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Moil, info needed

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Wed, 2008-06-11 03:07
#1
Xjel
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Moil, info needed

Anyone got any information about Moil, the City that Waits?
So far the info I've collected:
It's a place of darkness and ice.
Used to be part of some world called Ranais - believe the world was featured in Dead Gods called the Funeral World or something like that.
Orcus cursed the city to sleep until the sun shone on them (I think that was the condition anyway) and flung it into its own demiplane for turning away from worshipping him.
I think Acererak went there and turned all those sleeping into undead at some point.

[edit - should really look up the encyclopedia first. Sad ]

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Tue, 2008-06-17 06:34
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Evil
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Moil, info needed

There is more information about the demiplane of Moil at the "a guide to ethereal plane". Also it is probably visited in the module "Dead Gods". I'm not sure about that one.

Wed, 2008-06-25 18:30
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ripvanwormer
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Moil, info needed

'Evil' wrote:
There is more information about the demiplane of Moil at the "a guide to ethereal plane". Also it is probably visited in the module "Dead Gods". I'm not sure about that one.

Ranais, the planet that Moil was once part of, is visited in Dead Gods, but Moil isn't.

The best sources on Moil are Return to the Tomb of Horrors and Dragon #353.

It's a city of slender towers hovering in a void, with swirling mists and no solid ground. Fourteen of these towers are connected by bridges, while the others are unmoored. One of the towers was taken into the Negative Energy Plane by Acererak, and is detailed here.

There's enough negative energy permeating the place that any corporeal mortal who dies there is 80% likely to rise again as a skeleton or zombie 1d3 rounds later.

Return to the Tomb of Horrors - The first introduction of Moil.
Libris Mortis - 3E stats for the bleakborn (Moilian zombie), boneyard (bone weird) and dream vestige (vestige).
Epic-Level Handbook - 3E stats for the winterwight
Complete Arcane - Black Lore of Moil feat.
A Guide to the Ethereal Plane - Info on the demiplane
Dead Gods - Info on Ranais

Sat, 2010-11-27 15:54
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Palomides
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Re: Moil, info needed

OK, this was another of the topics on which I had questions

I think this is an example of different writers throwing out ideas and their modification over time; but what is the official stance on this city/demiplane?

I remember (from somewhere) the city described as being "cursed" by Orcus to sleep until "the sun rises" (which it won't happen on the demiplane).
But then later works seemed to recast this as the city of Moil being a city of devout Orcus-worshippers who were made undead and placed in the demiplane as either a reward or to serve a "higher purpose" for Orcus.
-Did Orcus do this as a punishment or reward?

I've read that "the inhabitants are primarily ghouls, ghasts, wights, wraiths and the undead creatures known as the Lovelost."
-Are all the populace of this demiplane undead? If so, how are they "sleeping"? Or is that just a poetic term for inactively waiting?
-Were they all (or a significant percentage of them) undead BEFORE being placed in the demiplane?

-What role did this demiplane really serve in the return of Orcus?
-Did Orcus forsee his death? Was this all a huge continegncy plan on his part?

As a possible side idea (and keeping in th spirit of Orcus): Perhaps, Orcus killed everyone on the Prime world of Ranias (assuming the rest of the world wasn't Orcus worshippers) and Orcus then used the resulting expelled life force energy to power the creation of the demiplane, the relocation of the city of Moil and possibly the transition of the populace into undead. Seems grisly enough for Orcus and explains how the pre-godly fiend accomplished the task

Sat, 2010-11-27 19:28
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ripvanwormer
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Re: Moil, info needed

It's pretty consistent throught 2e and 3e, though the ideas behind it were revised somewhat in 4e.

Ranais was a world where every city had its own patron god, and most worshiped gods of death. Moil was a city devoted to Orcus, but they turned against him, deciding to worship other gods instead. One source says they turned to a rival god of death, while another says they turned to Pelor.

Here is an enchanting story on the subject by Nemui.

Orcus punished the Moilians for their apostasy, and doomed the entire world. Definitely a punishment.

The Moilians were cursed with sleep until sunlight, but since their city was removed from the Material Plane and cast into the shadow of the Negative Energy Plane, they never woke up. Eventually they died.

After they were dead for a while, they rose as ghosts and zombies and the like.

Acererak came to the city and used it as his base for experimenting with the Negative Energy Plane. He created more kinds of undead, using the corpses of Moil as a base. Some of the energy surges that he created found their way to the corpse of Orcus, and helped stir it into undeath.

They were alive before Moil was cursed. Being Orcus-worshipers, they might have had some undead servants, but it does not seem to be a significant percentage.

Orcus did not foresee his death. He got complacent, which is why Kiaransalee was able to kill him. Possible Graz'zt's imprisonment (depending on when in the timeline you place Orcus's death) and Demogorgon's war with his other head caused him to think his major enemies were no longer the threats they were, for the time being. He didn't think of Kiaransalee as a source of danger for him, since his slight against her was so long ago he had forgotten about it and she wasn't really a major player in the Abyss. Orcus's resurrection was due to a number of things, from the stirrings of Moil, Acererak's experiments, and Quah-Nomag's last impassioned prayer. There's no indication that any of it was his own doing, directly, although Acererak was once one of his worshipers. Orcus pretty much got lucky.

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