Holy Scriptures

7 posts / 0 new
Last post
Samloyal23's picture
Offline
Namer
Joined: 2004-05-25
Holy Scriptures

I have been contemplating the idea of holy scriptures. Planescape is overflowing with gods, but what do their worshipers really believe? Have you created any exerpts from their holy literature to use as part of your game? Ever consider which gods from Planescape you think would be worth worshiping? I think we should pick a power and develop a scripture for Him/Her...

__________________

I'm Samuel M. Wright, and you're not.

Hyena of Ice's picture
Offline
factotums
Joined: 2009-09-25
Re: Holy Scriptures

I have one from Cryonax somewhere, that has tons of parenthesis/footnotes on the double meanings of words in Glacian (Aquan/Auran creole spoken on Paraelemental Ice)

Ah, here it is. The last paragraph is far more esoteric in nature than the first two.

Life is a resource meant to be maintained and exploited (much as some primes would 'maintain and exploit' cattle). The weak are worthless rabble-- social parasites that consume resources and give nothing in return. Cull the weak where you find them, so that the strong in society shall become stronger; spare not the weak, even if they are of your own family. Show no one mercy and grant none respite from their tribulations, for such things breed weakness. Only through one's own merit can they prove themselves worthy to survive (lit. "worthy to not be culled").
Fleshings must recognize and acknowledge the superior physical design of the elemental, for we need not intake matter, liquid, or gas simply to maintain life, nor does our life leak out when we are injured.
Do not allow arrogance to blind you. Elementals, do not assume that all fleshlings (elemental term for creatures with internal anatomy, often used in a derogatory sense) are weak simply because of their soft bodies. Do not forget that fleshlings do not merely encompass mortals and the lowly mephits, but also the powerful genies. Fleshlings, do not assume that all elementals are psychologically or cognitively inferior or "static". We elementals have existed for far longer than you fleshlings. We were building our powerful, advanced civilizations and coming up with new concepts and ideas when you genies had first arisen from your elements. The genies, and yes, even the mephits lived in advanced, enlightened civilizations when you mortals formed your first tools.

Worthless sentimentalities (word that appears often in Cryonax's holy texts-- is the word he himself uses as a synonym for emotions + loyalties that he finds distasteful) such as love, compassion, lust, family, anger, patriotism, sorrow, hatred, rage, sadism, masochism, and mercy must be abolished, for they contaminate the mind and weaken one's resolve. Instead, one must rely on cold, calculating logic and never allow themselves to be swayed by emotions. Vengeance and ambition are tolerable emotions, but should not be encouraged, and must always be tempered with reason. Always think before acting, and never succumb to impulse. Equally as important is unwavering loyalty to Cryonax, the one soon-true god of this multiverse. Sex is useful only for the purposes of reproduction and the manipulation of others. Reproduction should only take place with a strong and intelligent mate, so that the byproduct is strong and intelligent offspring. Intoxicating food and drink must be avoided; revelry is a worthless exercise, and intoxication turns the wise into fools.

Ice and Cold is the most glorious of all elements; never refer to it as a 'paraelement'.
Fire and heat are blasphemies which must be shunned save for the purpose of sustenance (for this reason, most truly devote non-cold subtype cultists become Ice Paraelemental Savants or Ice Archons. Sustenance in this case refers solely to its value as 'nutrition' for ice paraelementals). One day (The word translated from archaic Auran and Glacian simply refers to a specific, future-tense point time, and not a literal 'day'), when Ice shall become the one true element, heat shall become worthless even for this purpose. On that day, fire and heat shall die (lit. "snuffed out" or "extinguished, which is also used as the word 'die' in Glacian to denote hostility and disdain; normally the word "melt" is used for "die".) like the abominations they are, and no being shall ever again know the pain of being licked by flames or of magma sticking to the sole of one's foot.
Ice will be the one true element, while the elemental and quasielemental planes bordering it shall be rendered as mere paraelements; thus has the Great Cryonax decreed in his mercy (note: the word translated as 'mercy' here is not the same that was used in a negative context in the first paragraph, and actually translates closer to 'consideration'.) All other elements, paraelements, and quasielements shall die (word also translates as 'erased from existence'). The exception is Quasielemental Ash, which shall be supplanted, for on the day upon which fire and heat perish, not even a corpse shall remain! (note: the Aquan and Glacian word here also means 'rubble', 'remains', and 'remnant'. Some versions of this quote instead use the Auran term, which also means 'residue'. This sentence is basically stating that Quasielemental Ash will be replaced by Ice, because when fire dies, there will be no 'body' left, alluding to the idea that Quasielemental Ash is the 'bodily remains' of the Elemental Plane of Fire. This sentence also serves the purpose of clarifying which definition of the 2nd word 'die'/'erased' applies to this context-- both definitions.)

Hyena of Ice's picture
Offline
factotums
Joined: 2009-09-25
Re: Holy Scriptures

I should note that the scripture above also provides a window into Cryonax's mentality, to some degree (while he is not sadistic under but the rarest of circumstances, he ranks among the most callous/cruel of the Princes of Elemental Evil *definitely the most callous*, and this is epitomized by his whole mad scientist thing he has going. Ogremoch and Sun-Sing are probably worse, but they're the exceptions.)
His condescending view of fleshed ones is also a very common mentality among elementals, paraelementals, and quasielementals, who, like genies, view themselves as the most superior race in the multiverse.

Samloyal23's picture
Offline
Namer
Joined: 2004-05-25
Re: Holy Scriptures

Interesting stuff. Cryonax is not exactly a warm and friendly berk. I say run with it, creates a series of stories starting with a creation myth and tales about the lives of Cryonax's followers, from their perspective...

__________________

I'm Samuel M. Wright, and you're not.

Hyena of Ice's picture
Offline
factotums
Joined: 2009-09-25
Re: Holy Scriptures

I've done quite a bit about Cryonax's herald/top ranking general, Frigidora, in other threads, I believe. I've been obsessed with other projects lately though and am unable to get into a head for making more Planescape fluff, sadly. Though I do recall that Cryonax and his followers claim that Cryonax's servants were lead by the Paraelemental Plane itself to Frigidora (who was abandoned by her genie mother as a baby-- she is half Paraelemental) Also, that Mother Ice (most outsiders and elementals, at least in my workings, view their native plane as a sentient god-like being and akin to fate, and they revere it almost like a god, or literally in many cases.) sent Frigidora to him because she (the Paraelemental Plane of Ice, that is) has chosen Cryonax to be her champion, and that he is the embodiment (essentially, the avatar) of the plane's will. Which is a pretty high thing to claim.

I haven't written up any holy texts regarding this subject, however.

Hyena of Ice's picture
Offline
factotums
Joined: 2009-09-25
Re: Holy Scriptures

I should mention that I have written quite a LOT of fluff (and some crunch) detailing the Archomentals.
Here are the links below if you want to read them (I'm posting them here as I notice you appear to be a new member)
It will be a LOOONG read, and as I said, it is sadly very, very disorganized.
Some of the major subjects in these include the Law-Chaos war, Cryonax and Paraelemental Ice in general (as you can see), some stuff about Crystalle, and the relationship and history/tragedy between Imix, his late lover Brista-Pel, and their son, Zaaman-Rul (Imix is even turned into a somewhat sympathetic character-- I think it makes things far more interesting this way, to make the bad-guy quasi-deities slightly to mildly sympathetic, and to also give the good-quasipowers character flaws-- Chan's *the Princess of Elemental Good Air* are expanded and elaborated upon, as are Zaaman-Rul's *despite being the embodiment of pure good fire, he despises his father* and Ben-Hadar's a tiny bit *he's a total slob, rude, lewd, and rather arrogant. One of his favorite pass-times is smashing elemental water vermin and seeing if he can break his record for loudest smoosh and greatest distance of splatter or billowing. He is also highly amused by belching from fleshed-ones.*)

www.planewalker.com/forum/project-ice-fleshing-out-paraplane-ice /forum/so-when-exactly-was-lawchaos-war /forum/we-need-more-spells-and-special-materia...

In my timeline thread, I believe there is also an expanded/elaborated post about the history of Aeshma's fall-- and transformation into Asmodeus-- this story also makes him a very sympathetic character due to his losses and his personal sacrifice, and depicts the Celestials as possessing character flaws. I should warn you that the story is a bit graphic/gross due to body invasion/parasitism, and it does go into a bit of detail (in one case there is some very mild sexual explicitness, though again, the description given is EXTREMELY tame compared to what literally occurred. You WILL feel sorry for Asmodeus, I guarantee it.)
Oh, for a shortcut and less effort to get to the Asmodeus story, here is a link. The post with the story is third to last, with some additional comments in the very last post.

/forum/so-when-exactly-was-lawchaos-war?page=2

This one is specifically about incorporating my absolute FAVORITE 3rd-party setting, Violet Dawn, into Planescape and general D&D rules. It includes some details (which I think is pasted from the "brainstorm" topic, though there might be some additions to it) on a Sulwynarri colony and cult of Crystalle, the Prince of Quasilemental Neutral Mineral. (also a tidbit about the Elemental Lords) The nice thing is that the main author left the details intentionally vague so that they could be easily incorporated into any setting (and he had admitted that Planescape and esp. Dark Sun were inspirations for the setting-- along with HP Lovecraft)
/forum/encorporating-inner-circles-violet-dawn...

Samloyal23's picture
Offline
Namer
Joined: 2004-05-25
Re: Holy Scriptures

Hmm... Just a thought, but I am thinking the Planewalker community could have a project building a full blown holy book for a D&D god. Doing an evil god could catch us hell if the press found out, so I thinking a slightly naughty C/G deity would be better. Thoughts?

__________________

I'm Samuel M. Wright, and you're not.

Planescape, Dungeons & Dragons, their logos, Wizards of the Coast, and the Wizards of the Coast logo are ©2008, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. and used with permission.