Uthex Kathiasas: Difference between revisions

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''(energy absorption message; after several hot flares)''
''(energy absorption message; after several hot flares)''


Suddenly a hot wave of pure energy rushes out of the crystal dome, rolling forth like an apocalyptic juggernaut.
Suddenly a hot wave of pure energy rushes out of the crystal dome, rolling forth like an apocalyptic [http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/lt.aspx juggernaut].


The heat of the wave burns your flesh!
The heat of the wave burns your flesh!
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Revision as of 04:06, 28 June 2016

Uthex Kathiasas (? - 6521 Second Era) was a highly regarded Loremaster during the Wars of Dominion in the ICE Age history. As a Loremaster of Karilon, he was most likely High Elven. Uthex was one of the greatest researchers of his time, focused on finding ways of fighting the Dark Gods and the most powerful forces of Unlife. Seduced by The Dark Path, Uthex fell to ever darker magics, eventually working with forging extra-planar entities. These were all named in Iruaric, but were also known by other names, implying their origin in Lord of Essaence experiments. While this concept is esoteric, it still exists in modern demonology, as verlok demons are speculated to have begun the same way. There have been modern storylines with humanoids being transformed into extra-planar entities.

Uthex was killed by his fellows in 6521 Second Era, the same year the kingdom immediately to the south was crushed by the Ordainer Kharuugh, serving the dark conqueror Lorgalis who was a former servant of Kadaena. While these events never happened in modern Elanthian history, much of The Broken Lands would be considered non-canonical in Shadow World. A monastery of Cay (Kai) was founded to guard the portal, so servants of the Unlife would not be able to return. Eventually, these monks were corrupted by the evil texts, transforming themselves into liches. The hooded figures regained control of the gateway, and a Sheruvian Monastery was constructed a few years later. They were not reunited with the nightmare god himself, as he was on the moon of our world.

Research

His work was focused on giving "physical form" to a "new source of power", which amounts to making conscious entities out of pure energy. These were implicitly extra-planar beings who he apparently morphed into unnatural hybrids with each other. He had acquired access to a power draining dome in The Broken Lands that was left over from the rule of the Empress Kadaena, with ruins implying her role in the origins of the Dark Gods. This was presumably discovered by Bandur Etrevion as a result of his dream visions, or possibly from studying the journals of Selias Jodame at Nomikos.

His surviving works were "other standard" extra-planar entities from Rolemaster, which were not demonic or necessarily malevolent but typically violent from being so alien. These were given Iruaric names based on their characteristics, with Uthex making copies or perhaps modifying existing templates. However, the implication is that these beings had their origins in Lord of Essaence experiments, providing an easy path for perverting his work toward the demonic. The vruul were awakened by the dark priests using necromancy, and the confiscated texts must have included the Ritual of Black Eternity.

Crystal Dome

The mechanism for the fashioning and telepathic control of synthetic life is the crystal dome on the jagged plain. It is implicitly a Lord of Essaence artifact left over from the First Era of the Shadow World history. More subtly, it is probably an esoteric allusion to the Shining Trapezohedron from "The Haunter of the Dark", an ancient artifact that was "a window on all time and space." Gazing into its dark abyss summoned the black tentacled bat-winged avatar of Nyarlathotep, who provided visions of other worlds and their horrific entities in exchange for horrendous sacrifices. It faintly glowed through its paneled angles and was found in an abandoned lair of evil lore. (This was a shadowy cult in his homage in exchange for limitless knowledge of the greater cosmos, whose collection of occult knowledge was later removed from their church.) It was brought by the Old Ones who had fashioned life synthetically, reflecting Kadaena as the mother of many dark races from her tortured experiments.

The implication is that the dome is able to summon extra-planar entities as a kind of template, but uses the power it absorbs to incarnate their physical being from pure energy (thus allowing control over otherwise uncontrollable beings.) The hooded figures are probably being endlessly reincarnated by it. The crystyl forest surrounding it is a special kind of trans-planar entity that would provide the means of simultaneously viewing and drawing upon an almost limitless amount of such information. Similarly, the boiling mud sea is a vast colony of the hoard, which are mutually self-aware across all realities.

[The Broken Lands, Jagged Plain]
A large crystal dome rises above the jumble of huge boulders and jagged rocks, breaking the monotony of the terrain.  There is no question in your mind that the dome is man-made and not a natural feature of the area.  A dense fog swirls around the base of the dome, and generally obscures your vision.
Obvious paths: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west, northwest

The crystal dome pulses with a dim, multicolored light.

R>look dome
The crystal dome is about 12 feet tall, and some 15 to 20 feet across.  The multi-faceted surface is highly polished, and the reflective planes make it impossible to see into the crystal.

R>prep [most spells]
>cast dome
You gesture at a large crystal dome.
The energies of your spell seem to get sucked into the dome in a great rush.  A bright flash lights up the area and as your eyes adjust you notice that the dome absorbs all the energy without a sound.

R>prep 416
You gesture and invoke the powers of the elements for the Piercing Gaze spell...
Your spell is ready.
>cast dome
You gesture at a large crystal dome.
The surface of the crystal dome shimmers in your vision, its reflective planes become insubstantial, and you can now see inside.  Peering closer you see flashes of swirling elemental energy.  Surely this dome must hold an immense amount of mana.

The dome is a concentrator of great deals of magical power, which would otherwise spill out in violent bursts. Teleportation spells and devices fail in its vicinity, and it suppresses the ability to "reach out with your senses" in communicating telepathically. This is relevant because a number of his entities were actually mentalist in nature, and were named in the partially telepathic language Iruaric. The Shining Trapezohedron was a "seeming sphere" that turned out to be a polyhedron that was artificial, and covered with strange hieroglyphs which for us correspond to the ancient form of Iruaric.

>prep 704
You begin drawing a faint, twisting symbol while softly intoning the words for Phase...
Your spell is ready.
>cast dome
You gesture at a large crystal dome.
Suddenly you notice the crystal dome's form dim slightly as it becomes insubstantial.

The interior of the dome begins to flash and spark as whatever was contained inside now has an easier way out.  As you begin to pass into the dome, a wave of pure energy gushes forth, burning you with its intense heat!
   ... 45 points of damage!
   Left arm incinerated.  Unfortunate.
   You are stunned for 10 rounds!
The surface of the dome returns to normal as if nothing happened.

>think Hello world
You concentrate on projecting your thoughts but something seems to be blocking them.

R>esp who local
You strain your senses outward, but something seems to be blocking them.

>turn ring
You turn the ring on your finger, but the pulse you feel is extremely weak...as if the magic is being inhibited by someone or something in the room.

>incant 130 (sometimes) *** 
Nothing happens. 

*** - This may be erroneous. Spells are not auto-released when casting at the dome, causing Incant to self-cast the wrong spell.

While the Sorcerer spell Phase (704) will cause a violent release of energy, the dome can only naturally hold so much power at a single time without backlashing on its own. It is not based on the actual quantity of mana absorbed, only the number of spell casts in a given interval of time. Casting phase does not release energy from the dome in terms of game mechanics, but the backlash from excess power absorption immediately resets it. The inside of the dome does not appear differently with Piercing Gaze (416) under changes of energy concentration, with no other apparent consequences.

The crystal dome will drain a random amount of mana (up to one off-node pulse) every three to ten minutes. The effect was originally strongest at the dome, weakening with distance.

>cast dome 
(energy absorption message; after approximately 30 times)
The crystal dome shimmers brightly.

>cast dome
(energy absorption message; after approximately 50 times)
The crystal dome flares hotly.

>cast dome
(energy absorption message; after several hot flares)

Suddenly a hot wave of pure energy rushes out of the crystal dome, rolling forth like an apocalyptic juggernaut.

The heat of the wave burns your flesh!
  ... 35 points of damage!
  Flame sets your head alight like a torch. Burned beyond recognition.

(The dome cools off at a rate of two casts per whole mana pulse.)

The Dark Gods

The Loremasters had conflicting theories on the origins of the Dark Gods, who were not known to exist until early in the Second Era as a result of the comet Sa'kain disrupting portals on Charon (Lornon). Some believed they had a similar origin as the Lords of Orhan (Liabo) or had somehow escaped from some interdimensional prison. There was no clear documentation of the role the gods may have had in the First Era cataclysm, and some believed the moon deities may actually be Lords of Essaence portraying themselves as gods. However, others believed the Dark Lords were the result of "failed" Lord of Essaence experiments with creating non-corporeal life, fashioned of more chaotic essence associated with the corruptive power of The Unlife. Similarly, the surviving former followers of the Empress Kadaena (specifically Lorgalis and the Master of Malice) were wielding demonic armies with Ordainers, which were essentially fallen demi-gods with some thought to have been fashioned artificially.

In the Wars of Dominion it was impossible to directly fight beings of such innate might, forming the need for countervailing powers of similar scale and inexhaustibility. In this context Uthex Kathiasas was attempting to provide the means for forming armies of beings with various immunities out of thin air, possibly up to the scale of godlike power while nevertheless being controlled by an artifact. However, the fundamentally alien nature of dark essence from ordinary magic would have misled Uthex into corrupting himself, and his hosts were able to seduce him into pursuing more malevolent and ultimately demonic manifestations of his work. His fellows realized something was horribly wrong when the region was under siege by Lorgalis, and discovered his secret work was too dangerous to exist.

The inscription on the Dark Shrine would have implied to Uthex that Morgu (Marlu) was made by the Empress Kadaena, and that by extension of the wording and nature of the Dark Spirits she must be Orgiana (Eorgina). In other words, the Dark Gods were the ascended immortalized forms of the high servants of the Unlife, and that this dome was the means of ascending to godhood. It would involve transferring mind into a non-corporeal avatar of pure energy. This is consistent with The Dark Path theology where Bandur Etrevion represented himself symbolically in death as an Ordainer. It is possible that the plane of existence and "the broken land" itself was artificial, having been formed by the Empress Kadaena as a parallel reality of the dark side of the moon to conduct secret experiments.

Known Works

These creatures have had multiple names due to the I.C.E. Age ending, as well as having been dual references to Rolemaster and the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

Absolutely everything in The Broken Lands is artificial. It was supposed to be impossible for much of it to exist.

Creature Iruaric Rolemaster Lovecraft Mythos Analog (*) Other Information
Hooded figures None None "High Priest Not to be Described"; Hooded figures from Shining Trapezohedron vision; "Almost humans" Men of Leng Surviving members of The Dark Path. "Spirits born of death" may imply the creatures were all sacrificed souls. The entities would all be a form of high necromancy.
Giant fog beetles None Dictics Beetles following the end of the race of man; stand-ins for purple spiders of Leng who fought the "almost humans" Variants on Teras Isle, Foggy Valley, Shadow Valley. Dust beetles. Spirit or mind transference theme. Too unintelligent for communication. Only summoned accidentally with something else. Wander through open portals wherever they find them.
Magru Lug'shuk traglaakh Absorbers, Hoard Shoggoths; "The Colour" Other forms in multiple colors sleeping as ponds, streams, puddles in Shadow Valley. Cannot be summoned or controlled. Too alien for communication. Shoggoths were renegade pseudo-consciousnesses, formerly telepathic controlled. Worship Old Ones.
Myklian Kiskaa raax None Toad-things / Moon-beasts; Reptile Tsathoggua worshippers of the Vaults of Zin (almost destroyed by shoggoths and synthetically modified as slaves by an immortalized telepathic Old One race) Anagram of "many ilk". Spectrum ordered power with purple color greatest. No apparent Rolemaster entity basis. May be the only unique creation. Based on Old One worshippers.
Dark vortece Dyar rakul Nycorac, Blacar Cold wind vortices on the massive stairs of Kadath; purple fog being S'gnac; Shining Trapezohedron's "vortices of space where wisps of black mist floated before thin shimmerings of cold purple haze" Hazy tenebrous orbs probably a "spirit born of death" situation. Probably a hybrid of Nycorac and Blacar. Cannot be summoned or controlled. Too alien for communication. Mentalist in nature. Correspond to things related to Great Old One Nyarlathotep.
None None Crystyl Oblivion; Crystallized memories; Shining Trapezohedron Crystal forest on the Jagged Plain. Possibly part of the crystal dome scrying mechanism across worlds. Cannot be summoned or controlled. Mentalist in nature. Trans-planar in presence. With Hoard the omniscience/omnipresence imply Yog-Sothoth and Kadaena as forbidden guardian.
None None Hoard "Mud of the nether earth"; mud ooze of the colour out of space Boiling sea of mud on the Jagged Plain. Possibly a shoggoth-like hybrid with Absorbers to form magru. Cannot be summoned or controlled. Trans-planar awareness. With Crystyl the omniscience and omnipresence imply Yog-Sothoth and Kadaena.
None Trag Traag Cats of Ulthar; Large Cats of Saturn Huge thigh bones in the bone pit of the Dark Grotto. Summoned demons. Eaten by the magru. Cannot be summoned or controlled. Venomous. Based on Old One worship.
None None Blacar Shantak eggs; Shining Trapezohedron's "alien orbs" of other worlds; Dream-Quest's other world orbs and tenebrous Kadath Hazy tenebrous orbs, sphere piles in the Dark Grotto. Possibly hybridized with Nycorac to form Dark Vorteces. Cannot be summoned or controlled. Mentalist in nature.
Vruul Gogor, Vruul Gogor Night-gaunts; "The Haunter" avatar of Nyarlathotep The "fell beasts" from the story, if following the Tolkien convention. Uthex did not create them. Sacrifices. They are summoned in monastery, but are artificial constructs.

(* - Note: These entities and places are not simply Lovecraft Old One allusions, they are all linked specifically to Nyarlathotep in some way.)

Behind The Scenes

There is a subtle trans-temporal theme to The Broken Lands that does not translate outside of its I.C.E. Age background. The inscription on the Dark Shrine is an anomaly in that it refers to a multiplicity of times in an impossible combination. It was implicitly written at a time when Iruaric should have been hieroglyphic, speaking of an ancient relationship in a modern phonetic form of the language, which unbeknownst to Uthex was a couplet from a poem addressing conditions that would not exist until centuries after his death. This "hieroglyphic" nature of ancient Iruaric was invented for this story.

The Shadow Valley story is most likely a spin-off of the Broken Lands story, involving some of the same themes and underlying subtexts, and to some extent using the same entities at a different time in history while set in very nearly the same location. The Broken Lands story is unambiguously a spin-off of the Graveyard story, with its various Nyarlathotep allusions corresponding to Bandur Etrevion. The Hoard and Crystyl forest are omniscient and omnipresent respectively, which combined with the implicit coexistences of the plane, symbolize Yog-Sothoth who corresponds to Kadaena "Throk Farok."

(A) Lornon

Sage Uthex was retconned to be a member of the Order of Lorekeepers for the release of Miracle (Spell 350) in 5107 Modern Era. The Broken Lands was treated as the surface of Lornon for the story, but it was originally written to be another plane of existence, possibly one of the parallel material planes which were almost impossible to access. These are not necessarily self-contradictory possibilities, as there was a source book (though published in 1995) that said the Lord of Essaence war began when Kadaena was performing extreme planar and transmogrification experiments on Charon (Lornon), forming a coexistent dual of it on an artificial prison plane of existence that was much more habitable than the actual moon. It was infested with various extra-planar entities over the millennia, which is consistent with The Broken Lands. There was supposed to only be one surviving portal to that forgotten place, though on the moon of Charon itself, which was sealed by the Lords of Orhan (Liabo).

This interpretation of the Broken Lands originates in the non-canonical "Curse of Kabis" source book of Shadow World. Kabis was an immensely powerful Void demon of shadows, who the light and dark gods imprisoned inside this artificial demi-plane at the end of the Wars of Dominion. While this thread would be a convenient basis for modernizing the story, possibly replacing Kabis with Althedeus, the Broken Lands is much more likely based on the Loremaster theory that the Dark Gods escaped from some unknown inter-dimensional prison upon arriving in our world. The portal to the Broken Lands was a Lord of Essaence style gate, like those on Charon (Lornon), which were "naturally" unsealed by the comet releasing the Dark Lords. This would explain why the story refers to the portal as a "natural" gateway in spite of clearly being Lord of Essaence in origin. This portal is set in a round stone of "strange dark rock that you have not seen before", engraved with "odd runes", which is a typical Lovecraft motif where something falsely seems natural but was made by great ancients. It is unclear if Morgu (Marlu) used his Dark Shrine in the Second Era, but The Dark Path may have served Orgiana.

The surrounding hills were intended by GM Kygar as an idyllic contrast to the dark struggle being waged in the mountain, which was due to the impossibility of destroying his foul experiments. The monks would have been fighting the hooded figures for centuries, who implicitly were probably being reincarnated by the crystal dome. Incarnating spirit to corporeal being is the distinguishing power of Eissa (Lorminstra), which is the most immediate meaning of "spirit born of death." That Uthex was incarnating extra-planar beings from pure energy implies his work could have been twisted toward fashioning demons and dark gods. The Shar story line would later refer to the Broken Lands as "The Arkati Workshop", part of her quest to ascend herself to godhood. (Shar herself was a dark goddess of the underworld in Dungeons & Dragons.) The Monastery makes only very opaque allusions if any at all, but the ki-lin of eastern mythology appeared with the birth and death of immortal sages.

(B) Lovecraft

There are numerous allusions to "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" in The Broken Lands. This novella was also alluded to below The Graveyard and Purgatory, which is based on the prose poem "Ex Oblivione" as well, with Uthex Kathiasas likely being a portmanteau of "Utha Kadaena" with "Ex" and "Kadath." The end of the novella might also be referenced by the exit of Shadow Valley. The plateau of Leng was similarly a place whose location could not be identified from the convergence of realities, and was next to the monastery of the wicked pharaoh demon Nyarlathotep. The globe lamps, Dark Shrine windows, telepathy suppression, and temporal anomalies come instead from "The Shadow out of Time", which explains Empress Kadaena being served now long after her death. The implication is that the Lords of Essaence were fashioning the Dark Gods or Ordainers as avatars to continue their own ascended existence following their deaths for which they had foresight.

The crystal dome is probably a reference to the Shining Trapezohedron and its evil cult of hooded figures from "The Haunter of the Dark", which ends with possession by Nyarlathotep and refers to the Poe character Roderick Usher. When using the artifact Nyarlathotep would be felt as a conscious "formless alien presence", which is reflected by room messaging of feeling watched by something. It may also refer to the "hemispherical buildings" on the plateau of Leng that even the night-gaunts fear for their association with Nyarlathotep, who the night-gaunts nominally opposed and were dreaded by the shantaks and old gods of earth. The Dark Grotto with its narrow cracks is "At the Mountains of Madness", which refers to Kadath and the destroyers from "Shadow", with the magru as shoggoths and the bone pit as the excavation. In the context of the Dream-Quest the Dark Grotto refers to the dreamlands manifestation of the Vaults of Zin and the Enchanted Wood, with the bone pit as the Vale of Pnoth and the pond as the shoggoth lake below the peaks of Throk. It might also refer to the Great Abyss of Nodens along with Ngranek, the Tower of Koth, and the Gate of Deeper Slumber.

Kadath was a cold waste of mountains with a desolate castle at its peak where the "Great Ones" lived, who were the ancient gods of earth, where climbing the mountains would lead to madness and none knew what lay beyond. These gods would correspond to the Lords of Essaence in the Shadow World history. However, the "feeble" gods of earth were actually guarded by the hidden Other Ones, who resided beyond this world in incomprehensible horror. The mountains that are seen from the windows of the Dark Shrine correspond to the "jagged peaks" of the fungous "blasphemous plateau" of the almost humans and toad-things of the dark side of the moon, and possibly the mountain of Hatheg-Kla where reality warps at night under the unnatural eclipse, which would be impossible to exist on Charon in the Shadow World source material. This is keeping with the numerous allusions to Lovecraft stories in The Graveyard. The emphasis is the great demonic "gods of the outer hells."

The Dark Shrine's eye shaped windows refer to the "dread seer" quality of the vruul, along with the mountain sized heads in the night-gaunt flight to unknown Kadath. Of special interest is that when the quest seeker reaches unknown Kadath, the gods are replaced with a malevolent presence, having gone to the physical world as the Dark Gods did in the Wars of Dominion. In particular the material world of Charon was only the size of an asteroid, whereas the Dark Lords were extra-planar entities, and so The Broken Lands may reflect the moon of the dreamlands. In this way it is possible for the cold wasteland to be both the moon of the dark gods as well as another plane of existence, which justifies through subtext the presence of the Sheruvian monastery that was built later by GM Sayzor.

(C) Coexistences

While the Shadow Valley story was more explicit about the land shifting in space and time, probably rooted in the isles of transfer phenomenon, The Broken Lands symbolizes various Lovecraft mythos locations which coexisted in more than one plane of existence simultaneously. The myklian as moon-beast analogs relate to the Sarnath allusions below The Graveyard and the Coastal Cliffs.

The Broken Lands Lovecraft Mythos Analog Coexistences Other Information
Uthex' Abode The Nameless Monastery Adjacent to Plateau of Leng, Vaults of Zin Dreamlands. Nyarlathotep residence.
Jagged Plain Plateau of Leng Dreamlands earth; Central Asia; Antarctica near material world Kadath Adjacent to Nameless Monastery, connected to dreamlands Vaults of Zin.
Dark Grotto Material world Throk (Yuggoth) Dreamlands Throk; Antarctica near material world Kadath Shoggoths of the Elder Things; Shoggoths below dreamland Peaks of Throk. Night-gaunts.
Bone Pit Vale of Pnoth Fossil quarry in Antarctica near material world Kadath Dreamlands underworld, Adjacent to dreamland Peaks of Throk. Night-gaunts.
Huge Cavern Vaults of Zin Dreamland/material Vaults of Zin; dreamland Enchanted Wood; Dreamland Dark Abyss Enchanted Wood on wrong end of stairwell; Forest outside The Graveyard; Material vaults tied to Tsathoggua shoggoths / Shadow Valley. Night-gaunts. Connect to Leng, Nameless Monastery.
Massive Stairs Stairs of Kadath Dreamland Kadath; Dreamland Tower of Koth; Dreamland spiral stairs to Ngranek Nyarlathotep residence. Night-gaunts.
Dark Shrine Dreamland Kadath Material Vaults of Zin; Ngranek Eye-shaped windows, brass gong from House of Usher; Tsathoggua / Hyperborea. Nyarlathotep residence. Night-gaunts. Former residence of the gods of earth. Ngranek related to Black Sands of Coastal Cliffs. The huge eye windows correspond to the huge heads with mountain sized bodies witnessed in the night-gaunt and ghoul army flight toward unknown Kadath (whose independence is simply vanished by Nyarlathotep.)


See Also