Re: Moon of the Month: Asylum

In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Sun 08 May, Night_Druid wrote:
> Asylum

A really, really nasty design.

Good job!


You could have real fun if a PC had a magic item, which allowed
them to do Cure Insanity at will, but only for a limited period,
decided to use Asylum for their good works! [grin]

Or, some PCs got hit by a temporary (duration a least a few
weeks) insanity effect, in a place where they aren't known, and
got shipped off by uncaring locals, in a group, to Asylum!


It seems likely that somewhere among the gods of knowledge or
forces of good there is _someone_ who is at least suspicious
about the place! Some gods of healing might really, really,
object to it as well! Should you mention this?


In my campaign setting I would have a slight problem with using
it, which, I suppose, is really only my fault.


Other planar beings are not fertile with those of the Prime
Material, as normal reproduction via living bodies is something
that is supposed to be a fundamental part of the material plane,
and is only gained by being in a truly living body.

The bodies of 'visitors', whichever Outer Plane they arrive from,
are almost always fakes, and are not fully living in the sense of
the required flows of life energy needed for reproduction. Those
from the Inner Planes might have some very limited fertility, but
only typically if they have spent a long period on the Prime
Material.

Further, most living creatures can only interbreed to a limited
extent, unless like orcs they seem to have been designed to
inter-breed with a wide range of related humanoids.

There are, of course, ways around this.

== Possession is the most immediately obvious, and magical
influence over a child from the point of conception could do
almost anything to it, though these changes are not likely to be
inherited, unless some very skillful and careful tinkering is
done.

== Gods can create fully living bodies out of whole cloth,
effectively incarnating themselves at will. These may or may not
know their divine nature, and on occasion gods create avatars
which are apparently born and grow up like anyone else, or they
might manipulate time and reality to create a history for a just
created avatar.

== On occasion other planar beings take the bodies of the just
dead, either sacrificed to them, or scavenged from suicides, or
even purchased after judicial execution! Rarely those who have
died naturally and gradually from disease or old age, though a
sudden accident might produce a suitable body. These may have
enough life to them that they are capable of reproduction, at
least initially, and the new animating force may affect the
nature of the child. This is in particular relevant if the body
is properly restored to life, not just used as a temporary
garment, so that it could in theory live its normal lifespan. The
energies of the animating force might be such that they will
burn out any fertility, over time, whatever.

== Powerful magic or potions may cause reproduction to take place
between almost any two beings of vaguelly compatible sex, in some
cases even if one of them is not not normally in any way fertile.
This is probably one of the sources of the strange hybrid
creatures sometimes found as monsters, though creating a single
viable hybrid, and making a group which is fertile, and the
possible basis for a new race, are likely to be two quite
different problems. Blessings of a fertility god are likely to be
useful.

== Constructs may be possible which share some of the
characteristics of quite different beings, typically through
something like alchemy (homonculi), though something like a
modified simulacrum might be possible. These are very rarely
fertile in any way, and may not be considered to be truly living
beings in some settings. Advanced technology that can blend the
characteristics of different races into one (maybe fertile) being
is rarely relevant in fantasy settings.

== Succubi are not capable of bearing children, and the only way
they have anything to do with reproduction, is to seduce, take
incubus form, seduce, and impregnate, generally speaking all in
a single night. Of course, some might really, really, want to have
children, and go to really major lengths to do so...


So, all of the above might be practical, but unless there was
some special property of the world, a fertility effect, or at
least a miscegenation effect, or an immensly powerful artifact
effect, I could not make use of it in my gaming setting.

I don't believe the interbreeding of Outer Planar beings and
beings of the Prime Material existed in basic AD&D 1st Ed rules,
though I am happy to be proved wrong, so I suppose it is
something that appeared in a scenario, or in 2nd Ed?

Anyhow, good world design!

--
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/