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| npc:mordain_le_tisseur_de_chair [2021/07/08 17:27] – ↷ Links adapted because of a move operation maitregob | npc:mordain_le_tisseur_de_chair [2025/12/11 15:20] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1 |
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| | /* Complet */ |
| | ====== Mordain le Tisseur de Chair ====== |
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| | <WRAP box bggreen fgblack 350px left :en> |
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| | <panel type="default" no-body="true"> |
| | {{ :122640_cn_gl.jpg | Mordain le Tisseur de Chair}} |
| | ^Alias | Mordain de Phiarlan | |
| | ^Genre | Homme | |
| | ^Race | Elfe | |
| | ^Age | 438 ans | |
| | <ifauth @admin><alert type="warning"> |
| | ^Classe | Level 18 (CR 18) | |
| | ^Alignement | Mauvais | |
| | </alert></ifauth> |
| | </panel> |
| | </WRAP> |
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| | Alors que [[:Les Douzes]] cherche à faire progresser la science arcanique, on attend de ses membres qu'ils respectent des codes de conduite éthique. Cependant il y a toujours des magiciens qui croient que tout sacrifice peut être justifié au nom du progrès. L'un d'eux était Mordain de Phiarlan, autrefois membre de la [[: maison_phiarlan |]] et l'un des plus grands magiciens des [[: les_douzes | douzes]], maintenant connu sous le nom de ** Mordain le Tisseur de Chair **. |
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| | En tant qu'intendant des [[:Douzes]], Mordain cherchait à faire progresser les arts de la transmutation de manières nouvelles et terribles. Il a fouillé dans les études interdites du [[: le_cercle_ferme |Cercle Fermé]] de [[: sharn |]] et a cherché à revendiquer les pouvoirs des Daelkyrs comme les siens. Le conseil des Douzes a scellé tous les enregistrements de son travail, mais les gens chuchotent encore des horreurs trouvées dans son atelier lorsque ses recherches ont finalement été exposées. Beaucoup se demandent pourquoi il n'a pas été exécuté pour ces crimes; certains disent que ses liens familiaux étaient trop puissants, tandis que d'autres suggèrent que les seigneurs des Douzes espéraient toujours profiter de son travail, même s'ils ne pouvaient pas le cautionner officiellement. |
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| | Quoi qu'il en soit, Mordain a été écorché de la [[:Maison Phiarlan]] et banni des [[:Douzes]] en 797 AR. Trente ans plus tard, des rumeurs ont fait état d'une tour sombre dans les déserts lointains de l'ouest de la [[:Brelande]], dans la région maintenant connue sous le nom de [[:Droaam]]. Mordain avait trouvé une nouvelle maison, et depuis deux siècles il est resté dans son sinistre donjon, évitant tout contact avec le monde extérieur. Les terres autour de sa tour sont remplies de monstres mortels, et les récits disent que ce sont ses créations, et que les horreurs à l'intérieur de sa forteresse sont bien pires. |
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| | Certains disent que Mordain a formé une alliance avec les [[:Filles De Sora Kell]], et qu'elles lui fournissent des connaissances et des ressources en échange d'armes vivantes. Mais il est tout aussi probable que les Sorcières et le sorcier aient une simple trêve: les Sorcières laissent Mordain tranquille, et il empêche ses terreurs de menacer leur règne. |
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| | ====== Histoire ====== |
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| | ===== Les premières années ===== |
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| | En l'an 560 AR, Mordain est né dans la [[: maison_phiarlan |]]. Faisant preuve d'aptitude dans les arts arcaniques, il fut accepté comme membre des [[: les_douzes |Douzes]]. Mordain est finalement devenu l'intendant des Douzes, et a poussé l'avancement des arts de la transmutation. Cependant, il a commencé à explorer des connaissances interdites, plongeant dans les profondeurs de la magie [[: daelkyr |]] du Cercle Fermé de Sharn. |
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| | Les rumeurs de ses pêchés ont commencé: certains disent qu'il essayait de créer une toute nouvelle Maison Marquée du Dragon, résultant en une progéniture ignoble qui a mangé sa propre famille, d'autres qu'il a remplacé son propre sang par un mélange de [sang de [: dragon |]] et de [[ : troll |]]. D'autres rumeurs disent qu'il a volé des enfants, les remplaçant par des simulacres parfaits pour que leurs parents ne le sachent jamais. Quand le mot est sorti des horreurs de ses expériences, les autres mages des Douzes se sont organisé contre lui. |
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| | ===== Licenciement et Condamnation ===== |
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| | Avec la connaissance de ses horribles expériences rendue publiques, Les Douzes et les [[: maisons_marquees_du_dragon | Maisons Marquées Du Dragon]] se sont mobilisé contre Mordain. En 797 AR, il fut [[: ecorche | Écorché]] de la Maison Phiarlan. Les Douzes, dirigés par [[: salyon_syrralan_d_sivis | Salyon Syrralan de Siri]], l'ont jugé pour ses crimes et ont tenté de l'exécuter. Cependant, toutes les méthodes utilisées par Les Douzes échouèrent: Mordain a été baigné d'acide, brûlé sur le bûcher, noyé et même démembré, mais après chaque horrible mort, la chair de Mordain se reformait et il se réveillait de nouveau. |
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| | Comme ils ne pouvaient pas tuer Mordain, Les Douzes pétrifièrent le mage et le préparèrent à être transporté dans la prison de [[: fort-terreur |]]. Cependant, Mordain a inversé le sort de pétrification et s'est échappé. |
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| | ===== Solitude au Droaam ===== |
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| | Mordain a disparu du monde jusqu'en 873 AR, quand une troupe de soldats de l'[[: aundair | aundairian]] a poursuivi un groupe de [[: lycanthrope |]] s pendant la [[: inquisition_lycanthropique | Purge]]. Ils ont découvert une tour qui jaillissait dans les bois de ce qui est maintenant le [[: droaam |]]. Le seul survivant de cette escouade a été retrouvé avec la moitié inférieure de son corps remplacée par celle de l'un des lycanthropes qu'il chassait. Avant de mourir des suites des blessures qu'il s'était infligées, il parla d'une tour «aux murs en cuirs noir, tordus comme le bras d'un dragon tentant de saisir le soleil». |
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| | {{ :theforestofflesh.jpg| Khresht Rhyyl, la forêt de chair}} |
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| | Mordain s'était en effet installé au [[:Droaam]]. Il créa une tour nommée [[: racinenoire | Racinenoire]] et entoura sa maison des résultats de ses horribles expériences. Même les monstres du [[: droaam |]] évitent maintenant ce que les [[: gnoll |gnolls]] appellent [[: khresht_rhyyl | Khresht Rhyyl]], «la forêt de chair». |
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| | Depuis son exil, le magicien le plus puissant vivant sur Khorvaire de nos jours n'a parlé à personne. Divers pays de [[: khorvaire |]] ont envoyé des émissaires dans [[: khresht_rhyyl | Khresht Rhyyl]] dans l'espoir d'obtenir l'aide du Mordain pendant la [[: dernière_guerre | Dernière guerre]], des mages ont tenté de lui voler ses secrets et des champions vertueux ont cherché à débarrasser le monde de cet infame sorcier, mais aucun n'a réussi a posé leurs yeux sur Mordain et à revenir sans changement, s'il sont revenu tout court. Mordain a protégé sa tour contre la divination et la téléportation. Il envoie occasionnellement ses serviteurs rechercher d'anciens sites Daelkyr au Droaam et dans [[: les_frontieres_de_l_ombre |]]. Ses serviteurs comprennent de nombreuses créatures de sa propre création, ainsi que des abominations asservies, telles que des [[: beholder |]]s, des [[:illithide| Illithides]] et des [[: hulk_brun | Hulk Bruns]]. |
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| | ====== Capacités ====== |
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| | Mordain est un magicien puissant et un maître de l'école magique de la transmutation. Il peut utiliser ses sorts pour polymorphiser, cloner et lier les âmes des créatures. |
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| | En tant qu'ancien intendant des Douzes, Mordain est un expert dans divers domaines d'apprentissage. Sa connaissance des [[:Daelkyrs]] et de [[:Xoriat]] est parmi les plus élevés des mortels. Il a une connaissance approfondie des [[: marque_aberrante_du_dragon | Marques Aberrantes du Dragon]] et de la création de [[: golem | golems]]. |
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| | <ifauth @admin><alert type="warning"> |
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| | Mordain is an 18th-level elfe transmuter specializing in the transformation of living creatures. //Polymorph any object//, //shapechangel//, //clone,// and //soul bind// are all in his library, along with a host of lower-level transmutations. If a DM wishes to introduce new spells of transformation or new types of flesh golems into the game, Mordain is a likely source. Mordain can even justify the addition of unusual creatures into the world. Do you like abeil, but don't want to explain why they don't have a widespread culture? Perhaps Mordain created the first bee-people a year ago, and they are just starting to spread beyond his tower. . . . |
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| | ===== Using The Fleshweaver ===== |
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| | The basic principle of Mordain is that he’s the mightiest mortal wizard in Khorvaire. He’s as powerful as you want him to be. His specialty is creating and transforming living creatures, but he can easily have other talents. Notably, you could substitute “Mordain” for “Mordenkainen” in spell names in Eberron; this gives us //Mordain’s private sanctum// and //Mordain’s magnificent mansion//, suggesting that he has a talent for manipulating extradimensional space; this would imply that Blackroot is far larger than it appears to be, and also makes it easy to say that Mordain has a few extradimensional back doors scattered around the continent… which allows him to drop his experiments wherever best suits a story. With that said, part of the idea is that Mordain isn’t simply using the sorts of magic that player wizards and artificers might use. His techniques are adapted from the daelkyr and the Overlords, and involve channeling the energies of Kythri and Xoriat. While he can //place// his experiments wherever he chooses, most of his magic can only be performed in Blackroot, which is essentially a vast //eldritch machine//. It’s quite possible that through his centuries of work he has essentially //become// Blackroot—that his physical body is just a shell he creates to interact with people, but that the true Mordain is merged with his tower. This is a way to limit his impact and adds a reason for him to work with adventurers. |
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| | Mordain pairs unmatched arcane power with an utter disregard for the suffering of others. At the same time, Mordain has no interest in wealth or influence. He’s not trying to conquer Khorvaire, and while he’s indifferent to the suffering his creations can cause, he’s not actually //trying// to harm others. A DM //could// decide that Mordain wants revenge on the dragonmarked houses for driving him away; but by default he considers the houses to be as pointless and irrelevant as the Five Nations. All that he cares about is his work—creating and perfecting life. While his tower is in a dangerous region, his location is known; adventurers know where he can be found. With this in mind, there’s a number of ways Mordain can enter a campaign. |
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| | **MORDAIN THE VILLAIN** |
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| | Unlike most of the major conspiracies, Mordain has no grand plans for Khorvaire, which makes him an excellent source of one-shot problems that have to be dealt with but that have no long-term consequences. While he rarely leaves his tower (assuming he even can), he can use scrying and teleportation to target his experiments across Khorvaire. Consider the following options. |
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| | * Mordain might engineer a magical plague and inflict it on an isolated village to see what happens. Can the adventurers find a cure? Perhaps he’s experimenting with a new form of lycanthropy: how does it differ from the traditional form? |
| | * Mordain could introduce a dangerous monsters into a region as an isolated threat, most likely just to see how things play out. Do you want a gargantuan gelatinous cube in the heart of Aundair? Blame Mordain. |
| | * With that said, Mordain could also introduce a significant population of monsters to a region, introducing a nest of kruthik or a band of yeti into an area. A twist on this would be if he created these creatures by transforming a village. Can the victims be restored? If not, can the adventurers find a way to stabilize the situation? |
| | * Mordain’s creations don’t have to be //monsters//. Mordain could transform the inhabitants of a village into tortles, or create a murder of kenku. This can be a simple way to introduce a small population of an exotic population into a location; no one knows WHY Mordain put a tribe of tabaxi into the King’s Forest, but he did. |
| | * Likewise, adventurers could stumble upon bizarre experiments. **[[http://www.wizards.com/files/365_ED_Dolurrhs.pdf|Dolurrh’s Dawn]]**—originally presented in Dragon 365—is an isolated village in Droaam where Mordain has recreated legendary characters from history. His motives are unclear; but it’s certainly an interesting thing for a group of adventurers to discover. |
| | * Mordain could also be supplying or supporting an organization that the adventurers are fighting. He could be providing them with symbionts or other magic items, or giving them access to monstrous forces (you kill the leader of the organization, but a week later he’s back as a flesh golem!). The main question here is //why//? How is the group interesting or useful to Mordain? |
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| | A twist on this is for Mordain to take a personal interest in the adventurers. Will he turn their friends into monsters, or grant strange powers to their enemies? Is he testing the adventurers, or is there something about them that poses a threat to his experiments? Does he know something about one of the adventurers they have yet to discover? |
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| | **SECRET ORIGIN** |
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| | Mordain can be an interesting backstory element for an unusual character. Perhaps a player wants to create a character using a race that has no established place in Eberron, such as a Loxodon or a Simic Hybrid. Simple answer: they were created by Mordain. This path could also be used to explain class features. Perhaps a sorcerer’s arcane powers stem from being magebred by Mordain. A character who’s mechanically a half-orc barbarian could decide that they’re actually an artificial lifeform created by Mordain and that their “rage” reflects a hulking-out battle mode. A monk could likewise describe their Unarmored Defense and enhanced abilities as being tied to Mordain-crafted mutations. An idea could be even more exotic than this; tied to Dolurrh’s Dawn, a character could say that they are a clone of a famous historical figure—that they are Karrn the Conqueror or Tira Miron reborn… or even a clone of a young Mordain the Fleshweaver! |
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| | With any of these ideas, there’s a few critical questions. Were they created in an isolated incident, or are they part of a larger experiment (like Dolurrh’s Dawn)? Did Mordain release them into the wild, or did they escape captivity? Do they //know// the purpose for which they were created and are defying it, or could their adventuring career be part of Mordain’s plan? Which ties to the next option… |
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| | **MORDAIN THE ALLY** |
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| | Mordain has much to offer, from magic items to mysterious boons. Mordain could easily serve as a patron for a warlock or a mysterious mentor for a wizard… or even an entire group (following the model of the Immortal group patron, even if he may not be immortal). What would he want from adventurers? A few possibilities… |
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| | * Mordain wants the adventurers to clean up his messes. Use the same seeds from the previous section, but Mordain dispatches the PCs to minimize the collateral damage. He still feels a need to drop a gargantuan gelatinous cube into Aundair, but once he’s learned what he needed, he’s happy to have the PCs deal with it. |
| | * Adventurers encounter a lot of exotic creatures. Mordain wants them to harvest organs of monsters they defeat, and will pay them (in gold or in other ways) for unusual finds. |
| | * Mordain is always interested in relics of the daelkyr, and could send players into dangerous dungeons. |
| | * The lesser of two evils: a Cult of the Dragon Below, the Lords of Dust, the Dreaming Dark or a similar force could be interfering with one of Mordain’s experiments; he sends the adventurers to resolve the problem. |
| | * Mordain could want the adventurers to mediate a local problem with some of his neighbors in Droaam (likely a last resort before resolving the problem in a horrifying and deadly fashion). |
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| | Working with Mordain should never be an entirely comfortable experience. There should always be the sense that he’s incredibly dangerous and could do something terrifying at any moment. But again, Mordain is motivated solely by his experiments; as long as those current experiments aren’t harming innocents, there’s no reason he can’t be a useful ally. |
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| | **FIGHTING MORDAIN?** |
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| | The 4E //Eberron Campaign Guide// included a stat block for Mordain. I’m not including one here, because in my opinion //fighting// Mordain is simply a bad idea—both in terms of difficulty, but also because it won’t really accomplish anything. Remember that according to the legends, the TWELVE couldn’t find a way to kill him—and that’s when they had him as a prisoner, not when he was in Blackroot surrounded by his creations and defensive spells. One option is to use the statistics of a lich as a base, though I’d consider him an aberration as opposed to undead (or humanoid) and I’d add high regeneration. But there’s another approach, which is to say that his combat abilities aren’t that dramatic but that it doesn’t really MATTER… that at this point he has essentially become Blackroot, and that he simply produces a humanoid body when he needs to interact with outsiders. So he doesn’t need to be a terrifying force of destruction, because if you kill him he’ll just make a new body within a few rounds. This ties to the basic point that his role in the story isn’t really to BE a monster himself; it’s to create monsters and challenges. |
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| | ===== Mordain or Daelkyr? ===== |
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| | One valid question is how Mordain differs from a daelkyr. Why use Mordain instead of Dyrrn the Corruptor? There’s a few simple answers. The first is that Mordain operates on a smaller scale. He doesn’t have cults or armies of minions spread across the continent. Likewise, the daelkyr are mysterious but unquestionably destructive; they will destroy civilizations if left unchecked. Mordain, on the other hand, has no desire to destroy civilizations; his experiments are on a smaller scale and collateral damage is generally incidental, not the point. A final critical factor is that Mordain is an eccentric sociopath, but he’s not as completely ALIEN as the daelkyr are. You CAN have a conversation with Mordain. You can talk to him about what he’s doing with his latest experiment, and he’d be happy to pay you for those remorhaz entrails you discovered on your last adventure. He’s infamous and he’s deadly, but he’s more //grounded// than the daelkyr, and his schemes are generally more focused. |
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| | ===== Why So Powerful? ===== |
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| | One of the core principles of Eberron is //wide magic, not high magic.// Spells of over 5th level are all but unknown in the Five Nations. So how is it that Mordain wields this level of power? Why hasn’t it had a greater impact on life in the Five Nations? Why don’t people just copy what he’s doing? |
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| | Ultimately, this is based on the idea that **Mordain is a pulp villain**. He’s not SUPPOSED to logically fit into the structure of the world; if he was sane and reasonable and willing to lend his skills to House Létourneau, Khorvaire would be a better place. Instead, he’s channeling powers normal artificers and wizards can’t understand and using them for dangerous and selfish reasons. But beyond that, the idea is that these powers can’t be easily duplicated and have come with a terrible cost. This ties to the idea that at this point I’d consider him an aberration, and that he may be bound to Blackroot. Even if people in Arcanix could copy what he’s doing, they might not WANT to; anyone who could master his techniques would likely lose their humanity in the process. |
| | </alert></ifauth> |
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| | {{tag>[NPC]}}{{tag>["Elfes"]}}{{tag>["maison phiarlan"]}}{{tag>["Marqué du dragon"]}}{{tag>["Droaam"]}}{{tag>[Aundair]}} |
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| | \\ |
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