The All Father

[Captain_K]

In the CnC world, The All Father, created it all but has gone silent (I think), yet Wodonhohle up North is basically "Norse" and Odin (Wodon) and that pantheon.
1) Are they one in the same?
2) Is the All Father truly silent?
3) Are there folks or sects in fellowship to the All Father? Seems like the Dwarves would.

Thoughts?

[anvil242]

I've been working under the assumption that he "dispersed" himself after he got bored and left the world to fend for itself. I did run a campaign where the main story arc was to reassemble the All Father to prevent the return of Unklar. The PC's would get rewarded with something after every step in the process, holy weapons, raised stats, that sort of thing.

[Rigon]

Btb, The All-Father was "killed" by the 1st Eldritch Goblin King Ondiliche when he cast the first Runes of Power during the Goblin-Dwarf Wars in the 1st Age of Airhde.

The "Norse" gods are fragments of the All-Father's thoughts as are many of the other gods of Airdhe.

The Dwarves revere the All-Father and pay him homage for creating them (they call it the Debt of Life or something similar), but they don't necessarily worship him.

Again, this is all from the Codex of Airhde, the After Winter's Dark Folio, and the Player's Handbook of Airhde. Plus some things Steve has said here and when I've talked to him in person.

You can play it however you like in your version of Airhde.

R-

[Dragonmoose]

Hello,

First time posting. I must say the mythos of the Codex is very rich. I recently sat down to read that book after finally finishing reading and wrapping my brain around the Player's Handbook. I've been RPG stagnant for years and now I want to teach my kid and stepkids how to play. I found my hiatus left me mentally rusty in regards to grasping the differences between C&C and what I grew up with, AD&D. It took quiet time at work away from my brood to read the manual while I worked on some projects. So with that, I'm really excited to page through the Codex and possibly use that world for a campaign. I'm about forty pages in thus far and am impressed on the quality and depth just the mythos has.

My question is-did The All Father create the entire universe or just the realm that is Airhde? I got the impression it was the latter. Now seeing the post about the Nordic book made me wonder.

Thanks!

[Rigon]

The first part of the Codex of Airhde was always my favorite part of the setting, even back to the d20 Codex of Erde. The history and mythos is one of, if not the best, I've ever read for a game world.

As to who created the universe, I think in the beginning there was the All-Father and the Dragon Inzae. Inzae unleashed the Maelstrom and the All-Father shaped it into the universe. So, he created that, with some help.

But, again, this is from my recollections of other discussions (both here and in person) and from reading the Codex years ago.

And remember, you can change things to fit how you want it to view or understanding.

R-

[Captain_K]

Anvil, Dragon, Rigon, Thanks for the feedback and insight. As much as I love CnC I have stubbornly clung to "my world" which is just our world in 800 AD or so where all local people's histories, faiths and belief's are true and they all meld with middle earth over laid as needed (The Romans and Greeks never take over). This way my players can be Norse or Germanic, or even Italian dwarves and all those rich histories are mine to use with less explaining and a great deal of "real" source material is out there for those who want to dig deep.

Anyway, I've clung to this in hopes it was enough and easiest to explain to my new players. One of my players (Rigon you will recall the really tall one) has begun taking over running games and he wants to use the world. So I got to start understanding Erde at least from a players perspective.. right now I'm playing a cleric of the all father... who is confused, last of his village from Wodonhohle (all the rest burned to death when locked in temple), as we are confused on the all father and Odin in wodonhohle.. one in the same?.. so the young priest is on a mission to restore the all father to power and trying to understand the world and along the way make converts and bring back the all father? Hey, someone has to start? who knows, possibly all will be revealed to him or not... blind faith, is there any other kind?

So for my new CK who does not like to part with his gold pieces readily, what material does he need to full dig into Erde? Are the new maps available?

[Lurker]

Anvil, Dragon, Rigon, Thanks for the feedback and insight. As much as I love CnC I have stubbornly clung to "my world" which is just our world in 800 AD or so where all local people's histories, faiths and belief's are true and they all meld with middle earth over laid as needed (The Romans and Greeks never take over). This way my players can be Norse or Germanic, or even Italian dwarves and all those rich histories are mine to use with less explaining and a great deal of "real" source material is out there for those who want to dig deep.

..

That sounds similar to my home brew world, but I have a Helinstic / Roman Empire (and a silk road with a China type empire on the far end) in my history. However, it was more an 'over lord' to the other local peoples than a surplanter of the local societies. I guess it history it would be more like the Roman 300 / 400 AD than the rock solid Roman society of early imperial 100s AD.

As for Erde, I have always loved the idea of the setting but have never ran or played in it. If I did, I'm sure I would have changed it from BtB - increase the size of the land and power of & Brindisium , Have Tagean be more a power house in their area etc.

But, for the book he would need, ... the codex ... everything else is useful, but to run the setting he has to have that. Hmmm is there a PDF of it ??? that may save him some coin.

[Rigon]

K, all he really needs is the Codex or the After Winter's Dark Folio to run in Airhde. The PHBoA is nice, but completely unnecessary. I have most of the Airhde material and when I finally get around to running it, I'll mostly just use the Folio.

And like I said, Odin and the All Father can be one and the same if that's how you want to run it, bit they don't need to be.

R-

[Treebore]

The All Father created all, including the Norse Gods and Inzae came after, creating her own world with her imperfect use of the Words of Creation. The All Father also created Unklar, through casting his own dark thoughts out of his mind. So in Aihrde, all gods were created by the All Father, including Odin, as well as all the Norse gods. Which fits with Norse mythology, since Odin was not the first himself.

Currently, the All Father has no physical manifestation, and is considered to be "dead". Personally I have him act much like the Christian God, sits back, watches, and interferes through very indirect means, if at all. Which makes a lot of sense considering how many "gods" are running around and perfectly capable of taking care of things themselves.

As such, Treants, are the oldest living species on Aihrde, with the big frikking "tree people" (forget their proper name) possibly being the oldest beings on Aihrde, even older than the gods. At the very least, they are the first sentient creatures the All Father created. The Codex gives the most thorough, and coherent, run down of the creation story of Aihrde.

I to ran a campaign that involved the permanent "death" of Unklar as well as the resurrection of a physical representation of the All Father. They also purified the soul of the "ancient tree person" Unklar had twisted and forced into guarding the entrance to his underground demesne. So now, when I run Airhde, the All Father now has a physical manifestation in my campaign world, but he still pretty much remains unseen and rarely heard. Also, in my campaign, Runemarks are the true priests of the All Father, and is why I have the class be WIS based, and their power comes from using fragments of the words of power.

[Captain_K]

Great advice I hope Tanner the Tall comes and reads this. Its his world, I'm trying to play a 16 year old Cleric last of his clan thrown into the world.. he was told he is a priest of the All Father, creator of all.. but he comes from Wodonhohle... Is he confused? (surely), was his tribe? likely.. but in the end he's a wandering priest in grey FAR FAR South and away from home in New Aneoche (sp) starting into the Black Tooth Ridge area to take out some sort of bad ass Gnoll (he doesn't even know what a Gnoll is :} ). So I will leave all things to Tanner the Tall (Inferno I think) to stretch truth over the bones of this world setting and force him to be/play all the many gods... I'm just a fairly quiet kid wandering around trying to make sense of the world. Kind of scary using first level starting ages from the CKG.