Round Table of Arkain

[Restia]

Besides working on the last two Prelude chapters, I am also working on some more characters for the Character Sheet, including but not limited to:

• The missing Demons
• The three Bloodclaw siblings
• Larine's children
• Ephrog
• Certain short story characters

If anyone has any wishes, ideas or suggestions for missing characters or lore bits you want to see added to the sheets, you are invited to post them here.

sorry. my interest is only for Rahandir, Salana and Saphira. especially Rahandir. i like to see him have mastery of magic that is fit with his title as Demon and Dragonslayer. using his power over necromancy he has powers like summoning Undead Dragon and some demonic magic. but i know i ask too much so at least he become Arch-Lich so he will have power to contend with other factions

 

[Jorgonson]

Kind of a non-sequitur but I had a prediction for the Path of the Circle and was curious what people thought about it. We know that Cora and Aedale's plan is to destroy the Four and let the mortal races of Arkain chart their own course. Now, knowing what Aridon has done and is planning it's clear that getting rid of him is pretty uncomplicated morally correct decision (I mean, he basically broke the world and then maintained a status quo of violence for centuries). While we know less about Tregakh, he's seemingly motivated by a desire to take over the world and get revenge of Aridon, both of which will result in a ton of mortal deaths and oppression. Again, it seems pretty hard to find anything morally complicated about getting rid of Tregakh.

Considering this, it kind of seems like the Cricle are just... the good guys. This is especially true when you consider the implications of Cora freeing the undead nexuses. Think about it, Cora studied and schemed for years to free all the undead, which represents freeing up to hundreds of thousands of slaves from becoming unwilling participants in the end of the world. If you don't consider Cora's ulterior motives and the potential for collateral damage, her emancipation of the undead is easily the single most moral thing anyone has ever done in the Arkain universe since Brian saved the orcs (lmao).

Here's the thing though, Arkain doesn't really have morally uncomplicated good guys. It would conflict pretty heavily with the tone, at least in my interpretation of the story. So, here's my prediction on how I think Shar is going to make us question The Circle and the morality of their actions: I think The Circle's next objective after freeing the undead is going to be to track down and kill Brian. This wouldn't come about out of a genuine hatred or fear of him, as Cora knows him personally and probably has a pretty neutral opinion of him. Rather, I think the plan is going to be for Cora to absorb his power and use that to be able to directly fight Aridon. While Cora and Aedale are quite strong, I doubt they could really threaten Tregakh or Aridon in a straight up fight, but Cora does have the ability to absorb people and take their powers, which could be how The Circle becomes a serious threat to the remaining Four.

It seems pretty plausible that Aedale would be opposed to killing a mostly benevolent or at least non-megalomaniacal deity like Brian. After all, this is the character who once let the demon who tried to enslave have an extended talk with her ex out of politeness. While a bit of internal conflict between Cora and Aedale could be cool, remember that Aedale was seemingly on board with Gardon's ideology early in the True Story (which was part of her rationalization for absorbing the demon eyes) and ultimately tried to rejoin him at the Gates of Hell. I think that The Circle is going to have a talk, and agree they need Cora to absorb fan favorite character Brian for their larger aims.

Another perhaps more crackpot prediction is that Maronogin is plotting with the Redfist sisters and Kenos. Think about it though, wouldn't it kind of make sense for him to at least be signing the paychecks on this operation? I can't imagine evil deities trying to destroy or enslave the world is good for the stability of the markets, and I'd imagine Maronogin would want to get rid of Tregakh and Aridon to secure the long-term returns on his investments. For Maronogin it wouldn't be about the freedom of all mortals, but it would be good business to dethrone these insane gods.

 

[Datage]

I must say, I fully agree with you. Both Aedale and Cora have no reason to "destroy" Brian (or at least, it isn't personal, like with Treghak or Aridon). As for Kenos... well, he's an Imperial General, so, who knows? However, I'd be surprised if both Brian and Treghak aren't already aware of the machinations of The Circle. But then again, Treghak has more important stuff to focus on, and from what I understood from the epilogue, Brian seems to have retired form plotting (somewhat, since he is still writing to Gardon about dealing with the Dragon Queen).

What intrigues me the most about The Circle, however, is their morality. After all, proclaiming that "The Four are all equally bad" is a bit of a strecht. To start, all we know about Zindrach is that he was somewhat decent, to the point he would be disappointed with the current demons (which makes Ebira trying to resurrect him all the funnier). Is Brian a considerably ruthless person, who supports and defends a bunch of megalomaniacs? Yes. Can that also be said about a bunch of other characters? Also yes. And needless to say, both Aridon and Tregakh are absolute monsters with very little redeeming qualities. But then again, that can also be said about most characters!

The only thing that sets the Four apart from the other bastards is that they are considerably more powerful, knowleadgeable and difficult to kill than the rest. I guess, at the end, that main fault in the assumption of The Circle is that removing them will make things inherently better... which is not necessarily true. Sure, Aridon and Treghak are absolute monsters... but is Meya any better? Ornasion? The Bonelords? Or people like the Imperial Generals and Redfist? Those aren't going to suddenly start to behave just because the Four are gone. And what will do The Circle do then? Also "remove" these tirants? And so on and so forth? When will they say "enough"?

Or will they only kill The Four? And demons keep being exactly like they were, and the Undead go rampant, and the Empire continues with it's imperialism, and Gardon and Amari keep manipulating and deceiving. At the end of the day, killing the Four does not address the root issue that allows them to thrive in the first place. And assuming that "But I know the solution to all the problems!" the The Circle boasts... it's very Four-like, isn't it?

Imo, at the end of the day, I know where they are coming from: The Four have and unfair amount of power over everyone else, and they are not particularly good people. Henceforth, they need to lose that power... and their lives. And again, you can probably say the same about a lot of other people. If you only focus on removing "bad" people (bad from your point of view!), you will just become another genocidal megalomaniac.

 

[Kasrkin]

So we heard you wanted shieldbearers back.

Hmm