No, I don’s mean the bullying of the other girl… I mean the way they talk and the things they say. Being traumatized and saying “well being without adults was fun for a while, it was hilarious seeing people try to climb into Crown Hill and go splat as they fell” is another. That girl has issues. Also her parents died and she just shrugs like “I never liked them anyway”.
I would not call any of them evil. They are power-hungry but on the D&D scale I would say they are Neutral. Solael is basically a vitality vampire, so yeah he is said to be needing sacrifices. The other two, not so much. Bysmiel strikes me more as an “Eminent Grey”, aka the puppetmaster behind the scene who rather sits out this conflict, pulls her strings and sees what will happen. And Dreeg, as many characters tell you, might be completely bonkers due to seeing things no mortal was meant to see… proved by how his followers tend to go down the path of maddness too, and his visions usually drive people mad.
However, gods as they are, all three seem to be quite grounded in reality due to their origins as mortals, and seem to be supportive of their followers. I doubt the Coven could have existed this long and avoid the Luminari without some help from the Three. They only killed the witches when they were trying to part the Veil themselves, whether this was due to their fears that some of them could ascend as gods and rival them, or because they know more things than most Occultists and knew something terrible would have happened due to their meddlings… guess we will never know.
He will soon set up a blood donation drive somewhere, who knows :rolleyes:
One thing I do not get yet in this universe is just… how much do gods in Cairn need worship? I mean, in D&D gods who are forgotten actually fade away and die, and once a god was killed this way when powerful magic simply erased his name from everyone’s mind. And in general, the stronger a god is, the more worshippers they have. When the demon lord Yeenoghu ursurped the portfolio of gnolls from Gorellik, who taught that the strongest rules (ironically, that’s why most gnolls switched gods to Yeenoghu), he basically faded to obscurity and is now little more than a wandering demi-god level animal without any higher thoughts.
But on Cairn, this seems to be different. Mogdrogen is pretty super powerful and can send Avatars out, but only a small number of roving nomads still remember or worship him. The Witch gods are pretty powerful, yet they have not tried so far to actively protect their flock from the Luminari, who are just powerful mages basically, not servants of another god… And yeah, I don’t think we ever heard anything about the Empire having like, a mandatory state-approved religion. Maybe it was an atheistic empire?
On the other hand, the Arkovians dying out and turning to undead seems to have made their gods disappear as well.
And then we have gods who obviously get more and more powerful from worship, like Empyrion/Korvaak, and actively want to gain more followers.
Heh, good points, and I fully agree.
One of my favourite Transformers characters is Shockwave, who is like, totally devoid of emotions (or rather he likes to behave like he is). He is often portrayed as an unethical scientist and does some pretty horrible things in the name of science, while always being detached and uncaring - it’s not like he enjoys this at all, it’s just a means to an end. Compare this to someone like Overlord, who will also do horrible things like slowly dissecting someone or messing with their minds, but because he enjoys this and because it proves his superiority (he is basically the Decepticon version of Caligula).
I would not argue that both actions are evil, but one is amorally evil, while the other is morally evil. Shockwave never does cliche evil overlord stuff like killing a minion for “you failed me for the last time”, something that most Decepticons except their leader to do. He sees it was wasting resources for no good reason.
In Grim Dawn terms, take Krieg and Hargrate. Krieg was supposed to just infect/experiment on prisoners, but influenced by the kind of man his host body was, he started to torment and torture the prisoners, something his Aetherial superiors found puzzling and a waste of time but what he clearly enjoyed. Hargrate started out with purely scientific intentions, and then each more and more drastic horrible step that led to him using his own daughter for experiments was justified with the “for science!” and “lesser minds cannot understand what great things I am doing” self-delusions.
Ehhhh, no, not likely I think. Solael we know was a human before he became a god. He also had a romantic relationship with Bysmiel, even. And vitality and blood are really different things… vitality is more like, well, the soul of beings, as far as GD works.
Plus Ch’thon is not scattered I think. His blood is, that was used to give life to all humanity apparently. But the constellation and even the Aetherials talk about him as if he was, well, out there somewhere, a god constantly dying and yet unable to die. Until now he was kinda in a coma-like state, but now he is slowly awakening and likely to start directing his horde of fiends more actively.
Btw, I still wonder just why people would join the Bloodsworn before the Grim Dawn. I understand why after it, it gave them a purpose, a place to belong, cute giant Mousers as pets, etc, but before? What was so enticing about a cult that says “all your blood belong to us”, and where your reward for helping your god would be the classic “I’ll kill you last” bit? I can only see this attracting the apocalyptic-minded madmen and occasional serial killer.
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It’s possible she’s just outright evil-bent but I’m more inclined to think it’s warped coping mechanisms and a whole lot of juvenile fronting. Kids turn into absolute edgelords when they’re sulking or brooding, in my experience.
BB_Schockwave > That’s maybe why the cult wasn’t that big before, or less active. Now that hell’s breaks around the world, there’s no real power (political, military power) that can really stop them.
As for the discussion about the gods and wether they need worshippers to exist, I don’t think there’s an answer yet. Maybe they can gain power through that (close to a lot of popular stories/rpg), maybe not. Still, Mogdrogen isn’t really a god but something that was created by a god, much like the aetherials actually (more powerful in itself, I think).
As for current religions on Cairn, specifically in Erulan, I think the soldier tree answers a lot (Oleron, Menhir), and devotions of course.
They can be Arkovian gods who turned into other things, who knows ?
So, quick question… Archon Barthollem. What the heck is he???
I mean, unlike Maldakkar he is not really open about his backstory. But Archon generally is used in RPGs like D&D to indicate something angelic. He looks like a ghost, being translucent, but he is not undead - for startes he has no immunity to Bleed like most undead. Was he even alive back at some point? I mean, his ashes could have been a way he was imprisoned back then. Also, he has the same glow as the Messenger Kymon keeps in his cellar. So is he powered by Korvaak? Or he is really some ancient angel-like servant of the original Empyrion, now subjugated to be the servant of Korvaak? Maybe a spirit entity similar to what the Aetherials used to be?
Btw, one of the reasons I do not expect Korvaak or whoever the glowy ball Kymon has in his celler to be revealed as the next big bad is that… basically unless you join Kymon’s Chosen, you will never ever hear about him from anyone. Even if you do not join Death’s Vigil, you know who Uroboruuk is because of the Rover storyteller, the lore notes found in Old Arkovia, the Steps of torment, aka mainline stuff. I have only allied with them once so far with my Druid, otherwise for my Blademaster, Conjurer and Cabalist the Death’s Vigil items were far more useful. So, yeah, most players who never allied with them or did all their quests would be dumbfounded who Korvaak is if he was brought up in a new expansion.
Sorry to bring up such an old response but I found this funny that you never heard about Drizzt, when your avatar looks totally like a D&D drow (dark elf) 
But yeah, basically dual wielding super fast characters are mainly popular thanks to R.A. Salvatore and his MinMaxed ranger character he wrote into novels. 
I am also surprised reading back into this thread that you only started playing last year? Given your knowledge in your posts (and that you managed to nab the username Chthon on time) I always assumed you have been around since the alpha.
LOL, just had to reply to this, as I find it ironic that the ONLY shoulder blueprint I ever found in the game so far is the Decorated Pauldrons.
Btw, one of the reasons I do not expect Korvaak or whoever the glowy ball Kymon has in his celler to be revealed as the next big bad is that… basically unless you join Kymon’s Chosen, you will never ever hear about him from anyone. Even if you do not join Death’s Vigil, you know who Uroboruuk is because of the Rover storyteller, the lore notes found in Old Arkovia, the Steps of torment, aka mainline stuff. I have only allied with them once so far with my Druid, otherwise for my Blademaster, Conjurer and Cabalist the Death’s Vigil items were far more useful. So, yeah, most players who never allied with them or did all their quests would be dumbfounded who Korvaak is if he was brought up in a new expansion.
Although Korvaak is not mentioned by name, Creed mentioned something about Kymon. https://grimdawn.gamepedia.com/Journal_of_Inquisitor_Creed_-_10th_Entry
Korvaak is the biggest mystery atm. We know nothing about him, not a single constellation named after him even, the only thing we have is a relic showing him doing an Empyrion impression.
You really seem to have a beef with Mogdrogen. What did he do, kick your ass too many times? 
Realistically, I think there are several reasons why he does not interfere. You ever read the Silmarillion? The LOTR movies never really mention him, but Sauron was really more like Starscream from Transformers G1, a treacherous lieutenant to the real big kahuna and ultimate evil, Morgoth. (The movies pretty much stole his spikey armored appearance and gave it to Sauron, something I never cared for - Sauron is a shrewd manipulator and always appeared in a handsome and charming form). So many stories are about how the gods (yes, LOTR has a lot of gods) subtly tried stopping the machination of the exiled Morgoth, but in the end when he pretty much laid waste to the elven kingdoms and gathered magical artifacts and huge armies of humans and orcs, they had to intervene in person.
Know what happened? Most of Middle-Earth was pretty much erased from the map, whole species went extinct or decimated (most dragons, for example), and the gods kinda decided that they would NEVER do this in the future. Because they were stupid enough to believe Starscream-Sauron that he was sorry and only acted under Morgoth’s duress and just punished him, when he revealed his true colors and started continuing where his boss left off, they did not directly intervene again - instead, each god sent what was basically a high ranking angel to represent him on Middle-Earth (the 5 Mages).
I mean, I imagine this is what would happen to Cairn too if the gods would step out of the Eldritch realm directly. I mean, what you fight is Mogdrogen’s Avatar - a flesh and blood, human-like embodiment containing a fraction of his power. If he was there as he is, he could probably level the whole mountain range with just one smash or lightning bolt. And since he is the god of beasts and nature, he rather not destroy what he protects.
You wil like Mogdrogen better when… well you just have to wait
That’s a human, even though when I first looked at him I thought he was an elf mainly because he was standing amongs them and does kinda look like one
The guy in the image is called Hanz Brackhaus a.k.a The Great Dragon Lofwyr whose machinations have lead to the saying “Never deal with a dragon”. He is a major character from the Shadowrun franchise which is a Pen & Paper RPG similar to Shadowrun
I spend most of my internet time on messaging boards all of which remain open almost all day while I work on my terminal. Otherwise work does get boring real fast.
I have never read a single novel in my life let alone Tolkien’s Trinity. I do possess some knowledge about the Middle Earth setting.
I am aware of most of what you’ve told me (except for the part where Morgoth blew up the universe) and I am also aware that Sauron was basically an angel while Morgoth is closer to an Archangel
I am also aware that Gandalf is no mere mortal wizard he is also some sort of angelic spirit.
It has been years since I skimmed over all of this info I do vaguely recall words like Valar, Maiar and Ainur were used to describe beings like Gandalf and Sauron.
I can understand when the powerful beings don’t move a finger when insects squabble but the character doing that should be interesting, Mogdrogen sounds like a prick. Although after beating the shit out of the Ravager a few times I have grown to respect Mogdrogen as he has the patience to not wipe out blithering idiots like that buffoon
I actually don’t hate him as much when I see something like the Ravager exists. I mean I don’t even hate Kymon as much as I hate Ravager. It has nothing to do with cannibalism it’s got to do with the fact that the fool actually thinks he is capable of taking on the oldest primordial when he got defeated by an ascendant dog. How dumb can he be?
So can someone point me towards all the Malmouth Note locations. I already have the one’s from the secret quest but I’m missing quite a few
Basically, run through Steelcap district and Crown Hill, opening every little chest. There’s like 5 or 6 notes hidden in various ones.
In Candle district there are also a few corpses that contain notes.
So I talked to Ravager finally. Maaaan he is big. I chose Aurin as the sacrifice/vessel, because A/ she is such an evil b*tch she deserved this (though she seemed to enjoy it), and B/ Scorv said the Ravager would take on some characteristics of the vessel, and frankly the other two maniacs were far more aggressive and bloodthirsty. Anyone notice any differences when talking to different versions of Ravager?
And because this forum is sorely lacking of screenshots of Ravager (seriously, never saw one so far):
So he can… remake people in his image? I take it that means turning into a Wendigo. Interestingly, he says then you would feel no hunger anymore, which sounds rather contrary to what we know about Wendigos. Though he would not do this to you, being corrupted by Aetherials.
He is certainly older than Mogdrogen for sure - he says he has been around longer than humanity, and given what he represents, I am inclined to believe him. This also kinda means that the “God of Beasts” did not earn his portfolio really, more like he stole it from those spirits who came before him.
Sounds like his plan is to devour all who do not worship him, but he does need worshippers to gain strenght - yet he would destroy humanity without a thought rather than give their blood over to Ch’thon.
So, met Allostria too. She is certainly full of herself - btw, question, is her gender dependent on what gender your character is? Or she is always female? She does state an interesting thing - that the old gods are all gone, or unable to stop them. This is in rather stark contrast to what the missives to and from the Four of Five ruling Aetherial council state, that “Their eyes” are turning towards Cairn. I assume that means the gods, since if it was just Ch’thon, it would not be “their”.
So, Korinia was an Aetherial too? That took me as much by surprise as it did Anastheria. They are quite different, and that is interesting - not just that she could hide her possession, but that she seems to be working more closely with her host, in agreement. And she likes some of the pleasures of the flesh, so to speak…
She also thinks, like Anasteria, that if the true leaders of the Aetherhold knew what was going on they would put a stop to this. Maybe the 4th of 5 refers to the other 4? We know time goes differently in the Aether, so it is possible they are not yet aware of the invasion at all.
And yes, she confirms that the Aetherials used to have physical forms before the gods stripped them of it - in a way, they are basically fallen angels in this case.
You can find most of them in houses, if you visit every little place in the districts, you will find them.
I just got through talking to Rallia for the second time in the Coven and something just occurred to me. Rallia’s a mindreader, right? At least, she sure as heck seems to be one. How many other mindreaders are there? Who are they? Is their gift innate or granted by magic?
It’s probably Bysmiel-related, she is the schemer Witch God after all. I think if you talk to each witch, you can pretty much tell who follows which Witch God. Mallostria for example, wears the Hood of Dreeg…
Oh and speaking of the Coven, someone asked if NPCs have different dialogue for Soldier characters. Well, the Coven leader’s bodyguard (I forgot her name, she stands next to her on the raised building below the Spirit Guide) greeted my Blademaster as a fellow warrior woman, and expressed how she feels a bit of an outsider amongst so many magic users.
One of the Barrowholm NPCs gave me some interesting dialogue on my Warder (probably Shaman related), before I went ballistic on Scorv. Something that sounded kind of mocking in regards to his connection to Mogdrogen. The guards in the Coven don’t seem to react in any special way to him, though, which is interesting given the whole “Mogdrogen worshippers defiled a Witch God site” thing you are made aware of at the start of the Hidden Path. I almost expected some kind of “Oh, it’s one of YOU” response somewhere in the Coven.