Primordials and Yozis

[random5000uk]

Well, just one thing i've been thinking of during the day and after some time reading through books and couldn't find much of an answer.


What i'm wondering is how common is the knowledge of the existence of Auto, Gia, the Yozi's and the primordal war?


I can imagine the idea of the Yozi's being known of thanks too the yozi cults (although what people think a yozi is is a different matter)


Thanks

 

[Plague of Hats]

I seem to recall this actually being covered once, somewhere. Maybe Games of Divinity? Here's what I think, which may even include canonical information:


Everyone knows there's a Hell, ruled by Demon Princes. Your run-of-the-mill Yozi cultist probably thinks that whatever Second Circle demon lays claim to their organization is "the Yozi." Better informed cultists might know of the existence of Third Circle demons, and believe they are "the Yozi." Some vanishingly small percentage of Yozi cultists are informed enough to have a vague idea that all these dudes serve one or more even bigger dudes who are, like, BIG. A vanishingly small percentage of those cultists may have visited Malfeas somehow. A tiny sliver of them, either through horrifying revelation or downright smarts, have somehow figured out the basic truth of titanic life in Hell.


This is probably a "shit downhill" form of disinformation. A First Circle demon will talk about some master, and if it's particularly forthcoming mentions Yozis and so on. It's never going to lay out the actual Descending Hierarchy or anything, it's just going to say stuff like "I serve a master far greater, one Creation's savants call Yozi." It's up to the brilliant demonologist to scurry down the rabbit hole and determine, "Surely, this Sondok is the 'Yozi' I have been seeking. She is so powerful, beyond all mortal ken!" Sondok is unlikely to disabuse them of this notion directly, but if it has to come up the Second Circle demon will mention "one far greater" and the whole process starts over again. Of course, the cycle doesn't repeat after that one, since anyone ill-informed enough to think shit like that who runs into Erembour is trapped forever in the shadows following her, or gets his face burned off by Ligier, in the inexplicable event they get to meet such worthies.


Most folk in Creation probably know of Gaia in some very superficial manner. They likely count her amongst the greatest of the gods, along with her more prominent component souls (unless they are an Immaculate believer, in which case the Five Dragons are absolutely not her souls, but Gaia is still probably a big ol' god or something).


Autochthon is probably unknown by most people, though there may be scattered legends of some mysterious "Great Maker", most of which have floated around and attached to an opportunistic god looking to extort worship.


The Primordial War is largely conflated with the Usurpation, and the actual birth of the universe is attributed to the Five Dragons. More interesting branches of contemporary wrong-ass religion, like an awesome Immaculate heresy, might posit that the world exists eternally on its endless cycle of reincarnation and enlightenment, and so was never created.

 

[Virjigorm]

I'd generally agree with the last post. Most people have no clue, but have heard terms like "Yozi", and maybe even names like "Malfeas". It stands to reason that many legends pop out of this ignorance. There could be a multitude of (completely false) stories about Malfeas the ruler of Hell, who gobbles up the souls of evil people. Parents might scare children into good behavior with stories of Yozis who steal bad little children to keep as slaves.


One important thing to remember is that the Lore ability determines how much true knowledge a character


posesses. It is sometimes tempting (especially for a ST) to assume a certain level of understanding for people in general and restrict truly obscure information either too much or too little, depending on that assumption. A character's Lore dots should represent not only how much a character knows, but the quality of that knowledge as well. Everyone may "know" about Malfeas, but how much of what they believe is actually true should be based on their Lore.

 

[Gylthinel]

I'd generally agree with the last post. Most people have no clue, but have heard terms like "Yozi", and maybe even names like "Malfeas". It stands to reason that many legends pop out of this ignorance. There could be a multitude of (completely false) stories about Malfeas the ruler of Hell, who gobbles up the souls of evil people. Parents might scare children into good behavior with stories of Yozis who steal bad little children to keep as slaves.
One important thing to remember is that the Lore ability determines how much true knowledge a character


posesses. It is sometimes tempting (especially for a ST) to assume a certain level of understanding for people in general and restrict truly obscure information either too much or too little, depending on that assumption. A character's Lore dots should represent not only how much a character knows, but the quality of that knowledge as well. Everyone may "know" about Malfeas, but how much of what they believe is actually true should be based on their Lore.

The question is: how much lore do you need to know this stuff? If you have Lore 5 and a specialization in Demonology, does that mean you've effectively red Rolls of Glorious Divinity 2?

 

[Thanqol]

The question is: how much lore do you need to know this stuff? If you have Lore 5 and a specialization in Demonology, does that mean you've effectively red Rolls of Glorious Divinity 2?

There's actually a system for this, called Obscurity. It's in the early few pages of ROGD2 and provides a pair of numbers for all demons, such as (1/3). The first number is successes on an Occult roll to have heard of the demon. The second number is successes to know useful stuff about the demon.


Edit: More powerful demons are also not necessarily more obscure, either, because summoners dial up the big ones all the time, and thus information on them becomes common. Virtually every practitioner of the Occult will know what a blood ape does. Tangentially useful ones, like that third circle demon who's domain is Nostalgia, have higher Obscurity.

 

[Gylthinel]

There's actually a system for this, called Obscurity. It's in the early few pages of ROGD2 and provides a pair of numbers for all demons, such as (1/3). The first number is successes on an Occult roll to have heard of the demon. The second number is successes to know useful stuff about the demon.

Very true!