Re: Illumination and lies

From: Brian Curley <bkcurley_at_M4QX0fjSyT9kTEzXQSVGNiwFMitFiSt_uLbjN388AmMZcgJh3NSkT2e7PijEiIBY3Xx>
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:57:14 -0500

Apparently My G does V.

Jeff Richard wrote:

>> My first reaction is that it sounds like the kind of thing Cacodaemon 
>> worshippers would be able to do. It seems to sort of be their raison

> d'etre.
>
> Cacodemon worshippers want to hide within (inferior) human society -
> but rarely do dangerous things like try to become a non-Chaotic god.
> They mask themselves as acceptable outsiders (traveling merchants,
> exiles, and so on) where they can hide in plain sight.

But they're able to avoid detection as chaotic aren't they? That would seem to be crucial to infiltration... the ability to conceal your true nature. Sure they're only fooling the rubes (worshippers in the Middle World) and not the god him/herself, but if the secret to this kind of thing were to be found somewhere outside Lunar Illumination, then it would seem to be here. Then again there's that whole Krarshti thing about infiltration and assassination...

>> Then I thought about Nysalorean Illumination. It feels right.

>
> Well, you mean modern Lunar Illumination? That certainly could work.
> A Lunar Illuminate can develop a divine connection with a god hostile
> the the Red Moon.

Yeah... OK. I was confusing stuff from ILH2 and Lords of Terror/Dorastor.

>> There's also something vaguely Arkati about it, too. 

>
> Arkat was always a passionate devotee of whatever he was devoted to.
> He just remembered everything he learned from his previous devotion.

Remembered? Or "was able to use"? If he could still wield those powers after his devotion to them ended, then he was accomplishing something held previously (in this thread) to be impossible. And if he merely remembered the myths, he could exploit them via heroquesting (kind of like the GL did).

My point was that Arkat was kind of the proof it *could* be done. Arkat didn't use it for nefarious purposes, depending on who you ask, but he was able to hold those disparate thoughts in a single mind. I think it's not unreasonable that a truly remarkable individual *might* be able to pull off something similar. It seems to me like it would take a particular, perhaps singular, combination of (successive) devotions.

>> With just a hint of Lokamayadon.

>
> Not the slightest bit of Lokomoko, who never tried to pretend to be
> anything other than what he claimed he was - the greatest Storm
> cultist in the world.

But he was able to hide/conceal that conceit from Orlanth for quite a long time it seems.

BKC