Isidilian

From: Stephen Martin <ilium_at_juno.com>
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 01:03:02 EST

Frederic Ferro
>Isn't Isidilian (who is described in the Broken Council sourcebook)
>still alive in the Third Age ? This would show that Openhandist
>heretics can keep their longevity (in spite of what the Decamony
>Propaganda wants you to believe).

Isidilian is not a heretic -- he is one of the few Ancient Mostali still alive. As such, he cannot be heretic or even apostate, by definition.

Peter Metcalfe
>Look at the spells of the Flintnail Cult. It's solely concerned
>with masonry and cutting stone. How does a Quicksilver come to
>teach these magics? I think the identification of Flintnail with
>Isidilian to be spurious on these grounds alone.

These spells (Shape Metal, Mold Rock, Animate Warrior of "Stone") do not seem, to me, to be Rock Mostali secrets -- they seem to be generic dwarf-type spells. After all, I think that any well-taught dwarf would be able to deal with _basic_ aspects of the other castes -- to be a proper alchemist, you have to have a working knowledge of minerals, be able to cut gems to the right shape, etc.

In addition, as an Ancient Mostali, I find it entirely possible that Isidilian the Quicksilver Mostali had some rock dwarfs, gold dwarfs, etc with him, to help carve up the statue.

So, even discounting the fact that Isidilian is firmly in print as a Quicksilver Mostali, and that the evidence for him being Flintnail is quite strong, I don't see the Divine spells of an aberrant cult of dwarf apostates a barrier to his being the originator of the cult. Hell, it could have been something of a joke on his part.

>Furthermore, if
>the Flintnail mostali were apostate, most of them would be dead over
>the six-hundred plus years and there are apparently no other dwarves
>other than the masons.

I don't understand this comment. It is stated in a couple of places in print that the dwarfs at Pavis are apostate. This means, by definition, that they do age, and they do die. Thus, it seems obvious that either:

1. they know how to make other dwarsf; or
2. pretty much every apostate dwarf in the Dragon Pass and Greatway area ends up as a mason in Pavis.

Neither of these possibilities is 100% satisfactory, I admit; can anyone come up with any other possibilities? Certainly the dwarfs there are not immortal like most dwarfs, that has been fairly well established.

Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com

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