convoluted i couldnt explain it even if i was reading it out of a book. Nevermind the fact that Tiamat and Bahamut are Archtypes and therefore not deities at all.

But if you like the outerplanar essence thing then go with it, it just didnt work for me.

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