I had to remember where I gleaned the information from. I also noticed the birth order given for the three gods as well. I am not concerned with the alignment of Stratis we know for certain he is neutral as far as favoring just or unjust war. He delights in the adrenaline rush of the moment the wild frenzy as well as the well planned strategy that was entails. So Stratis was probably on good terms with both his brothers.
Great research Icarus! Finding the birth order is a gem, and it was simple yet brilliant to ask Pramas directly, as well as to recall the limited alignments available in Chainmail.
And thanks for noting your update of the Stratis Greywiki entry. I must have consulted it just after your update and was momentarily flabbergasted, wondering if I'd read too quickly on my first reviews of it -- and deciding that must be the case (although the thought did cross my mind that the wiki might have been updated).
Do we know any more about Marinn's ancient elven blade? It reminds me of Hunger, a bit. Any chance that it's the same as the Longsword of Stratis from his Panoply?
Do we know any more about Marinn's ancient elven blade? It reminds me of Hunger, a bit. Any chance that it's the same as the Longsword of Stratis from his Panoply?
You know, mtg, it's funny that you mention that. When I first began reading stuff from the Sundered Empire, I kind of wondered that myself. I wondered what had killed him and how.
When I go back and read the descriptions of the battle and whatnot, I think that I would have to say that it's not the sword of Stratis. If I try to think about the story as designed by Chris Pramas, I think that it would have been mentioned if Stratis had his sword taken from him before the confrontation. In the cases I've read, it says that Marinn had the sword, and then went to get Stratis.
Of interesting note is the fact that the heroes who attacked Stratis all had artifacts. That's as much as the sword is described, insofar as I know. I can't imagine the power that must have been swinging from the belts of those fellas. I'm thinking that if we knew what all of the "young races" were (or even what the "old races" were), we'd likely be able to count at least 7, if not a dozen, artifacts that were trotted out for battle.
There were many mortal heroes involved. Grench was the only one able to make a significant hole in Stratis armor then Marinn was able to strike Stratis heart with the ancient elven blade (artifact). I wonder if it was made from dragon or demon bone as the dragons were allies with the elves during that time. Hence, the area known as scalebane.
Well on a side note my character Argon had an axe made from a piece of Celene herself. The Silver Moon battle axe. This was given to Argon by a race of cloud giants. When I was referring to demon or dragon bone make I intended for it to be Marinn blade not Grench's axe. However, Grench could of wielded an axe made from loadstone which packed an extra punch.
I wonder from what nation Braddock was and what human subrace?
While I definitely like the fantasy line of thinking for special materials and weapons and whatnot, there is another possibility:
Perhaps Grench rolled a crit on a Sunder attempt.
... or perhaps he'd made several attempts to sunder Stratis' breastplate already, doing some damage, and finally succeeded in sundering it (possibly with the afroementioned crit). A good ol' Greataxe does massive amounts of damage on a crit, and is more than capable of dealing a blow like that on a successful sunder attempt. With three good hits, Grench could easily have done well over 100 HP worth of damage to the breastplate, and add a crit to that, and you're looking at something like 12d12+138 (using Power Attack, and a couple of other optional things like Feats) for a maximum of 282 points of damage to that breastplate. Even presuming that since it's a god's armor, that's still likely enough to rend it, allowing Marinn to do the dirty work. Especially since Stratis was being held by Braddock and Grench, Marinn would've had simply to make the coup d'grace.
Giving this thread a bump, with the thought that if Stratis wasn't killed until CY 586, then one could meet a worshipper of Stratis in the Flanaess until then, a "traveler from afar."
From chapter one of my long-languishing Pantheon of the Great Kingdom article(s), I included a brief mention of Stratis in the section on the the war gods of the Pre-Migration period:
Erythnul himself was not unchallenged as the god of war among the Oeridians of the time, for his cult was beginning to be surpassed by the half-brothers Heironeous and Hextor, who received a great deal of worship during those contentious times. In ancient times, before the migration from the Far West began, the Oeridians worshiped Erythnul as their primary god of warfare. Indeed it seems that he was still worshipped openly in the early days of the Kingdom of Aerdy, as is evidenced by the actions of the Aerdy army after the Battle of Chokestone (3). As regards his fall from the position of the god of war, there are at least two of versions of that tale. In the Hextoran myth he was defeated by Hextor, who teaches that war, though brutal, should be executed with more than the mindless slaughter favored by Erythnul (4). In the Heironean version of Erythnul’s fall, before the half-brothers fell out with each other they overthrew the slaughter-crazed god together. In this story it was partly the praise heaped upon Heironeous after that battle that drove Hextor to jealousy and evil (5). A third, heretical story mentions another deity, known only as the Lost Brother, who helps the other two overthrow Erythnul. This tale is suppressed by the modern churches of both Heironeous and Hextor, wherever it is found, and it is very rarely heard or recorded (6).
Endnotes-
3) Ivid the Undying, p. 49 “The site is that of a great battle between Aerdi men and a small Flan
tribe in -171 CY. The Oeridians were easily triumphant, and an excessively brutal general ordered the torture and sacrifice of all surrendering Flan folk in thanks to Erythnul.”
4) Dragon # 356, p. 47 “Core Beliefs: Hextor”. “In more primitive days Erythnul was the war god of the Oeridian pantheon...” “...eventually the young god (Hextor) wrested the mantle of war god from the elder.”
5) Dragon # 354, p. 28 “Core Beliefs: Heironeous”. “When they were still young, the half-brothers were friends, although Heironeous was fairer and stronger. Eventually, Hextor was consumed with jealousy and anger toward his brother and devoted himself to the powers of evil.”
6) Dragon # 287, p. 88 “Chainmail: The Armies of Thalos”. “She (Stern Alia) is also called the Mother of War because of her three sons: Heironeous the good God of Valor, Hextor the evil God of Tyranny, and Stratis the neutral God of War.” Stratis is the slain god of war in the Sundered Empire setting of the short-lived Chainmail miniature game and is unmentioned in any canon materials detailing the eastern Oerik. Here I use the Lost Brother heresy as a way to refer to Stratis without attempting to make him an active part of culture in the eastern Oerik.
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