Go back into Ambassador Tukufu's letters discussing his recent excursion onto the Isle (the post is from about a year ago). Something about "Soldiers of Oblivion". . .

Correct.



From the Kickstarter for the Blessed Lands Book I was on one of the four special tables Henry ran. Our table was called "A Drink, A Dance, A Knife." We went to Ymandragore. The set up was a McGuffin retrieval mission but our information came from Illak Laurol who was the second banana in the Finger of the Twin Whispers. As part of discussing what kinds of trouble we might face on the Isle he told me/us that the forces of Ymandragore had somehow captured a Soldier of Oblivion and subverted its service (he didn't know how that was done to either question).

At the time I wasn't sure what the heck that was ... and Tukufu asked IC if he meant a Voiceless One. Illak assured us that a VO is something else entirely and I thought Henry's tone implied (that at least Illak thought) it was a lesser something.

We did encounter the Soldier of Oblivion in a basement and threw down with it as part of a big fight. The soldier may have been the scarriest thing down there among wine drinkers, ordainers and other Ymandrake casters. The Soldier might be described as humanoid but full of weird spikes and blades. It had a (hopefully 1/scene) power to "erase" something from reality...like a door or someones head. I now believe that the Soldiers of Oblivion are also what we saw way back when in Drinking Deeply from the Chalice of Midnight.

Based on what Illak said at the time I don't believe the SK is in bed with the Silence. I think he captured/stole one of their agents for study. Just as he once captured a valinor.

I believe that any attempt at this time to give anyone the title of Dark One (threat foretold by Kassegore that caused him and Yig to put a yet unknown plan into motion) is premature and useless. No god or powerful being that we are aware of is the perfect match. As for Umor/The Other and his/her/its identity. That is a different story. All information provided by the Mother Church calls Umor a human god and evil including claiming Umor killed Belisadra, but the story of Umor provided by the Elorii says Umor came peacefully, PoM were the aggressors and Belisarda is not dead because they can feel her. The final piece of info is from For the Lesser Gods. Where Umor is represented by a double loop dragon, and is portrayed as not evil. Knowing that Henry loves to provide biased information as the truth. I am more willing to believe the Elorii and For the Lesser Gods, then common rhetoric spewed but the humans on the subject of Umor anyway. For the Lesser Gods is the secret history of the Gods War and closer to the "Truth" then common information. If you are going to believe Umor is evil and connected to Silence why not also believe that Belisarda is dead.
A very simple example of the truth being hidden from players both IC and OOC is the Val. In the old campaign Val bred true, everyone knew this, it was common knowledge right in the Race section of the PGtA. But Henry knew at some point, perhaps the very beginning that was a lie. When he was ready to reveal it, he would, and it opened up the possible of having human children with Val parents. And we as players finally learned the truth when we met Eloric val'Sheem. We should have learned to not take common knowledge at face value.


While Anshar may be depicted as a human God, OOC it is widely know she is not a human god at all. Anshar would never be depicted as having green skin by the common folk or the MC. As for why she look humanoid with green skin, look into what happens to val'Inares when they reach a certain age in adulthood. It is green skin for that reason.
We learn that the pictograph story in For the Lesser Gods, come from Umor himself, passed along before his imprisonment. He was able to see Anshar in her true form, not as the PoM saw her.


I believe we agree on much but I disagree with your conclusion about it being connected to Silence. We can agree the PoM created the moon as a prison for half of Umor. We can agree that the Storm and the removed Epilogue talk about it being a place of importance for humans, more than any other race. And considering it is a prison for half of a powerful god that the humans consider evil, that any association with the black moon is consider negative when coming from the perspective of humans. Full moons, should it look bigger, or brighter etc. Finally we can agree there were two visions of the future with that moon, one it being destroyed and burning the face of Arcanis, and the other in a future where Manetas rules Arcanis the moon is already gone, and Manetas has created a stalemate with the VO. But nothing connects the moon to the Silence. The vision of the moon being destroyed could be taken literally or it could mean that if the moon is destroyed then Arcanis is doomed because it has lost a force that was opposing the Silence. And to the point it should not be taken literally in that alternate future with the moon gone the Silence has not automatically won, they have been held at bay by Manetas until he could flee.


The "as below, so above" is actually a Ssethregore belief. Not human, not Elorii, not dwarven. It was that belief that lead them to the use of the Portals that that Issori had mastery over. When they had defeated the Issori, so their gods had defeated the Issori gods, either Kassegore or Yig, had to have learned how to use the Portals. After much mediation, drug use, and starvation, Yig told them how to use the Portals. At least that's how the story goes. Of course there is no proof this belief has any truth to it. So jumoing to the conclusion that Kassegore and Yig fought, Belisarda, and the Elemental Lords would be wrong. In fact in all the stories of Belisarda and the Elemental Lords, they are quite Arcanis bound. Living with their people, and no mention of actually meeting Yig or Kassegore which would have been a huge deal to the Ssethrics and worthy of being recorded had it happened.


Perhaps she is supporting the PoM after all, a beautiful Ardekene seer told the Elorii to leave their forests and seek out good humans for the coming war, hence their emergence. And who knows what she has been doing since her disappearance. True it's not openly, but there are many mysteries with the Elorii. As why Umor couldn't just speak with the PoM. They couldn't be reasoned with, they blame Umor for kill one of their own. But you did give me an idea. Perhaps the "Gentlest of them" who Umor supposedly killed was, like Belisarda, hidden to get the PoM to follow him to Arcanis. Just came up with that one, thank you.
Just like my theory in a prior post that Kassegore is Umor and after his vision, he and Yig went to the Eastern Continent to bring the PoM to Onara. If the PoM fought amoungst themselves as much as the Mother Church says they did, perhaps it would be useless trying to get them to work as a team. Perhaps the easiest way to bring them all back to Arcanis was to make himself the common enemy they could band together against. Maybe he did kill "The Gentlest" or Yig did, or the Gentlest's death was faked like Belisarda. What ever the reason the PoM banded together and followed Umor to Onara.

Wait, where do we have the vision of a Onara alive without a moon? In the module when they heroes of light time travelled forward, it was to the world of Manetas before the moon blew up, and him desperately trying to find a world to evacuate to before the moon's destruction destroyed the world.

More later, but this was the one big question that popped out at me.

I just reread To Peel the Veil of Lightness and Dark. And I realized I made an assumption based on information from the newer module Visions of Lives Past. There is zero mention of whether the dark moon is in the sky while the players are in the future. Sorry about that. I should explain how I came to the conclusion that there was no moon.

To Peel the Veil of Lightness and Dark states when the players land in the future .
And Visions of Lives Past states

I made the assumption with the return of the stellar ring in that far future, that the dark moon was no more.
Because there is no mention either way you shouldn't assume that the dark moon is still there.

The old Ssethregore book says that the departure of Kassegore and Yig caused their clerics to be unable to cast any divine spells. I infer from the Blessed Lands history that the continued existence of gods is needed for divine spells to function.

Based on this and various other sources, I infer that theurgical cants (a.k.a. divine magic) are powered by a combination of (a) a divine being and (b) faith with both components necessary. If some divine source is needed, I wonder whether Valinor can (and do) grant divine magic.

To me, it is clear that the stellar ring in the far future has replaced the Dark Moon Aperio. Even though it's never explicitly stated, the implication is there. Moreover, I suspect that the strange "road" the PCs find is made from material of Aperio that slammed into Arcanis and left a long path that weaved over and around natural terrain.

Aperio is shown exploding in the vision relayed by the Tultipetan Seeress. It's not 100% explicit that the Dark Moon has exploded in the actual far future, but there are strong hints thereto.

My read of "To Peel the Veil..." did not lead me to interpret that Aperio's destruction also destroyed Arcanis. However, if my interpretation (also mentioned in my prior post above) is wrong, then perhaps Kavaris/toodeep is correct that the explosion of Aperio preceded the black and blue wave of entropy that swept like a wave over the face of Arcanis and left only the Void in its wake.

Agreed. The Dark One they talk about on page 102 of the old Ssethregore book is mentioned after the "coming of the children of the sun and their heretical Godlings of chaos and unrest." It goes on in the next sentence that, "[Kassegore]... watched as the Dark One made pacts with the enemies of his creation and the breaking of the world." First humanity and the PoM, then the Dark One. From this sequence it makes sense that the Dark One is not Umor, since he precedes the arrive of the children of the Sun. Although I concede that this quote comes from an IC point of view...a Ssanu Yigite Priest, who may be biased or mistaken. I assume that the Dark One is a "cosmic actor" but for all we know the Dark One could be a left handed gnome who is destined to put things in motion that reach the cosmic scale...


I'm about 95% sure this is essentially true. At the same time we aren't privy to the actual events. I think we'll find that the elorii version is wrong in at least some ways too. What For the Lesser Gods provides is essentially an oral history passed down by a bunch of esoteric desert hermits. I don't think it will turn out to be 100% percent accurate either.

While I really don't think it's true (or even likely), it *IS* possible that Belisarda did die or was changed and something else has been colluding with the Ardekene ever since (see 41 in A:RPG for proof the Ardekene have something crazy big that they're currently hiding). Laerestri and "younglings" from Seremas aren't in a position to judge or know.




Never mind the green skin, the key element, I believe is that she (alone) is mounted on a horse. In the First Imperium all the PoM members are associated with an animal (Sarish and Illiir being most famously associated with cats and falcons). It turns out Anshar's animal is ... the horse.

I think it is important to remember it is a vision from a Prophetess. While it could be taken literally. It could also be metaphorical. The moon is Umor (being his prison), the blue-white, crackling wave represents a world destroying force, and the Void and silence representing the Silence. Leading to if Umor is destroyed the Silence destroys the world.